A 3D LBM-DEM study of sheared particle suspensions under the influence of temperature-dependent viscosity

Abstract Particle suspensions form a fundamental yet complex component of many scientific and engineering endeavours. This paper proposes a numerical coupling between the lattice Boltzmann and discrete element methods that resolves particle suspensions exposed to thermal influences due to temperature-dependent fluid viscosity and conjugate heat transfer between components. Validation of the model was performed via the study of the relative viscosity of suspensions. This numerically corroborated the proposed temperature-dependence of the relative viscosity of suspensions. The model was finally used to interrogate the macroscopic behaviour of sheared suspensions at a range of solid volume fractions. This demonstrated changes in suspension flow behaviour due to temperature related effects. Future work based on these results would examine how particle properties could be modified to exacerbate and control temperature-based phenomena potentially leading to improvements in domains such as industrial material processing and manufacture.