Modeling of concentrated suspension flow

The volume-and-time averaged model for mono-disperse suspension flow developed by Liu [1] has been applied to simulate the flow behaviors of concentrated suspensions through circular/rectangular conduits, and it has further extended to hi-disperse suspensions. The suspensions in this study are composed of non-colloidal, rigid, mono-/bi-sized, spherical particles and viscous Newtonian fluids, and undergo pressure-driven flow. For the mono-disperse system, the model is successful in simulating the velocity and concentration profiles of fully developed suspension flow through circular tubes and rectangular channels. For the bidisperse system, the velocity profiles of suspensions and the concentration profiles of two species of particles for fully developed flow through rectangular channels are obtained. To our knowledge this paper provides the first approach to simulate the pressure-driven flow of a bi-disperse system. All the simulated profiles of this study agree well with the literature data, and no adjustable parameter was used in the simulations.