Investigation of Movement and Deposition Behaviors of Solid Particles in Hydraulic Water Reservoir via the CFD-DEM Coupling Method

Abstract

Solid contamination existing as solid particles in power fluid transmission systems may lead to transmission performance reduction, system failures, and component damage. The hydraulic reservoir will deposit the contamination and store hydraulic fluid. To investigate its purification ability for solid contamination, experiments and simulations for the motion and deposition status of the typical hydraulic system particles are carried out to reveal the interaction of particles and fluid in hydraulic water reservoirs. The results show that the CFD-DEM coupling method could predict the accurate deposition position of iron particles and sand particles when ignoring the small-scale turbulence effect in the flow field. Besides, the particle motion traces and deposition patterns in the reservoir illustrate that the flow development on the bottom surface results in the particles turning, and particles tend to settle in the low flow energy position. The motion of particles is also linked to particles Stokes number, and the same-size sand particles are easily driven by the fluid. The contribution of this paper could provide a guide for predicting the particle motion and deposition pattern in the hydraulic reservoir.