Numerical Simulation of Thermophoretic Particle Deposition from a Turbulent Flow of Air inside a Chamber

In this paper the deposition of particles in a turbulent flow of air and under thermal gradient is investigated using commercial computational fluid dynamics code. In a chamber with specific dimensions, a flow of air and monosized particles inside it enter through a cylindrical inlet and eventually exit through a suction hole on the roof. A panel of negligible thickness is positioned inside the chamber on which particle deposition is simulated. The continuous phase is modeled according to Navier-Stokes equation with standard k -e turbulence scheme and through a langrangian approach for the discrete phase, the role of thermophoresis in particle deposition is studied. Results indicate that for higher temperature gradients imposed between walls, higher deposition is expected. Also position of the panel plays a key role in particle deposition. Besides it was shown that for a specific particle size, inertial impaction is the dominant mechanism of particle deposition in higher velocities while thermophoresis is more significant in lower velocities.