A comparison between discrete analysis and a multiphase approach for predicting heat conduction in packed beds

The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is a Lagrangian approach initially developed for predicting particles flow. The eXtended Discrete Element Method (XDEM) framework, developed at the LuXDEM Research Centre of the University of Luxembourg, extends DEM by including the thermochemical state of particles, as well as their interaction with a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) domain. The level of detail of its predictions makes the XDEM suite a powerful tool for predicting complex industrial processes like steel making, powder metallurgy and additive manufacturing. Like in any other DEM software, the critical aspect of the simulations is the computation requirement that grows rapidly as the number of particles increases. Indeed, such burden currently represents the main bottleneck to its full exploitation in large-scale scenarios. Digital Twin, a research project founded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), aims at drastically accelerate XDEM through different approaches and make it an effective tool for numerical predictions in industry as well as virtual prototyping. The Multiphase Particle-In-Cell (MP-PIC) method has been introduced for reducing the computation burden of DEM. It has been initially developed for predicting particles flow and uses a two-way transfer of information between the Lagrangian entities and a computation grid. The method avoids explicit contact detection and can potentially achieve a drastic reduction of the time-to-solution respect to DEM. The present contribution introduces a multiphase approach for predicting the conductive heat transfer within a static packed bed of particles. Results from a test case are qualitatively and quantitatively compared against reference XDEM predictions. The method can be effectively exploited in combination with MP-PIC for predicting the thermochemical state of particles.