Particle-Resolved DNS of flow modulation induced by finite-size particles dispersed in a turbulent channel

The modification of turbulent structures by finite size particles is of interest to pipeline design for oil and slurry transport. The interaction of finite size particles with turbulent flow structures is investigated in Particle-Resolved Direct Numerical Simulations of turbulent channel flow at friction Reynolds number 180 laden with spherical particles with diameter equal to 12 wall units and dispersed at the volume fraction 1%. To understand the role of particle inertia in modulating turbulence, particle-to-fluid density ratio is varied from 1, i.e., neutrally buoyant particles, up to 4. About 2320 resolved particles are tracked throughout the computational domain and represented using the recently developed volume-filtering immersed boundary method to account for stresses at the fluid solid interface. Additional turbulence statistics are collected for a particle free channel for comparison with the particle laden channels.