The Fluidization and Adsorption of Soft Particles Studied with Hybrid Element Method and Fluid Dynamics

The properties and behaviors of flowing particles are essential to the characteristics of associated micro- and macro-fluid mechanics applicable to biological and MEMs systems. In this work, we employed hybrid discrete element method and computational fluid dynamics (DEM-CFD) to study the soft particles’ fluidization and adsorption. The soft-core potential is introduced to calculate the contact forces of particle-particle and particle-wall. The non-contact force is calculated with Derjaguin-Landau-Verway-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. The dielectrophoretic force (DEF) and drag force are included for the effect of the fluid on particles. Particle dynamic motions (aggregation in the bulk and adsorption/desorption/exchange adjacent to the wall) are analyzed as a function of the wall boundary confinement and the particles’ size, density and rigidity.