Polydispersed flow modelling using population balances in an adaptive mesh finite element framework
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Bhutani, G
Brito Parada, PR
Cilliers, JJ
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
An open-source finite element framework to model multiphase polydispersed flows is presented in this work. The Eulerian–Eulerian method was coupled to a population balance equation and solved using a highly-parallelised finite element code—Fluidity. The population balance equation was solved using DQMOM. A hybrid finite element–control volume method for solving the coupled system of equations was established. To enhance the efficiency of this solver, fully-unstructured non-homogeneous anisotropic mesh adaptivity was applied to systematically adapt the mesh based on the underlying physics of the problem. This is the first time mesh adaptivity has been applied to the external coordinates of the population balance equation for modelling polydispersed flows. Rigorous model verification and benchmarking were also performed to demonstrate the accuracy of this implementation. This finite element framework provides an efficient alternative to model polydispersed flow problems over the other available finite volume
CFD packages.
CFD packages.
Date Issued
2016-02-01
Date Acceptance
2016-01-14
Citation
Computers and Chemical Engineering, 2016, 87, pp.208-225
ISSN
1873-4375
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
208
End Page
225
Journal / Book Title
Computers and Chemical Engineering
Volume
87
Copyright Statement
© 2016, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
Rio Tinto Technological Resources UK Limited (Co. # 8270236)
Rio Tinto Centre for Advanced Mineral Recovery
Grant Number
N/A
Subjects
Polydispersed flow
Population balance modeling
DQMOM
Multiphase flow
Finite element method
Mesh adaptivity
Publication Status
Published