In this work, we perform simulations of particle laden flow in a wide and long narrow channel in a Newtonian fluid. Simulations are performed for mono-sized and equal density spheres with varying Archimedes and Reynolds number. In the simulations, different phases of particle transport - rolling, saltation and suspension are observed. During simulations the average bed height is monitored and its steady state value is used for proposing a correlation between solids volume fraction (ϕ), shear Reynolds number (Re_s) and Archimedes number (Ar). This correlation is used to predict the critical shear Reynolds number for particle lift-off and a condition at which particles would occupy the whole channel at a given Archimedes number. The value of this critical Reynolds number is compared with the critical Reynolds number for single particle lift-off.

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In this work, we investigate the influence of channel structure and fluid rheology on non-inertial migration of non-Brownian polystyrene beads. Particle migration in this regime can be found in biomedical, chemical, environmental and geological applications. However, the effect of fluid rheology on particle migration in porous media remains to be clearly understood. Here, we isolate the effects of elasticity and shear thinning by comparing a Newtonian fluid, a purely elastic (Boger) fluid, and a shear-thinning elastic fluid. To mimic the complexity of geometries in real-world application, a random porous structure is created through a disordered arrangement of cylindrical pillars in the microchannel. Experiments are repeated in an empty channel and in channels with an ordered arrangement of pillars, and the similarities and differences in the observed particle focusing are analyzed. It is found that elasticity drives the particles away from the channel walls in an empty microchannel. Notably, particle focusing is unaffected by curved streamlines in an ordered porous microchannel and particles stay away from pillars in elastic fluids. Shear-thinning is found to reduce the effect of focusing and a broader region of particle concentration is observed. It is also noteworthy that the rheological characteristics of the fluid are not important for the particle distribution in a randomly arranged pillared microchannel and particles have a uniform distribution for all suspending fluids. Moreover, discussion on the current discrepancy in the literature about the equilibrium positions of the particles in a channel is extended by analyzing the results obtained in the current experiments.

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In this paper, an accurate and stable sharp interface immersed boundary method(IBM) is presented for the direct numerical simulation of particle laden flows. The current IBM method is based on the direct-forcing method by incorporating the ghost-cell approach implicitly. An important feature of this IBM is the sharp representation of the solid surface, contrary to other variants of IBM for freely moving particles in which the solid surface is diffuse. Moreover, a correction of the diameter is not necessary for obtaining accurate results. The current ghost-cell IBM is stable because spurious oscillations incurred due to discontinuity in the pressure and velocity field in moving particle simulations is avoided. An algorithm for accurate torque computation is developed. The proposed algorithm is verified by comparison to an analytical expression and is shown to give a substantial improvement over the existing method. Finally, the present IBM is validated for various test cases of single and multi-particle systems and is shown to be accurate and robust for a wide range of flow conditions.@en

We compare the flow behavior of viscoelastic surfactant (VES) solutions and Newtonian fluids through two different model porous media having similar permeability: (a) a 3D random packed bed and (b) a microchannel with a periodically spaced pillars. The former provides much larger flow resistance at the same apparent shear rate compared to the latter. The flow profile in the 3D packed bed cannot be observed since it is a closed system. However, visualization of the flow profile in the microchannel shows strong spatial and temporal flow instabilities in VES fluids appear above a critical shear rate. The onset of such elastic instabilities correlates to the flow rate where increased flow resistance is observed. The elastic instabilities are attributed to the formation of transient shear induced structures. The experiments provide a detailed insight into the complex interplay between the pore scale geometry and rheology of VES in the creeping flow regime.@en

An efficient and accurate model for the direct numerical simulations (DNS) of liquid-solid flows is presented in this work. In this numerical model, fluid-solid coupling is achieved by implementing the no-slip boundary condition at the particles’ surfaces by using a second order ghost-cell immersed boundary method, allowing for a fixed Cartesian grid to be used for solving the fluid equations. The particle-particle and particle-wall interactions are implemented using the soft sphere collision model. Lubrication forces are included through a sub-grid scale model because of its range of influence on a scale smaller than the grid size.
After the validation of the model, the transport of solid particles in a narrow channel is simulated to mimic the proppant transport in rock fractures in fracking process. The simulations are performed for solids volume fractions ranging from 1.7 to 20 % with the range of Reynolds and Archimedes number: 100-400 and 0-7848, respectively.@en

Controlled particle migration in non-Newtonian fluids is very important in many biological, environmental and industrial applications like hydraulic fracturing. The phenomenon of particle transport in non-Newtonian fluid is generally governed by complex interplay of different effects like shear-thinning or thickening behaviour of fluid, viscoelasticity and secondary flow. The present literature on the particle migration in a channel shows that particles move towards the centreline in highly viscoelastic fluids at very low Reynolds number (negligible inertial effects) and move away from the centreline in Newtonian fluids. However, very little is known about how flow and particle dynamics is affected in a rock fracture network or porous medium. To obtain insights into flow dynamics in such a complex geometries, we use microchannels with the specific arrangement of pillars in order to mimic the hydraulic fracture network and porous media. In this study, we perform experiments on the migration of non-Brownian particles in such pillared microchannel of different porosities with different types of fluids - Newtonian, shear-thinning and viscoelastic. The comparison of the particle behaviour in these fluids reveals the influence of the viscous and elastic forces on particle migration. In this work, standard micro-PIV technique is used to obtain the fluid velocity and PTV is used to track the particle velocities. This work provides fundamental insight on effect of viscoelasticity on particle migration in a model fracture network/porous media. @en