Coupled SPH-DEM to Simulate the Injection of a Powder into a Liquid with Heat Transfer and Phase Change

In collaboration with UQAC: The optimization of powder injection is a source of concern for several fields such as the agri-food industry, metallurgy, ore extraction. Several physical mechanisms intervene during the injection of a granular material into a liquid: solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and phase change. Since a powder is a discrete material, the model presented in this article uses the discrete element method (DEM). It is coupled to the « smoothed particle hydrodynamics » (SPH) method to simulate the liquid. A sub-model is used to calculate the heat transfer and the associated mechanical effects (sintering, coagulation). The phase change is integrated into the model to consider the solicitation of the liquid. Validation of the results is achieved with the injection of particles cooled with liquid nitrogen in a liquid at room temperature. The experiments were filmed with a high-speed camera to track each particle during the impact with the liquid surface.