Project: Particle tracking in turbulent flows:

the role of interpolation.

February 12, 2024

1 Background information
Particle-laden turbulent flows can be found in various industrial and environ-
mental processes. Examples of such processes are pneumatic transport of par-
ticles; energy conversion of fossil fuels; movement of soot particles in the at-
mosphere; the flow of particles in cyclones and many more. Understanding the
effects of particle-fluid interactions is of utmost importance because this will
result in a more accurate implementation of these processes. Thus, robust nu-
merical simulations will therefore help the optimisation and better design of
industrial processes and provide a more reliable prediction of environmental
processes involving particles.
The modelling of the dispersion of particles in turbulence is a very active
and important research area [4]. In a nutshell, it deals with:
1. Solving the motion of a turbulent fluid in a number of discrete points in
⃗ f (⃗xi ).
space, U
⃗ f (⃗xp ).
2. Interpolating the fluid velocity as seen by the particle, U

3. Using the interpolated fluid velocity at the particle to update the position
of the particle,

DV⃗p  
mp = 3πµf U⃗ f (⃗xp ) − V
⃗p (1)
Dt
DX⃗p
=V⃗p (2)
Dt

Such algorithms are the back bone of any simulation code tracking particles.
However, there is relatively little known about the accuracy of the required
interpolation methods, and this is the subject of this Thesis work project.

1
 Uf
Uf
Uf
Uf
Vp Uf
Uf

Uf
Uf
⃗ f ) should be
Figure 1: A number of random points with a fluid velocity (U
interpolated to the location of the particle, ⃗xp .

2 Your tasks
1. In this project, you will perform a short literature review of interpolation
methods which are used for particle simulations, such as Shepard’s interpo-
lation [6], Spline interpolation, general kernels [5], polynomial methods [3]
and reproducing kernel particle methods [2].

2. Then you will construct a small computer program in C, Python (or an-
other scientific programming language) in which you will generate an an-
alytical flow field, such as a vortex, Couette or Poiseuille flow. You should
also consider a time-dependent flow solution. From this flow field, you
will take n random points in space and test your interpolation method to
a random particle position within the random points, see Figure 1.
3. You should determine the error in the interpolation for various interpola-
tion methods and various analytical flow fields and compare computational
cost vs accuracy.
4. Finally, you should deliver a final report and a subroutine in the C Pro-
gramming Language [1], which has as input n co-ordinates and fluid ve-
locity vectors and the location of a particle, and returns the fluid velocity
vector at the location of the particle.

References
[1] B.W. Kernighan and D.M. Ritchie. The C Programming Language. Prentice
Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632, USA, second edition, 1988.

2
[2] Wing Kam Liu, Sukky Jun, and Yi Fei Zhang. Reproducing kernel parti-
cle methods. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, 20(8-
9):1081–1106, April 1995.
[3] Nadeem A. Malik and Th. Dracos. Interpolation Schemes for Three-
Dimensional Velocity Fields from Scattered Data Using Taylor Expansions.
Journal of Computational Physics, 119(2):231–243, July 1995.
[4] G. Mallouppas and B.G.M. van Wachem. Large Eddy Simulations of Tur-
bulent Particle-Laden Channel Flow. International Journal of Multiphase
Flow, 54:65–75, April 2013.

[5] Alexandre M Roma, Charles S Peskin, and Marsha J Berger. An Adap-

tive Version of the Immersed Boundary Method. Journal of Computational
Physics, 153(2):509–534, August 1999.
[6] D Shepard. A two-dimensional interpolation function for irregularly-spaced
data. Proceedings of the 1968 23rd ACM national, 1968.