Simulation of particle-fluid systems with macro-scale pseudo-particle modeling

Pseudo-particle modeling (PPM) is a particle method (PM) proposed in 1996. Though it is effective for the simulation of local phenomena in particle-fluid systems, its application to practical systems is still limited by computational cost. Therefore, macro-scale PPM, or MaPPM is proposed, which combines finite difference (FD) with weighted averaging techniques to upgrade particle interactions to the fluid element level. In this paper, a detailed derivation of the model is presented together with a clearer demonstration of the convergence and accuracy of the model. The approach is then applied to the problem of plane Poiseuille flow and particle-fluid suspension, resulting in a physically reasonable flow pattern. We conclude that MaPPM can be a promising alternative to FD and finite element (FE) approaches whenever multiple moving interfaces are encountered. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.