Study on Particle Sedimentation in a Cavity Containing Obstacles

The sedimentation of particles has a wide range of application scenarios in industry. In this paper, the sedimentation of a single particle in a cavity containing obstacles is simulated using the immersed boundary–lattice Boltzmann method. The computational results show that the presence of obstacles will alter the sedimentation of the particle, and the particle will undergo a change in the direction of rotation during the period when it tumbles over the surface of the obstacle and continues to sedimentation after leaving the obstacle. Increasing the particle–obstacle eccentricity or decreasing the particle–obstacle diameter ratio will shorten the particle–obstacle interaction time. When the sedimentation of a particle passes through the gap between two obstacles, it can be influenced by the far-side obstacle and interact with the near-side obstacle for a second time, and the influence of the far-side obstacle on the sedimentation of the particle disappears when the gap between the two obstacles exceeds a certain threshold. These results quantitatively elucidate the critical role of obstacle configuration in modulating particle dynamics, providing valuable insights for optimizing industrial sedimentation systems and advancing predictive models for multiphase flows in complex geometries.