Direct numerical simulation of pattern formation in a rotating suspension of non-Brownian settling particles in a fully filled cylinder

In this article we have investigated the pattern formation of a rotating suspension of non-Brownian settling particles in incompressible Newtonian viscous fluids by direct numerical simulation. These phenomena are modeled by the Navier-Stokes equations coupled to the Euler-Newton equations describing rigid-solid motions. The numerical methodology relies on the combination of a finite element approximation with operator-splitting and Lagrange multiplier based fictitious domain methods allowing the flow calculations to take place in a fixed rectangular parallelepiped. We found the particles attract and expel each other all the time when rotating in a horizontal cylinder and the formation of clusters depends on the rotating speed.