Modelling of particulate dispersion

该项目的主要目标是开发改进的数学模型，用于描述释放到流体中的颗粒的运动和分散。这种流动在工业过程中很普遍，其中重要的是要了解颗粒和流体的混合程度。当颗粒物质被释放到环境中时，它们也会大规模地出现在大气、海洋或水道中，在这种情况下可能对健康或基础设施造成危害，颗粒的密度（通常还有温度）与周围流体的密度不同，这导致颗粒因重力而上升或下降。这种性质上的差异也驱动了更复杂的浮力驱动的流动，称为重力流和侵入体，它们可以快速地水平分散颗粒。然而，许多现有的颗粒在流体中分散的模型忽略了这一影响，本项目将开发这种浮力驱动的流动的模型，并将其纳入现有的颗粒分散模型框架，以提供一个准确和实用的工具来预测分散。一个关键的新的科学进步将是了解浮力驱动的流动如何与周围流体中的湍流相互作用，并在数学模型中描述这一点。这将通过一系列建模来完成，从简单实用的“深度综合”模型到更复杂的流体流动数值计算。

The primary objective of this project is to develop improved mathematical models of the motion and dispersion of particles that are released into fluids. Such flows are widespread within industrial processes, where it is important to understand how well particles and fluid are mixed. They also occur at large scales in the atmosphere, ocean or watercourses, when particulate matter is released into the environment, and in this context may pose hazards to health or infrastructure.The density (and often temperature) of the particles differs from that of the surrounding fluid, which results in the rise or fall of the particles due to gravity. This difference in properties also drives more complex buoyancy-driven flows known as gravity currents and intrusions, which can rapidly disperse particles horizontally. However, many existing models of particle dispersion in fluids neglect this effect.This project will develop models of such buoyancy-driven flows and incorporate them into existing frameworks for particle dispersion modelling, to provide an accurate and practical tool for predicting dispersion. A key novel scientific advance will be to understand how buoyancy-driven flows interact with turbulence in the surrounding fluid, and to describe this within a mathematical model. This will be accomplished with a hierarchy of modelling, ranging from simple and practical 'depth-integrated' models to more complex numerical computations of the fluid flow.This project lies within the Continuum Mechanics research area of EPSRC.