Normal collision between partially wetted particles by using direct numerical simulation

Abstract The fluidization processes involving wet particles have been widely applied in many industries. A detailed understanding of wet particle collisions is critical. Existing studies have focused on collision between a particle and a plane covered by uniform liquid, while in practice the particle is commonly wetted by droplets with finite volume. In this study, we use Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) to simulate and compare the “particle-particle” and “particle-plane” wet collisions. The model validation is performed for the “particle-plane” collisions. The wet restitution coefficients for the “particle-plane” collisions are significantly lower than those for the “particle-particle” collisions. The dissipation of kinetic energy increases with increasing droplet diameter and liquid viscosity. Furthermore, the proportion of energy dissipation is obtained by extracting the “force-distance” curve, which indicates that the pressure and contact forces are the dominant sources of kinetic energy dissipation.