ABSTRACT

This effort presents a multiscale modeling approach for investigating complex phenomena arising from flowing fiber suspensions. The present approach is capable of coupling behaviors from the Kolmogorov turbulence scale with the full scale system in which a fiber suspension is flowing. Specific consideration was given to dynamic simulations of viscoelastic fibers in which the fluid flow is predicted by a hybrid method between Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) and Large Eddy Simulation techniques (LES). Fluid fibrous structure interactions (FSI) were taken into account. Numerical results were presented wtih a focus on fiber floe formation and destruction by hydrodynamic forces in turbulent flows. The results obtained may elucidate the physics behind the break up of a fiber floe. This creates the possibility for developing a meaningful numerical model of the fiber flow at the continuum level, where an Eulerian multi-phase flow model can be developed for industrial use.