Direct numerical simulation of particle-laden turbulent channel flows with two- and four-way coupling effects: Models of terms in the Reynolds stress budgets

Abstract

In the first part of this study (Dritselis 2016 Fluid Dyn. Res. 48 015507), the Reynolds stress budgets were evaluated through point-particle direct numerical simulations (pp-DNSs) for the particle-laden turbulent flow in a vertical channel with two- and four-way coupling effects. Here several turbulence models are assessed by direct comparison of the particle contribution terms to the budgets, the dissipation rate, the pressure-strain rate, and the transport rate with the model expressions using the pp-DNS data. It is found that the models of the particle sources to the equations of fluid turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate cannot represent correctly the physics of the complex interaction between turbulence and particles. A relatively poor performance of the pressure-strain term models is revealed in the particulate flows, while the algebraic models for the dissipation rate of the fluid turbulence kinetic energy and the transport rate terms can adequately reproduce the main trends due to the presence of particles. Further work is generally needed to improve the models in order to account properly for the momentum exchange between the two phases and the effects of particle inertia, gravity and inter-particle collisions.