Numerical methods for particle-laden DNS of homogeneous isotropic turbulence

Particle-laden direct numerical simulations (DNS) are a valuable research tool for the calculation of turbulent particle dispersion. Since the first particle-laden DNS was performed, there has been a vast amount of information gained on the physics of how particles disperse in turbulent flow. However, there appears to be a lack of consensus regarding several issues involved in performing a particle-laden DNS. These issues include: selecting a statistically significant number of particles to track, determining the most accurate yet computationally efficient particle velocity interpolation scheme and deciding on a virtual release time for the particles such that the particle trajectories are independent of their initial conditions. To illustrate the lack of consensus in the scientific community, a survey of the literature is presented and an analysis of the various issues is performed. In addition, new methods for determining the statistically significant number of particles to track are proposed and improvements are made to the existing method for selecting a virtual release time in decaying isotropic turbulence.