Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2017
24th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Numerical simulation of the flow of suspended soft-capsules through constricted channels
Submission Author:
Jose Roca , RJ
Co-Authors:
Jose Roca, Ivan Menezes, Marcio CARVALHO
Presenter: Jose Roca
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2017.COB17-2916
Abstract
Soft-capsules dispersed in aqueous phase flowing through constricted micro-channels poses an interesting problem presented in a myriad of applications from enhance oil recovery (EOR) methods to flow of red blood cells on hemodynamics. Understanding of dynamics at micro-scale is central to assess the macroscopic flow behaviour in EOR applications. We study the flow in a micro-channel with a constriction, which is a model of a pore-throat connecting two adjacent pore-bodies. Flow of capsules through such geometry defines a fluid-structure interaction problem. A coupled finite element method with immersed boundary method was used to solve the transient problem of a single capsule flowing through a constricted channel. The objective is to determine the pressure drop as a function of flow conditions, capsule geometry, fluid and capsule mechanical properties, i.e. elastic modulus E. Results show that pressure at the inner phase is larger than the outer phase in order to balance the capsule stress. Additionally, an extra pressure is observed when the capsule flows through the constriction. The intensity of this peak varies with capsule size and material properties.
Keywords
fluid-structure interaction problem, Immersed Boundary Method, Finite Element Method
