Comparison of Three Turbulence Models in Wear Prediction of Multi-Size Particulate Flow through Rotating Channel

The present work compares the performance of three turbulence modeling approach (based on the two-equation k ε − model) in predicting erosive wear in multi-size dense slurry flow through rotating channel. All three turbulence models include rotation modification to the production term in the turbulent kineticenergy equation. The two-phase flow field obtained numerically using Galerkin finite element methodology relates the local flow velocity and concentration to the wear rate via a suitable wear model. The wear models for both sliding wear and impact wear mechanisms account for the particle size dependence. Results of predicted wear rates using the three turbulence models are compared for a large number of cases spanning such operating parameters as rotation rate, solids concentration, flow rate, particle size distribution and so forth. The root-mean-square error between FE-generated data and the correlation between maximum wear rate and the operating parameters is found less than 2.5% for all the three models. Keywords—Rotating channel, maximum wear rate, multi-size particulate flow, k ε − turbulence models.