Accurate calculation of Stokes drag for point-particle tracking in two-way coupled flows

In this work, we propose and test a method for calculating Stokes drag applicable to particle-laden fluid flows where two-way momentum coupling is important. In the point-particle formulation, particle dynamics are coupled to fluid dynamics via a source term that appears in the respective momentum equations. When the particle Reynolds number is small and the particle diameter is smaller than the fluid scales, it is common to approximate the momentum coupling source term as the Stokes drag. The Stokes drag force depends on the difference between the undisturbed fluid velocity evaluated at the particle location, and the particle velocity. However, owing to two-way coupling, the fluid velocity is modified in the neighborhood of a particle, relative to its undisturbed value. This causes the computed Stokes drag force to be underestimated in two-way coupled point-particle simulations. We develop estimates for the drag force error as function of the particle size relative to the grid size. Because the disturbance field created by the particle contaminates the surrounding fluid, correctly calculating the drag force cannot be done solely by direct interpolation of the fluid velocity. Instead, we develop a correction method that calculates the undisturbed fluid velocity from the computed disturbed velocity field by adding an estimate of the velocity disturbance created by the particle. The correction scheme is tested for a particle settling in an otherwise quiescent fluid and is found to reduce the error in computed settling velocity by an order of magnitude compared with common interpolation schemes.