Multiphase Flow Kinetic Theory, Constitutive Equations, and Experimental Validation

Abstract

The kinetic theory of gases is extended to particulate flow where the interaction between particles is not conserved. Granular temperature and the equation of state for the particle phase is developed. Granular temperature is defined as the average of the random kinetic energy, with the conversion factor of the Boltzmann constant. For dense flows, in addition to the kinetic and collisional stresses using the kinetic theory approach, a model account for the frictional stresses based on soil mechanics principles is presented. Gas/particle flows are inherently oscillatory and they manifest in non-homogeneous structures. Therefore, the drag force for different regimes of non-homogeneous gas/solid flow systems is discussed. Fluid/particle systems are composed of particles of different properties, in which transfer of momentum and segregation by size or density occurs during the flow, thus the kinetic theory was extended to modeling of multitype particle flow using the kinetic theory approach. Finally, heat and mass transfer equations for gas/solid flow systems are presented.