High performance computation of reacting flow

ProMO group has a wide variety of research topics as follows:

  • Fluidised bed is one of the dominant chemical reactors for gas-solid mixing and chemical production, and has been widely used in both conventional and emerging industries, such as pharmaceutical, metallurgy, and mining, especially in Australia. By introducing a strong jet flow, the packed particles with large density, diameter or complex shapes in the fluidised beds are vigorously dragged and formed a spouting channel with two circulation pattern. The spout deflection can be easily triggered by small disturbances, which means that the spout channel alternatively deflects in the lateral direction. This phenomenon not only deteriorates the flow uniformity and product quality but also limits the scale-up of the fluidised bed.

    This project aims to carry out a comprehensive study on spout deflection via combining laser-based experimental method and particle-scale numerical method. The initial study has demonstrated that spout deflection has a higher gas-solid mixing efficiency than the existing flow pattern in applications. This program will continue to explore the application and control of spout deflection for further scale-up of fluidised beds.

    We welcome talented students who are interested in this work to join our group. A variety of scholarships for both domestic and international students is available.  Besides, this research provides high-quality education that prepares you in your future career of various enterprises and research institutes.

     

  • Particle mixing is an essential process to control product quality produced from particle blends in many industries, such as pharmaceutical, food and chemical engineering industries.  Hence, the predictability and optimisation of the mixing behaviour of granular materials play a crucial role in energy-saving in these industrial scenes. This project aims to develop an advanced numerical technique - discrete element method (DEM), and to investigate particle mixing performance in different mixers (e.g., cylindrical mixer, ribbon mixer and rotating drum) for predicting the mixture quality.

    Research environment: PhD student will work with ProMO group and be part of the Future Food System CRC community. We will provide various scholarships for both domestic and international talented students who are interested in process modelling.

    Expected outcome: Successful candidate will participate in international conferences and publish his/her work in high impact factor journals. 

     

  • Biomass gasification is a thermochemical conversion process where the solid biomaterials are converted to combustible gases with minimal harmful emissions. This project aims to explore the hydrodynamics and thermochemical characteristics of dense gas-solid reaction flow during the biomass process by means of a CFD-DEM coupling approach. To capture those characteristics, the model should fully consider the heat and mass transfer sub-model, and the homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reactions sub-models.  This project will unveil the multi-scale flow structures and multi-physics phenomena involved in the biomass gasification process, benefiting the design and optimisation of the relevant reactors.

    The talented students with enthusiasm in coding and programming are welcome, and our group will provide a variety of scholarships for both domestic and international students. It is expected that the successful candidate will participate in international conferences and publish his/her work in high impact factor journals. This work will expand the capabilities of the student in both industrial and academic career.

     

  • The migration of fine particles in gap-graded soils due to seepage flow is often encountered in geotechnical engineering. The mechanism of the seepage-induced fine particle migration is not yet clear since it involves the fluid flow through a complex pore network of the coarse skeleton at the pore-scale and the particle-fluid interactions at the particle-scale. This project aims to develop a semi-resolved CFD-DEM model which combines resolved CFD-DEM with the unresolved CFD-DEM to provide a useful tool in understanding the mechanism of fine particle migration. The fluid flow in the vicinity of the fine particles is locally averaged over a domain with dimensions larger than the sizes of fine particles, which is similar to that in the unresolved CFD-DEM; while the flow around the coarse particle is resolved using fluid meshes with sizes several times smaller than the diameters of the coarse particles, which is identical to that in the resolved CFD-DEM.

    We welcome students who are interested in computer science and numerical algorithm implementation on the opensource software packages to joins us, and we could provide various scholarships for both international and domestic students.