In this article, the space-time conservation element and solution element scheme is extended to simulate the unsteady compressible two-phase flow in pipes. The model is non-conservative and the governing equations consist of three equations, namely, two mass conservation equations for each phase and one mixture-momentum equation. In the third equation, the non-conservative source term appears, which describes the sum of gravitational and frictional forces. The presence of source term and two mass conservation equations in considered model offers difficulties in developing the accurate and robust numerical techniques. The suggested space-time conservation element and solution element numerical scheme resolves the volume-contact discontinuities efficiently. Furthermore, the modified central upwind scheme is also extended to solve the same two-phase flow model. The number of test problems is considered, and the results obtained by space-time conservation element and solution element scheme are compared with the solutions of modified central upwind scheme. The numerical results show better performance of the space-time conservation element and solution element method as compare to the modified central upwind scheme.

Air-induced separation of flexible rod-like particle mixtures in a specific separator is numerically investigated using a coupled Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach. In the separator, the mixture of flexible rod-like particles of different lengths and material densities deposits under the effect of gravity, and a horizontal airflow stream intersects the particle flow, blowing lighter particles in the mixture to translate horizontally and allowing the heavier ones to fall downwards. The model particles represent flexible biomass materials, specifically tobacco and stem particles. The initial packing density of the particle mixture is 8% by volume. The physical mechanism that causes particle segregation is analyzed. Subsequently, parametric studies are performed to examine the effects of some critical parameters on the extent of segregation, including inflow air velocities, initial particle packing density, volume fraction of heavier particles, particle size distribution, and flow field geometry. Finally, a suggestion is proposed to promote particle segregation in such a type of separator.