Evaluation of erosion inside AWJC Nozzle by 6-way coupling of DEM+CFD+FEM using preCICE

The objective of this work is to study the particle‐induced erosion within a nozzle for abrasive cutting. So far, the erosion in the nozzle was predicted only through the number of collisions, using only a simple DEM+CFD coupling. To improve these predictions, we extend our model to a 6‐way momentum coupling with DEM+CFD+FEM to account for deformations and vibrations in the nozzle. Our prototype uses preCICE to couple 3 numerical solvers: XDEM (for the particle motion), OpenFOAM (for the water jet), and CalculiX (for the nozzle deformation). The OpenFOAM adapter has been adapted to add particles drag, which is modeled as semi‐implicit porosity, implicit and explicit drag terms injected to OpenFOAM solver through fvOptions. This 6‐way coupling between DEM+CFD+FEM brings the simulation of the particle‐laden multiphase flow inside the abrasive cutting nozzle close to the real‐life conditions. Thus opening up opportunities for further investigation and improvement of the Nozzle design