Evaluation of drag coefficient on particles in cluster by using lattice Boltzmann method

The LBGK(lattice Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook)model of the lattice Boltzmann method including second-order boundary condition treatment for curve geometry was employed to investigate the flow around particle clusters.The drag coefficient is a benchmark problem in the analysis of particle-fluid complex systems,especially,in a gas-solid fluidized bed.In the present work,the drag coefficient on a spherical particle in a cluster,was evaluated by using the momentum-exchange method directly.Two different configurations of cluster were measured based on the lattice Boltzmann method.Computational results indicated that the drag coefficient on an individual particle in a cluster depended heavily on the configuration of cluster.And the drag coefficient on the particle in the cluster was lower when that particle was shielded by other particles.Additionally,except for the configuration factor,both the inter-distance and Reynolds number had a strong effect on the drag coefficient on an individual particle as well.It was found that the drag coefficient on each particle varied drastically with clustering.Omitting the effect of clustering might result in incorrect drag forces in the simulation.