A level set approach for dilute non-collisional fluid-particle flows

Gas-particle and other dispersed-phase flows can be described by a kinetic equation containing terms for spatial transport, acceleration, and particle processes (such as evaporation or collisions). However, computing the dispersed velocity is a challenging task due to the large number of independent variables. A level set approach for computing dilute non-collisional fluid-particle flows is presented. We will consider the sprays governed by the Williams kinetic equation subject to initial distributions away from equilibrium of the form Sigma(N)(i=1) rho(i)(x)delta(xi - u(i)(x)). The dispersed velocity is described as the zero level set of a smooth function, which satisfies a transport equation. This together with the density weight recovers the particle distribution at any time. Moments of any desired order can be evaluated by a quadrature formula involving the level set function and the density weight. It is shown that the method can successfully handle highly non-equilibrium flows (e.g. impinging particle jets, jet crossing, particle rebound off walls, finite Stokes number flows). (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.