Particulate Science and Technology

An International Journal

ISSN: 0272-6351 (Print) 1548-0046 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/upst20

Discrete Element Simulating the Hydrodynamic

Effects in Acoustic Agglomeration of Micron-Sized
Particles

Algirdas Maknickas, Darius Markauskas & Rimantas Kačianauskas

To cite this article: Algirdas Maknickas, Darius Markauskas & Rimantas Kačianauskas (2016):
Discrete Element Simulating the Hydrodynamic Effects in Acoustic Agglomeration of Micron-
Sized Particles, Particulate Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/02726351.2016.1156793

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02726351.2016.1156793

Accepted author version posted online: 22

Mar 2016.

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Download by: [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] Date: 26 March 2016, At: 05:52
 Discrete Element Simulating the Hydrodynamic effects in

Acoustic Agglomeration of Micron-sized Particles

Algirdas Maknickas*

Institute of Mechanics, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Darius Markauskas
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Institute of Mechanics, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Rimantas Kačianauskas

Institute of Mechanics, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania

*Address correspondence to Algirdas Maknickas. E-mail: algirdas.maknickas@vgtu.lt

Abstract

Numerical simulation of the acoustic agglomeration of micron-sized aerosol particles by a

discrete element method (DEM) is demonstrated. The conventional DEM technique used in

granular dynamics is modified for simulation of the acoustically induced attractive motion of

particles in an incompressible fluid. The problem-specific orthokinetic collision, acoustic wake

and mutual radiation pressure effects yielding binary attraction and sticking of the particles are

considered within the DEM approach. The acoustically induced agglomeration of two aerosol

particles and 3D particles’ system is illustrated by numerical results. Numerical values of the

agglomeration time of two particles obtained for a wide range of acoustic frequencies are

analysed. Comparison of various hydrodynamic effects with available experimental data

indicates an overestimated contribution of the mutual radiation pressure model. The performance

1
 of the DEM technique and specific features concerning long-range interactions between particles

are demonstrated by simulating 3D particles’ systems. The obtained numerical results illustrating

the variation of number concentration with time are compared to available experimental data of

coal-fired fly ash particles agglomeration; a relatively good agreement with the acoustic wake

mechanism is observed.

Keywords: acoustic agglomeration, acoustic wake, aerosol, discrete element method,

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hydrodynamic radiation pressure, orthokinetic collision

INTRODUCTION

A significant part of aerosol particulates composed of micron-sized particles represents

undesired waste of many industrial combustion and technological processes. In particular,

efficient monitoring and removal of the industrially generated pollutants from the air is required

in development of environmentally friendly industrial technologies (Hoffmann 2000). The

European Parliament is concerned with ensuring the health of the population. The issue of fine

particulate matter is dealt with in the "Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council

of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe", fine particulate matter (i.e.

PM 2.5 = particulate matter less than 2.5 microns) is responsible for significant negative impacts

on human health (Directive 2008/50/EC, 2008). US (The Clean Air Act As Amended Through

P.L. 108–201, February 24, 2004), China (Ambient air quality standards GB 3095-2012), Canada

(Canada-Wide Standards For Particulate Matter (PM) and Ozone), UK (Clean Air Act 2012) and

other countries have the same legislations. The UNECE Gothenburg Protocol now sets national

emission reduction targets, including for fine particulate matter, to be achieved by 2020.

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 However, increasing industrial air pollution is not only on the agenda of politicians, but also

scientists.

Among various innovative initiatives, acoustic aerosol agglomeration has recently been

considered as a prospective technological tool involved in the development of efficient air-

cleaning technologies. The detail overview of recent studies about the applications of ultrasound

in air cleaning and related areas could be find in review of Yao (2016). Consequently, theoretical
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and experimental investigations of the aerosol dynamics have received attention from workers

while the application of the numerical technique presents an important investigation tool.

The process of acoustic agglomeration is governed by various particle-fluid and particle-

fluid-particle interactions, and several effects contributing to the acoustic agglomeration will be

addressed. The orthokinetic collisions, the acoustic wake and the mutual radiation pressure are

dominant hydrodynamic effects (Li et al. 2011) causing the agglomeration of aerosol particles.

Orthokinetic interactions refer to the agglomeration due to direct collisions between

particles that are entrained at different velocities in the oscillatory motion of the sound field.

Particles of different sizes are entrained differently by the motion of the medium because of the

differences in particle inertia. Earlier investigations of orthokinetic collisions performed by

Mednikov (1965), and the important contribution of Dong, Lipkens, and Cameron (2006) with

respect to the separate and combined with acoustic wake effects of orthokinetic collision are

emphasised. However, the orthokinetic mechanism can be used for modelling particle attraction

caused by different sizes of particles. Consequently, it cannot explain the agglomeration of

particles of identical or similar size.

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 Hydrodynamic mechanisms are those that produce particle interactions through the

surrounding medium due to the action of hydrodynamic forces and the asymmetry of the flow

field around the particle. The wake, also termed the acoustic wake, causes a pressure reduction in

the area behind the leading particle. If the other particle follows this acoustic wake, it

experiences drag reduction and moves at an accelerated speed towards the leading one. It can be

observed that the acoustic wake is the first-order effect to cause, generally, the activation of the

dominant hydrodynamic agglomeration mechanism. A theory describing the acoustic wake effect
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based on Oseen flow fields was first proposed by Pshenai-Severin (1959) for two identical

particles aligned along the direction of the sound wave. Dianov, Podolskii, and Turubarov (1968)

extended the theory to include the interactions between particles of different size, and derived an

analytical solution. The acoustic wake effect combined with gravitational settling particles forms

the characteristic tuning-fork patterns first discovered by Hoffmann and Koopmann (1996).

The so-called mutual radiation pressure interaction effect is caused by the transfer of

momentum from the acoustic wave to an object. Danilov and Mironov (1984) used a method by

which the hydrodynamic pressure force acting on one of two interacting particles was calculated

by evaluating the total wave period average through the closed surface enclosing the particle.

This method was extended by Song (1994) to include the effects of the partial entrainment of the

particles and the viscous waves scattered from the particles. The issue of radiation pressure

effects is also discussed in Bruus (2012).

Theoretical aspects of various agglomeration mechanisms are also discussed elsewhere

(Tiwary and Reethof 1986; Song 1994; Palis et al. 2013). As concerns numerical simulation of

acoustic agglomeration, the number of applications is rather limited and the diversity of

approaches and methods is observed (Tiwary and Reethof 1987; Zhang et al. 2012).

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 In recent years, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) has been used for simulating the

dynamic motion of material systems at different scales. The term ‘a discrete element’ dates back

to the pioneering work of Cundall and Strack (1979) aimed at simulating granular materials as an

assembly of contacting particles, where a particle is synonymous with a discrete element.

Formally, a discrete element may be considered as the smallest material unit, discretely defined

on an appropriate scale. More definitely, the DEM is a numerical method based on the

Lagrangian approach applicable to the simulation of the dynamic behaviour of particulate solids.
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Recently, various similar approaches under different names have been developed within

the framework of the Lagrangian approach to describe the behaviour of particulate systems; see

Li et al. (2011). All Lagrangian particle methods share a common feature, implying that the

motion of a particle is defined according to Newton’s laws of classical mechanics, and the

problems are solved by time integration of the equations of motion. The DEM describes a large

number of particles, differing according to the particle interaction laws and forces arising from

the interaction of particles and those imposed on the particles by the surrounding media.

An aerosol is composed of particles dispersed in fluid; therefore, the recently used but

computationally expensive coupled fluid flow and DEM methodology is a natural numerical

technique that could be applied to simulate the motion of the fluid-particle mixtures. A detailed

classification of forces acting particle in fluid can be found in the review papers of Deen et al.

(2007) and Xiang et al. (2010). The multiple-time scale fluid-DEM model of aerosol is presented

by Marshall (2009).

It worth mentioning, however, that acoustic agglomeration is a phenomenon governed by

the aforementioned acoustically induced high-intensity wave-fluid-particle interaction

mechanisms. Reviews on various DEM approaches and the acoustically induced particle acting

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 forces are given by Li et al. (2011) and Shuai et al. (2011). Acoustic agglomeration is highly

sensitive to acoustic frequencies: the low-frequency range 100 Hz and the high-frequency range

above 1000 Hz can thereby be distinguished (Hoffmann and Koopmann 1996; Hoffmann and

Koopmann 1997). DEM application to lower frequency sound-assisted 2D fluidised bed

particulate flow is given in Shuai et al. (2011).

The DEM approach focussed on acoustically induced interactions and agglomerative

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motion of micron-sized particles at higher frequencies was elaborated by Markauskas,

Kačianauskas, and Maknickas (2015b). The theoretical acoustic particles agglomeration model

was implemented in the computational program. However, earlier results were restricted for

illustration and validation of the bilateral and 2D collective particles interactions (Markauskas,

Kačianauskas, and Maknickas 2015b).

Here, we extend the investigation area of the previous articles (Markauskas,

Kačianauskas, and Maknickas 2015a, 2015b) by adapting the DEM methodology to calculate the

agglomeration time of aerosol particles and to simulate the acoustic agglomeration of a 3D

aerosol particles’ system. The calculated results are compared to the experimentally obtained

results of other studies. The theoretical formulation of DEM model is presented in Section 2,

numerical results in Section 3, and conclusions are drawn in Section 4.

THEORETICAL MODEL

Theoretical model describes the motion of particle in incompressible fluid We will

assume that the particle system is dilute enough to neglect the influence of the particles on the

fluid motion. So, the conventional DEM approach was modified for simulation purposes. The

translational motion of an arbitrary particle p with mass mp in incompressible media under

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 acoustically induced excitation is described in a Cartesian frame of reference and obeys

Newton’s second law. It is characterised by the time-varying position and velocity vectors of the

particle mass centre xp(t) and up(t), respectively. The equation of motion can be described as

follows:

dup
mp  Fd  Fg  Fb  FMPRE
dt (1)
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Small particles suspended in periodically vibrating gas caused by the sound wave are

carried along with the gas motion. The contribution of the flow velocities is characterised by the

drag force 𝐅d , while the contribution of the pressure is characterised by the mutual hydrodynamic

radiation pressure induced force 𝐅MPRE . The particle velocity in the viscous incompressible gas

can be described by the modified Basset-Boussinesq-Oseen (BBO) equation. By neglecting other

terms, only the Stokes drag forces between the particle and gas media are assumed:

Fd  6πηR  ug  up  (2)

where η is the dynamic viscosity of gas media, R is the radius of the particle, while

𝒖𝑔 , 𝒖𝑝 are velocities of the gas media and particle, respectively. In order to reflect orthokinetic

and wake effects, modifications of the drag force with respect to particular velocities will be

explained below.

The gravity force 𝐅𝑔 and the buoyancy force 𝐅b are vertical forces:

Fg  Vp  pg
(3)

Fb  Vp air g
(4)

7
 where Vp is particle volume, g is gravity acceleration of free fall and ρair, ρp denote the

density of the gas media and the particle, respectively.

Orthokinetic Collision

The interaction of each particle with the acoustic field (i.e. orthokinetic collisions) is

described in Dong, Lipkens, and Cameron (2006). For a sinusoidal sound wave, the acoustic

velocity is as follows:
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ug  q pU g sin t  kx x 
(5)

where 𝑈𝑔 is gas media velocity amplitude, while 𝜔 is angular frequency 𝜔 = 2𝜋𝑓, where

f is sound frequency and kx is the wavenumber expressed as 𝑘 = 𝜔/𝑐𝑔 . The sound pressure

amplitude is related to the acoustic velocity by 𝑃𝑔 = 𝜌𝑔 𝑐𝑔 𝑈𝑔 , where 𝜌𝑔 is gas media density, 𝑐𝑔

is sound velocity, and 𝑞𝑝 is the entrainment factor, where entrainment denotes particle

entrainment factor or ratio of particle velocity and amplitude velocity of oscillating air flow

(Rudinger 1980).

Finally, the sound pressure level (SPL) is defined by

prms
SPL  20log10
20 106 (6)

where 𝑝𝑟𝑚𝑠 is the root-mean-square pressure

prms  Pg / 2

The Acoustic Wake Effect

Oseen (1910) proposed a modified version of (2) for a sphere flowing in fluid. The

system of equations is expressed for two particles in the global coordinate system as follows:

8
  3R 
Fd  6 Ui Ri 1  i ∣ Ui ∣ 
 8ν  (7)

where 𝑅i is the radius of the particle, 𝜂 and 𝜈 are the dynamic and kinematic viscosities

of the medium, and Ui  ugi  upi denotes the difference between the velocities of the medium

and of the particle (slip-flow velocity). The contribution of the second term appears for higher

values of Reynolds number. There exists the analytical solution of the radial 𝑣𝑟 and angular 𝑣𝜃
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velocities of the flow around the sphere under Oseen conditions (Kochin, Kibel, and Roze 1963)

 A0 2 A1cos C0e kr 1cos 

vr 
r2

r3

2kr 2
1  kr 1  cos  
C1cos e kr 1cos 
 Ui cos
kr 3 (8)

A1sin C0 sin kr1cos  C1sin kr1cos 

v   e  e Ui cos
r2 2r 2kr 3 (9)

where

3Ui Ri  3kR i  3
C0   1  , C1  Ui Ri3k
2  4  2 (10)

3Ui R i  3kR i  1
A0    1  , A1   Ui R i3
4k  4  2 (11)

Ui
k (12)
2ν

The spatial configuration of the two particles is presented in Figure 1. It should be noted

that the radial 𝑣𝑟 and angular 𝑣𝜃 velocities do not depend on the angle 𝜑. The expressions (8, 9)

of the velocities were obtained in the spherical coordinate system. Thus, going back to the global

9
 coordinate system, we should emphasise that the expression Ui  ugi  upi for the velocity of the

flow at infinite distance from the sphere must be used. If the terms of a higher power 𝑟 𝑛 are

ignored, then we obtain new equations for slip-flow velocity around the moving sphere (Dianov,

Podolskii, and Turubarov 1968):

A0 A0ekr1cosθ
vr 
r2

2kr 2
1  kr 1  cos   Uicos
(13)
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A0sinθ kr1cosθ
vθ  e  Uicosθ
2r (14)

where

3 Ui Ri  3Ri 
A0  1
2Ui  8
Ui 
 (15)

For calculating the hydrodynamic interaction between aerosol particles in a sound field

under Oseen flow conditions, Danilov et al. (1968) proposed the expression of gas media

velocity as follows:

ugi  U0sint  vij

(16)

where the quantity 𝑣𝑖𝑘 accounts for variation of the vibrational velocity of the medium at

the site of the i-th particle due to the influence of the slip-flow field associated with the k-th

particle. The slip-flow velocity field was described for the Oseen condition by Equations (13)

and (14).

Mutual Hydrodynamic Pressure

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 Danilov and Mironov (1984) used a method by which the hydrodynamic force acting on

one of two interacting particles was calculated by evaluating the total wave period average

through the closed surface enclosing the particle. This method was extended by Song (1994) to

include the effects of the partial entrainment of the particles and the viscous waves scattered

from the particles.

The mutual hydrodynamics pressure force can be expressed as follows:

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FMPRE  frer  f e (17)

where fr and fθ denote the components of force vector inter-particle distance r and angle θ

(particle indices denoted hereafter by m and n are omitted in order to simplify the expression).

An average radiation pressure force in the single acoustic cycle in the cause of spherical

coordinates (Song 1990; Equations 4.36–4.37) is as follows:

3D*pm cos2 θ  1
f mn,r  g n,r  r,θ 
16πω2ρ0 r 4 (18)

 r 2K2 
gn,r  r,θ   Γpn eiKr    iKr  1 
 3 
  ikr  1 k r cos   k r
2 2 2 2 2

Dpneikr      ikr  1   c.c.
 3(3cos2  1)  3  (19)

3D*pm sin 2θ
f mn,  gn,θ  r,θ 
16πρ0ω2 r 4 (20)

 ir 3 K 3 r 2 K 2 
gn,θ  r,θ    pn eiKr    iKr  1 
 6 2 
 k r 2 2

Dpneikr    ikr  1  c.c.,
 3  (21)

11
 where 𝑔𝑛;𝑟 is denoted by the hydrodynamic interaction function (Song 1990), k denotes

the wavenumber, c.c. denotes a complex conjugate, while i denotes the imaginary part of the

complex number 𝑖 2 = −1. 𝐷𝑝𝑗 , and 𝛤𝑝𝑗 represents the strength of the equivalent dipole and twin-

vortex sources, accordingly. They are expressed as follows:

4√3π𝑖aj ωρ0
𝐷pj = (22)
√2𝑘 2

4 3πia jωρ0
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Γpj  (23)
2K 2

ω
K  1  i  (24)
2ν

where 𝑔𝑛;𝜃 are denoted by the hydrodynamic interaction functions (Song 1990), 𝑎𝑚 , 𝑎𝑛

are the particle radii and 𝜈 denotes kinetic viscosity. The mutual radiation pressure force 𝐹𝑀𝑃𝑅𝐸

is obtained by transforming 𝑓𝑚𝑛,𝑟 and𝑓𝑚𝑛,𝜃 into the Cartesian coordinate system. In Equations

(17) and (19), 𝑓𝑚𝑛,𝑟 and 𝑓𝑚𝑛,𝜃 are inversely proportional to the fourth power of the radial

distance r between the two interacting particles. Therefore, MRPE may be relevant only to the

particle collision processes, if the separation distance between the particles is small; for the

agglomeration time, this is still important.

Numerical Integration

The equation of motion (1) should be solved for every particle in the system. This is

achieved by explicit time integration, using the velocity Verlet scheme with a fixed time step

(Rougier, Munjiza, and John 2004; Kruggel-Emden et al. 2008) for orthokinetic, acoustic wake

and mutual hydrodynamics pressure effects, respectively.

12
 To achieve accurate results, a small time step should be used in numerical simulations.

On the other hand, the small time step increases the required computational time, which is

important for simulations of larger particle systems. Therefore, the time step in simulations was

chosen to be not larger than 1/250 of the period of the sound wave.

Contact and Coagulation Conditions

The available contact between the neighbouring particles was checked at each time step
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during the simulation. If the contact was found, the coagulation of particles was assumed, and

two particles were merged to form a larger spherical particle with coordinates obtained from the

relations for mass centre of two particles (Markauskas, Kačianauskas, and Maknickas 2015b).

NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION

The Agglomeration of Two Particles

In the theoretical setup, glass spheres (with density 𝜌𝑝 = 2400 𝑘𝑔/𝑚3 ) of the certified

diameters of 8.0 𝜇𝑚 were subjected in the air (viscosity 𝜂 = 1.83 10−5 Pa s at a temperature of

20C, and density of air 𝜌𝑎𝑖𝑟 = 1.2041 kg/m3 ) as very dilute aerosols in volumetric

concentrations (smaller than 0.01%) to homogenous plane standing sinusoidal waves with the
m
constant velocity amplitude 𝑈0 = 0.44 or SPL = 136 dB. The frequencies ranged from 700 Hz,
s

when an entrainment factor of 0.46 was determined, up to 2 kHz, when the entrainment factor of

the particles was equal to 0.15. They ranged from the transition between the Stokes and Oseen

regimes up to a well-established Oseen regime. At frequencies higher than 2 kHz, Reynolds

numbers were close to Re = 0.23. Under the varying acoustic conditions, the particle is described

by different acoustic entrainment coefficients, varying from 𝑞𝑝 = 0.46– 0.15. These setup data

13
 were obtained from González, Gallego-Juárez, and Riera (2003), who conducted the experiments

with glass spheres in an acoustic field.

The comparison results of agglomeration times for frequency f = 1.5 kHz are presented in

Figure 2. The rectangular subplot shows the results of agglomeration times obtained in

experiments (x dots) for different initial spatial conditions. The polar subplot shows the initial

distance and angles between particles. Thus, it can be observed that inclusion of mutual acoustic
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pressure makes the theoretical results worse; it was therefore excluded from the future model of

3D agglomeration of the particle system.

The summarised comparison between the numerical DEM simulation and experimental

results reported by González, Gallego-Juárez, and Riera (2003) is presented in Table 1. Each

row of the table describes a particular sampling point The table contains initial data, i.e. the

entrainment factor qp, the frequency of applied acoustic field f, the distance between particles rij

and the angle between the direction of inter-particle line and the horizontal direction of acoustic

field θ, which are given in the first four columns. The next columns contain the values of the

agglomeration time. The fifth column shows the experimentally obtained values, while the final

two columns contain numerically calculated values of the agglomeration times with and without

mutual radiation pressure contribution, respectively.

The physical interpretation of the table data for the selected frequency f = 1.5 kHz is

presented in Figrue 2. The polar subplot on Figure 2a illustrates the initial data of three sampling

points conditionally indicated by numbers 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The radial coordinate

indicates the initial inter-particle distance rij and the angular deviation of the inter-particle line

from and the horizontal direction of acoustic field θ. The rectangular subplot on Figure 2b

14
 shows the values results of agglomeration times obtained in experiments (x dots) and by DEM

simulations.

All of the obtained numerical results were compared to the experimental data by

calculating the absolute error relative to the experimental values as follows:

j
t exp  t theor
j

Δ 
j
j
t exp
(25)
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where the superscript j denotes the j-th sampling experiment.

A comparison of the obtained results is graphically presented in Figure 3. The column-

graphs illustrate the theoretically calculated deviations of the relative numerically obtained

collision time. The results show that theoretically calculated error of relative collision time for

both the orthokinetic collision and acoustic wake effect has an average value of 8.03% (Figure

3a) and standard deviation value of 0.403. The same results of the collision time errors obtained

after including mutual acoustic pressure artificially increase the average agglomeration time, and

also increase the prediction disagreement error by up to 107.6% (Figure 3b), and standard

deviation by up to 0.784. Thus, it can be observed that inclusion of mutual acoustic pressure

worsens theoretical results; it was therefore excluded from the future model of 3D agglomeration

of the particle system.

Simulation of a 3D Particle System

This DEM methodology was illustrated by considering the 3D particle system. Acoustic

agglomeration of the coal-fired fly ash particles under action of the horizontal sound wave as

reported in an experimental study (Liu et al. 2009) was simulated numerically, and results were

validated with the measured data.

15
 The properties of the fly ash and the sound waves input extracted from the data reported

in Liu et al. (2009) are as follows. The particle geometry and composition are characterised by a

lognormal size distribution with a geometric mean radius diameter of particle 𝑅pm = 0.8 µm and

a standard deviation of 1.3. The initial concentration of particles before agglomeration is N0 =

3.33 · 1011 m−3 . The density of each ash particle 𝜌p is equal to 2236.66 kg m−3 . The dynamic

viscosity η of incompressible surrounding is assumed to be 1.83 10−5 Pa s.

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The motion of particles induced by sound wave Equation (16) is simulated by time

integration of the equation of motion (1), as described in the previous section. Only the drag

force 𝐅d , the buoyancy force 𝐅b and the gravity force 𝐅g acting on each particle and described by

Equations (2) and (3) are taken into account. Bearing in mind the controversial influence of

radiation pressure, the 𝐅MPRE forces are simply neglected.

It should be noticed that aerosol is particulate substance, where the distribution of

particles in space is an important characteristic of the matter. The real volume under interest, in

most cases the chamber of an experimental device, contains a huge number of small particles.

Consideration of 3D volume at full scale greatly exceeds the computational capability even of

the most powerful computers; therefore, a simplified modelling strategy has to be developed. In

our case, the 3D approach is an extension of the 2D model, a detailed description of which can

be found in Markauskas, Kačianauskas, and Maknickas (2015a).

In our case, the 3D DEM simulations were performed by considering the representative

volume in the form of a cubic box. The projection of the 3D representative volume (RV) into

Oxy Cartesian plane is shown in Figure 4. The geometry of the box, i.e. the length of the edge d,

is defined in relation to the i-th radii of particle 𝑅pi . First, the effective inter-particle distance

16
 𝑅0 = ad 𝑅pi is defined by the relative parameter ad which, on the other hand, is predefined by

initial concentration number parameter N0 . Finally, the size of RV is characterised by applying

the length parameter d.

Applying DEM to the simulation of acoustic agglomeration, specific features have to be

taken into account. Due to the acoustic wake effect, the attractive long-range interaction occurs

between each pair of particles. Consequently, a huge number of possible binary interactions must
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be recalculated during integration of Equation (1) at each time increment. However, the

contribution of the acoustic wake effect, as follows from Equations (13) and (14), decays with

increasing inter-particle distance 𝑟. In the frame of our current approach, the effective

agglomeration volume is introduced. The effective volume (Figure 4) for each particle i presents

a sphere located in the centre of particle with the effective radius 𝑅i = a 𝑅pm , where a is a non-

dimensional scaling factor. It is obvious that the agglomeration volume represents the smaller

part of the representative volume. As a result, calculating long range interactions between

particle i and the remaining particles induced by the perturbed media velocity is restricted to the

particles within the agglomeration volume.

It should be noted that the existence of the effective agglomeration radius should reduce

the inter-particle searching complexity from O(N2 )toO(N). On the other hand, this simplification

yields a modelling error, which has to be taken into consideration in the analysis of results.

A series of numerical simulations was conducted to illustrate DEM performance by

simulating agglomeration process. The initial configuration of the particles was generated

according to the log-normal size distribution law and randomly distributed in the representative

volume.

17
 The aerosol was subjected by standing travelling sound waves with an acoustic frequency

of 1.4 kHz. The motion and agglomeration of particles are tracked numerically in time over 10 s.

The predicted time evolution of the particles is shown in terms of relative number concentration

N/N0 , standing for actual number of particles N normalised by its initial value N0. Simulation

results and a comparison to the experimentally measured data reported by Liu et al. (2009) are

presented in Figure 5.
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The sensitivity of the DEM was studied on the basis of the computational results. The

contribution of differently specified agglomeration radii defined by two parameters, a = 720 and

a = 540, for a fixed value of SPL = 145 dB, is shown in Figure 6.

As can be seen, the agglomeration process is very fast: 6 s is sufficient to reduce the

number of particles by two, but in the proposed model it strongly depends on the effective radius.

Changing the volume and the amount of the simulated particles eight times and varying the

effective radius (a = 432) increases the smoothness of the curves and changes the derivative of

the curve in the observed range (Figure 5 curve DEM, 142 dB).

Comparisons with the experimental data allow us to assume that the theoretical model of

the particle motion in the acoustic field influenced by orthokinetic collision and acoustic wake

effects can describe the accurate agglomeration density only in terms of the artificially chosen

agglomeration effective radius. The theoretical curve for acoustic pressure 145 dB was obtained

using a = 720, while for an acoustic pressure of 142 dB, it was obtained using a = 432 (Figure

5).

Validation of the DEM simulation results by experimental data for the pressure level

SPL = 145 dB within two different amount of particles is shown in Figure 6. In the second case,

18
 the theoretical curve for acoustic pressure of 145 dB was obtained using a = 540 for a particle

amount of 2665 (Figure 6). Thus, more stable theoretical results can be achieved by additional

modification of the model of multi-particle interaction.

CONCLUSIONS

We have demonstrated how the conventional DEM technique using ingranular dynamics

was modified for simulation of the acoustically induced attractive motion and agglomeration of
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micron-sized aerosol particles. The applicability of acoustic force models was examined by

considering the agglomeration time of two particles for a wide range of acoustic frequencies

from 0.7–5.0 kHz, and validated against available experimental data. Comparison of various

hydrodynamic effects with the data indicates an overestimated contribution of the applied mutual

radiation pressure model. For both the orthokinetic collision and acoustic wake effect,

comparison of the obtained results shows that the difference of relative collision time between

the numerical and experiment studies is characterised by an average error value of 8.03%.

The performance of the DEM technique and specific features concerning long-range

interactions between particles are demonstrated by simulating the agglomeration of the 3D coal-

fired fly ash particle systems. The obtained numerical results in terms of number concentration

with time showed relatively good agreement with the available experimental data. The

theoretically obtained results proved the experimentally observed angular sensitivity of

agglomeration time. However, future investigation is still needed for optimization of sound

source placement configuration in industrial-type acoustic agglomeration devices. Furthermore,

our calculations have demonstrated the need for further research for improving DEM quality,

19
 where the role of physical effects and non-physical parameters such as the agglomeration radius,

the size of representative volume, etc., should be evaluated.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Project of Scientific Groups (Lithuanian Council of

Science), contract Nr. MIP-072/2013

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 Table 1. Comparison of DEM simulation results against experimentally obtained data
(González, Gallego-Juárez, and Riera 2003): Basic initial data and agglomeration times of two
spherical glass micro-particles

Entr. Frequen- Inter-particle data Agglomeration time taggl(ms)

Factor cies (Hz) Initial Orient. Experiment DEM: DEM:

qp distance Angle (González, Orth+AWK Orth+AWK+MPRE

rij(μm) Θ(o) Gallego-

Juárez, and
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Riera 2003)

0.46 700 142 0 33 23.37 67.64

212 20 40 46.00 103.08

259 23 40 64.88 127.56

229 30 34.32 59.59 121.12

0.4 800 162 11 25.72 25.96 67.84

200 15 40 36.17 82.88

165 40 40 39.72 84.71

0.35 900 207 0 30 33.06 74.06

141 43.6 40 30.97 67.5

0.3 1000 212 0 20 32.14 68.92

127 8 20 15.74 45.28

202 12 20 31.08 67.81

147 13 25.72 19.74 51.85

130 23 20 18.12 48.65

23
 234 24 40 44.10 84.3

0.25 1100 202 0 20 28.39 61.6

211 0 20 30.25 63.88

155 12 17.16 20.08 50.6

134 36 28.57 21.69 51.28

98 36 37.18 13.88 37.51

0.2 1500 193 0 20 23.27 48.84

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280 8 35 41.97 69.15

148 35 20 21.85 47.46

0.15 2000 208 12 40 25.17 46.87

123 18 20 12.34 31.9

65 39 20 6.89 21.41

154 44 35 26.90 50.44

0.12 2500 102 0 20 8.60 25.37

104 24 40 10.00 27.17

138 35.56 30 17.49 39.86

113 48 40 17.67 36.56

0.08 3000 109 0 30 9.20 25.27

94 0 20 7.60 23.12

89 6 25.72 7.13 22.45

190 18 20 21.82 39.43

0.05 5000 103 12 10 8.54 22.02

24
 Downloaded by [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] at 05:52 26 March 2016

92
108
143

45
23
14

10
10
10

25
9.90

11.42
13.48

25.48
23.63
27.37
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Figure 1. Spatial configuration of two particles.

26
 Figure 2. Illustration of simulation experiment with three sampling points for specified
frequency f = 1500 Hz: (a) initial data of sampling points, r0 and Θ; (b) agglomeration times in
three sampling points: ○ – DEM with mutual pressure, ■ – DEM without mutual pressure, × –
experiment.
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 Figure 3. Comparison DEM obtained agglomeration times with experiment: relative deviations:
(a) without mutual pressure, (b) with mutual pressure.
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 Figure 4. The projection xy plane of the 3D representative volume (the diameter scale for
visualisation purposes is 80:1).
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 Figure 5. Theoretical (333 particles) and experimental (Liu et al. 2009) comparison of density of
particles and time.
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 Figure 6. Theoretical (333, 2664 particles) and experimental (Liu et al. 2009) comparison of.
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31