Study of Local Turbulence Profiles Relative to the Particle Surface in Particle-Laden Turbulent Flows

As particle-resolved simulations (PRSs) of turbulent flows laden with finite-size solid particles become feasible, methods are needed to analyze the simulated flows in order to convert the simulation data to a form useful for model development. In this paper, the focus is on turbulence statistics at the moving fluid-solid interfaces. An averaged governing equation is developed to quantify the radial transport of turbulent kinetic energy when viewed in a frame moving with a solid particle. Using an interface-resolved flow field solved by the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), we computed each term in the transport equation for a forced, particle-laden, homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The results illustrate the distributions and relative importance of volumetric source and sink terms, as well as pressure work, viscous stress work, and turbulence transport. In a decaying particle-laden flow, the dissipation rate and kinetic energy profiles are found to be self-siimilar.