Numerical analysis on liquid-solid two-phase flows in arc-type channel of the emitter

Considering the structural intricacy of the drip irrigation emitter with labyrinth channel, a numerical simulation was carried out for the liquid-solid two-phase flows in arc-type channel by the CFD program Fluent. Reynolds stress model with wall function was adopted to calculate the liquid-phase flow,and discrete phase model was chosen to trace trajectories of solid particles. The results obtained show that the differences of velocity in different parts are remarkable in each channel unit, and vortices are formed in the top and bottom right corners of the arc, which trend to become larger along the flow direction. The following behavior of small particles which are vulnerable to be affected by turbulent diffusion is better than that of large particles. The channel is easy to be clogging when a lot of particles deposit in these stagnant regions, which is verified by the clogging experiments of emitters. The particle trajectories are less affected by its density relative to its diameter.