Parallel CFD-DEM for fluid-particle systems

This paper presents numerical methods and parallel algorithms for modeling the fluid-particle flow in gas fluidization of multi-sized particles. This work involves combined Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Discrete Element Method (DEM) to describe continuum flow of fluids and discrete flow of solid particles, respectively. Such simulations are extremely computationally intensive. To meet the challenge and produce high-performance, state-of-the-art computational tools capable of simulating the industrial fluid-particle systems, the parallel computing techniques are used with special emphasis of domain decomposition, dynamic load balancing and parallel algorithm. A study of the implementation of a parallel algorithm is also presented, together with performance measurements on PC cluster machines. The results obtained validate not only the parallel algorithm, but also the potential role of such computer systems in industrial fluid-particle flow simulations.