The effect of particle density in turbulent channel flow laden with finite size particles in semi-dilute conditions

We study the effect of varying the mass and volume fraction of a suspension of rigid spheres dispersed in a turbulent channel flow. We performed several direct numerical simulations using an immersed boundary method for finite-size particles changing the solid to fluid density ratio R, the mass fraction chi, and the volume fraction phi. We find that varying the density ratio R between 1 and 10 at constant volume fraction does not alter the flow statistics as much as when varying the volume fraction f at constant R and at constant mass fraction. Interestingly, the increase in overall drag found when varying the volume fraction is considerably higher than that obtained for increasing density ratios at same volume fraction. The main effect at density ratios R of the order of 10 is a strong shear-induced migration towards the centerline of the channel. When the density ratio R is further increased up to 1000, the particle dynamics decouple from that of the fluid. The solid phase behaves as a dense gas and the fluid and solid phase statistics drastically change. In this regime, the collision rate is high and dominated by the normal relative velocity among particles. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.