Non-Spherical Particle Interactions in Isotropic Turbulence Using an Immersed Boundary Approach

A methodology is developed to simulate the collision and agglomeration behaviours of interacting spheroidal particles in turbulence. Periodic boxes of homogeneous, isotropic turbulence are generated and sustained using a stochastic forcing method. Nonspherical rigid-body particles are coupled to the fluid through an immersed boundary method. Agglomeration is achieved through the inclusion of attractive van der Waals forces under the DLVO framework, adapted to consider the orientational dependencies arising from non-spherical shape. A dynamic hardsphere collision detection criterion is presented that proves to be well-suited to hard-sphere agglomeration modelling. Results are presented demonstrating the time-evolution of agglomeration events under this framework when subject to turbulence. A parametric study is also undertaken to understand the role of velocity in the determination of agglomeration events, whilst a Monte Carlo study demonstrates the influence of particle orientation.