Particle Trapper

Discrete Phase Flow Trap (Trapper) by Gravity — ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation

Description

This project explores the dynamics of particle trapping in a gravity-driven flow system using the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) in ANSYS Fluent. The goal is to understand how particles carried in a fluid can be separated and captured — a trapping scenario in which gravity, the fluid flow, and the particle properties together determine which particles are trapped and which pass through. It's a practical application of particle-fluid interaction and separation, directly relevant to air and water purification, industrial filtration, and particulate-matter control. Within the DPM: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project applies the discrete-phase method to a simple, self-contained particle-separation problem, putting the injection and tracking skills from the method module to work.

Methodology

The setup centers on the Discrete Phase Model, representing particle behavior through defined injection methods, size distributions, and material properties. The gravity-driven fluid flow is modeled with the appropriate body-force terms and pressure-gradient considerations, and two-way coupling between the discrete particles and the continuous fluid is included to capture their mutual influence on momentum and energy transfer. A turbulence model is applied together with turbulent-dispersion effects on the particle trajectories, and boundary conditions are configured for both phases — inlet flow conditions, particle injection parameters, and outlet conditions. Convergence is managed with appropriate under-relaxation factors, time-step sizing for particle tracking, and residual scaling.

Analysis

Post-processing uses ANSYS Fluent's tools to analyze the particle trajectories, trapping efficiency, fluid flow patterns, and particle-concentration distributions, with visualization techniques suited to discrete-phase simulations. From these results you can see which particles are captured and which escape, evaluate the trapping efficiency of the system, and understand how the gravity-driven flow and particle properties govern the separation. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up a gravity-driven DPM simulation with two-way particle–fluid coupling, configure injections and boundary conditions for a separation problem, apply convergence strategies specific to particle tracking, and interpret trajectories and trapping efficiency — skills that transfer directly to the design of particle-trapping and separation systems in environmental and process engineering.