Motion of a Neutrally Buoyant Circular Particle in a Lid-Driven Square Cavity: A Numerical Study

Abstract Understanding, predicting and controlling the motion of the solid particles in a confined cavity is significant. The motion of a neutrally buoyant circular particle in a lid-driven square cavity is studied with the lattice Boltzmann method, where the effects of the initial position, particle size and Reynolds number are investigated. The obvious characteristic of the motion of the circular particle is the existence of the limit cycle, which is the competitive result of the inertia, wall-repulsion force and vortex behavior. The limit cycle is insensitive to the initial position of the circular particle, namely, no matter where the circular particle is placed initially, the limit cycle is the same. With the increase of the particle size, the wall-repulsion force becomes stronger, which is dominant over the centrifugal force, and the limit cycle shrinks toward the center of the square cavity. With the increase of the Reynolds number, a new secondary vortex develops at the top left corner of the square cavity, and the limit cycle is pushed toward the bottom right corner of the square cavity.