Lagrangian particle tracking
Lagrangian particle and spray tracking in OpenFOAM
Track discrete particles, droplets and sprays through a flow field with DPMFoam and sprayFoam — erosion, separation, filtration and injection.
What it is
Rather than treating a second phase as a continuum, individual parcels are tracked through the fluid, each carrying mass and momentum and exchanging both with it. Suited to dilute phases where the particles matter individually.
What the application sets up
- Injection points, rates and size distributions
- Particle properties and drag model
- Wall interaction behaviour
- The coupled fields the carrier phase needs
Typical uses
- Cyclone and separator efficiency
- Erosion by entrained solids
- Filter and duct particle capture
- Fuel and coating spray patterns
Industries
Sectors where this analysis is routinely asked for.
- Pharmaceutical
- Process & chemical
- HVAC & cleanrooms
- Mining & minerals
What comes out
- Particle trajectories and fates
- Deposition maps
- Residence time distributions
- Separation efficiency
OpenFOAM solvers
DPMFoamsprayFoam
Selected and configured for you from the analysis type. You can still see every dictionary the application writes.
In every tier
This analysis type is in the free build. The free tier limits mesh size to 250,000 cells and solving to one core — not which physics you may use.
On accuracy, plainly.
Every analysis type is exercised end to end on every pass — its case is generated, meshed and run — which establishes that the setup is right, not that the answer matches your geometry. No CFD result is evidence until it is checked against something you trust: a measurement, a hand calculation, or a mesh-refinement study the application will run for you. Treat these results with the judgement you would apply to any CFD you set up yourself.