Experimental and numerical investigation of effects of particle shape and size distribution on particles’ dispersion in a coaxial jet flow

In this study, an experimental and a numerical investigations are performed to investigate the effect of particle's shape and size distribution on its dispersion behavior. Firstly, particle dispersion of pulverized coal and spherical polymer particles is observed by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique in the experiment. Secondly, a simulation is performed to analyze the particle dispersion in detail. Spherical and spheroidal motion models are applied to particle's movement to investigate the shape effect. Furthermore, monodisperse and polydisperse for particles are applied to investigate the size distribution effect on the dispersion. Experimental results show that in the jet turbulence flow, pulverized coal particles, which have complex shapes and various sizes, have quite different dispersion behavior compared to spherical particles. In terms of the results of the simulation, this difference is mainly caused by the size distribution effect. Although particle's shape affects the dispersity, it is weakened by the size distribution effect.