A fictitious domain method is used to perform fully resolved numerical simulations of particle-laden turbulent flow in a horizontal channel. The effects of large particles of diameter 0.05 and 0.1 times the channel height on the turbulence statistics and structures are investigated for different settling coefficients and volume fractions (0.79 %–7.08 %) for the channel Reynolds number being 5000. The results indicate the following. (a) When the particle sedimentation effect is negligible (i.e. neutrally buoyant), the presence of particles decreases the maximum r.m.s. of streamwise velocity fluctuation near the wall by weakening the intensity of the large-scale streamwise vortices, while increasing the r.m.s. of the streamwise fluctuating velocity in the region very close to the wall and in the centre region. On the other hand, the particles increase the r.m.s. of transverse and spanwise fluctuating velocities in the near-wall region by inducing the small-scale vortices. (b) When the particle settling effect is so substantial that most particles settle onto the bottom wall and form a particle sediment layer (SL), the SL plays the role of a rough wall and parts of the vortex structures shedding from the SL ascend into the core region and substantially increase the turbulence intensity there. (c) When the particle settling effect is moderate, the effects of particles on the turbulence are a combination of the former two situations, and the Shields number is a good parameter for measuring the particle settling effects (i.e. the particle concentration distribution in the transverse direction). The average velocities of the particle are smaller in the lower half-channel and larger in the upper half-channel compared to the local fluid velocities in the presence of gravity effects. The effects of the smaller particles on the turbulence are found to be stronger at the same particle volume fractions.

It has been recognized that, generally, large particles enhance the turbulence intensity, while small particles attenuate the turbulence intensity. However, there has been no consensus on the quantitative criterion for particle-induced turbulence enhancement or attenuation. In the present study, interface-resolved direct numerical simulations of particle-laden turbulent flows in an upward vertical channel are performed with a direct forcing/fictitious domain method to establish a criterion for turbulence enhancement or attenuation. The effects of the particle Reynolds number ( increases with increasing bulk Reynolds number, particle size and particle–fluid density ratio, while increasing with decreasing particle volume fraction, particularly for the channel centre region. Criteria for enhancement or attenuation are provided for the total turbulence intensity in the channel and the turbulence intensity at the channel centre, respectively, and both are shown to agree well with the experimental data in the literature. The reason for the dependence of the critical particle Reynolds number on the other parameters is discussed.

In this paper, the lateral migration of a neutrally buoyant spherical particle in the pressure-driven rectangular channel flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid is numerically investigated with a fictitious domain method. The aspect ratio of the channel cross-section considered is 1 and 2, respectively. The particle lateral motion trajectories are shown for the bulk Reynolds number ranging from 1 to 100, the ratio of the solvent viscosity to the total viscosity being 0.5, and a Weissenberg number up to 1.5. Our results indicate that the lateral equilibrium positions located on the cross-section midline, diagonal line, corner and channel centreline occur successively as the fluid elasticity is increased, for particle migration in square channel flow with finite fluid inertia. The transition of the equilibrium position depends strongly on the elasticity number (the ratio of the Weissenberg number to the Reynolds number) and weakly on the Reynolds number. The diagonal-line equilibrium position occurs at an elasticity number ranging from roughly 0.001 to 0.02, and can coexist with the midline and corner equilibrium positions. When the fluid inertia is negligibly small, particles migrate towards the channel centreline, or the closest corner, depending on their initial positions and the Weissenberg number, and the corner attractive area first increases and then decreases as the Weissenberg number increases. For particle migration in a rectangular channel with an aspect ratio of 2, the transition of the equilibrium position from the midline, ‘diagonal line’ (the line where two lateral shear rates are equal to each other), off-centre long midline and channel centreline takes place as the Weissenberg number increases at moderate Reynolds numbers. An off-centre equilibrium position on the long midline is observed for a large blockage ratio of 0.3 (i.e. the ratio of the particle diameter to the channel height is 0.3) at a low Reynolds number. This off-centre migration is driven by shear forces, unlike the elasticity-induced rapid inward migration, which is driven by the normal force (pressure or first normal stress difference).

A parallel direct-forcing fictitious domain method is employed to perform fully resolved numerical simulations of turbulent channel flow laden with finite-size particles. The effects of the particle-fluid density ratio on the turbulence modulation in the channel flow are investigated at the friction Reynolds number of 180, the particle volume fraction of $0.84\%$, and the particle-fluid density ratio ranging from 1 to 104.2. The results show that the variation of the flow drag with the particle-fluid density ratio is not monotonic, with a larger flow drag for the density ratio of 10.42, compared to those of unity and 104.2. A significant drag reduction by the particles is observed for large particle-fluid density ratios during the transient stage, but not at the statistically stationary stage. The intensity of particle velocity fluctuations generally decreases with increasing particle inertia, except that the particle streamwise root-mean-square velocity and streamwise-transverse velocity correlation in the near-wall region are largest at the density ratio of the order of 10. The averaged momentum equations are derived with the spatial averaging theorem and are used to analyze the mechanisms for the effects of the particles on the flow drag. The results indicate that the drag-reduction effect due to the decrease in the fluid Reynolds shear stress is counteracted by the drag-enhancement effect due to the increase in the total particle stress or the interphase drag force for the large particle-inertia case. The sum of the total Reynolds stress and particle inner stress contributions to the flow drag is largest at the density ratio of the order of 10, which is the reason for the largest flow drag at this density ratio. The interphase drag force obtained from the averaged momentum equation (the balance theory) is significantly smaller than (but agrees qualitatively with) that from the empirical drag formula based on the phase-averaged slip velocity for large density ratios. For the neutrally buoyant case, the balance theory predicts a positive interphase force on the particles arising from the negative gradient of the particle inner stress, which cannot be predicted by the drag formula based on the phase-averaged slip velocity. In addition, our results show that both particle collision and particle-turbulence interaction play roles in the formation of the inhomogeneous distribution of the particles at the density ratio of the order of 10.

A fully mesoscopic, multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is developed to perform particle-resolved direct numerical simulation (DNS) of wall-bounded turbulent particle-laden flows. The fluid–solid particle interfaces are treated as sharp interfaces with no-slip and no-penetration conditions. The force and torque acting on a solid particle are computed by a local Galilean-invariant momentum exchange method. The first objective of the paper is to demonstrate that the approach yields accurate results for both single-phase and particle-laden turbulent channel flows, by comparing the LBM results to the published benchmark results and a full-macroscopic finite-difference direct-forcing (FDDF) approach. The second objective is to study turbulence modulations by finite-size solid particles in a turbulent channel flow and to demonstrate the effects of particle size. Neutrally buoyant particles with diameters 10% and 5% the channel width and a volume fraction of about 7% are considered. We found that the mean flow speed was reduced due to the presence of the solid particles, but the local phase-averaged flow dissipation was increased. The effects of finite particle size are reflected in the level and location of flow modulation, as well as in the volume fraction distribution and particle slip velocity near the wall.

The interactions between finite-size spheroidal particles and upward turbulent flows in a vertical channel are numerically simulated with a direct-forcing fictitious domain method at two particle settling coefficients . The settling particles tend to migrate towards the channel centre due to the Saffman effect, and the migration is strongest for the spherical particles. The non-spherical particles tend to align their long axes with the streamwise direction in the near-wall region, and perpendicular to the streamwise direction in the bulk region due to the significant settling effect.