Particle Re-Suspension in Two-Phase Dispersed Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

The process by which particles are entrained by the fluid in Rayleigh-Bénard convection is studied by means of particle-resolved numerical simulations in a periodic domain at a Rayleigh number of $10^7$. The fluid Prandtl number is 1 and the particle-to-fluid density ratio 1.1. The results show that the horizontal velocity field near the bottom of the cell accumulates particles in heaps, or `dunes', at the base of ascending plumes. The dunes deflect the incoming flow, conferring to it a vertical velocity component which entrains the particles up the dune and into the plume. An experimental observation of this mechanism was briefly reported by Solomatov et al. (Earth Planet. Sc. Lett. 120, 387, 1993) but has not been considered further in the literature. By its very nature, such a process cannot be simulated by the point particle model. The final particle load carried by the convection depends both on the available gravitational energy of the fluid and on the effectiveness of the re-suspension mechanism.