Developments and applications of the CFD-DEM method in particle–fluid numerical simulation in petroleum engineering: A review

Particle and fluid flow is a general problem existing in a series of engineering activities during oil and gas development. Many efforts have been made to investigate the migration, deposition, and plugging characteristics of particles carried by the fluid medium. The discrete element method (DEM) is used for the particle phase, the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) is applied for the fluid phase and many coupling schemes are introduced for interactions between phases. The CFD-DEM studies have been conducted to help mechanism explanation and flow prediction under various work conditions. This work reviews the progress in CFD-DEM coupling simulations about oil and gas development by summarizing the models and relevant applications. Different coupling schemes and their applicable petroleum engineering problems are reviewed. The needs for future research are also discussed. This will be helpful for researchers who are new to particle flow numerical simulation in the CFD-DEM method to shorten the learning cycle and improve the efficiency of problem solving.