CFDEM vs. Lagrangian solvers of OpenFOAM

Hi All,

I am in the early stage of CFD-DEM and trying to find the best tool to conduct my research in the fields of solid particles. I am wondering what can be the best choice between CFDEM (OPENFOAM+LIGGGHTS) and original Lagrangian solvers of OpenFOAM? It seems that with LIGGGHTS the computational process can be much faster. Is that true?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Forums:

CFDEM®coupling - User Forum

alice | Mon, 02/04/2019 - 14:27

Hello emahvelati,

you are right, a big argument is the simulation time. Just recently we carried out an internal benchmark study (particles settling within gas), and CFDEM(R)coupling was 17 times faster than the same case in OpenFOAM + lagrangian. We did our best for a fair comparison, however, the speedup will differ from case to case.

Another argument is the number of models available in CFDEM(R)coupling (e.g., several drag force models, ...) and its simple extendability (if an application for example requires a force model that has not yet been implmemented).

Cheers,

Alice

emahvelati | Tue, 02/05/2019 - 15:17

Thank you Alice

Hi Alice,

Thanks for your kind reply. I would like to add one thing to your explanation. It seems that the variety of contact forces in LIGGGHTS is wider than OpenFOAM, as well.

Regards

alice | Wed, 02/06/2019 - 14:14

Ah, yes, of course, you are

Ah, yes, of course, you are right. Whatever physical particle model is available in LIGGGHTS can of course be automatically applied in the coupling.

Regards,