Boiger Gernot K
Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
Title: Eliminating anomalies of CFD model results of the powder coating process by refining aerodynamic flow-particle interaction and by introducing a dynamic particle charging model
Biography
Biography: Boiger Gernot K
Abstract
A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model of the powder coating process has been developed using OpenFoam®. It considers particle-dynamic-, aerodynamic-, electro-static- and gravitational effects. While being fully functional, the Eulerian-LaGrangian model has in some cases shown anomalies, yielding coating predictions, which were not observed in comparable experiments. In order to analyse and amend the problem, the underlying Reynolds average stress (RAS) turbulence modelling approach was (i) re-evaluated, compared to (ii) direct numerical simulation (DNS) and (iii) large eddy simulation (LES) flow modelling methods, (iv) improved to account for turbulence impact on flow-particle interaction and (v) extended by a dynamic particle charging algorithm. The effects of the said model improvements were investigated and model-results were compared to measurements of experimentally obtained coating thickness values. It can be shown that the modified simulation model yields a much higher level of correspondence to experiments than previous versions.