Modeling capillary-driven particle agglomeration under shear in immiscible fluids using discrete multiphysics

Abstract

In this study, we introduce a discrete multiphysics (DMP) model designed to simulate particulate systems where solid particles are immersed in a sheared primary fluid (water) and coated by an immiscible secondary fluid (oil). When dispersed particles come into contact with each other, the secondary fluid around the particles merges into a liquid bridge that induces particle agglomeration through capillary interaction. The model employs smoothed particle hydrodynamics to represent the primary liquid and the discrete element method for the solid particles. The secondary fluid is not explicitly modeled. Instead, we consider its impact indirectly by incorporating the attractive forces generated ..