The effect of shear-induced segregation on bidisperse suspension settling

Shear is a common phenomenon in practical mineral processes, particularly in pipeline transportation. When applied to realistic polydisperse systems consisting of particles of different sizes, shear can lead to distinct interactions of each size component with the carrier fluid, resulting in segregation between sizes. This paper focuses on the effect of size segregation induced by shear on the settling process of suspension flows containing different-sized spherical particles. In this regard, the bidisperse system is considered as the simplest example of polydisperse flows, ensuring the investigation retains the essential features of the system of interest without added complexity. The Volume Penalization Immersed Boundary Method, as a resolved Eulerian–Lagrangian CFD-DEM approach, is employed to gain detailed information on individual particles. A simple cross shear is generated by the moving side walls, and its effect is initially evaluated on two simulation cases containing single spherical particles of different sizes. The results from the single particle simulation cases reveal a higher acceleration of the larger particle towards the centreline due to the higher lateral force proportional to its size. The resolved approach is then used for the bidisperse multiparticle systems with diameter ratios of l=2 and l=5, both subjected to a similar sheared field. In the suspension with l=2, the scalar dispersion function, which measures the degree of migration of each size component between the side walls, indicates segregation by size as the shear rate increases. This is evident in the motion of large particles towards the centre and the accumulation of smaller particles near the walls, which arises from higher proportional force on the larger particles observed in the single particle simulation cases. Although the increase in the diameter ratio to l=5 does not significantly change the migration behaviour of large particles, it provides a more uniform distribution of smaller ones. In this case, the small particles find it more easily to fit into the gaps between the large particles for l=5. Overall, this accumulation of each size component at specific regions in the sheared domain affects the local interaction of settling particles with the fluid flow, resulting in an increase in the settling rate of large particles up to 40% in the considered bidisperse cases. This highlights the impact of shear on the interaction of spherical particles in a multiple sized system, specifically in the practical sheared applications including mineral slurries transportation.