Author(s)

J. Zhang, P. Dupont, M. Hellou & B. Benmezroua

Abstract

A 3D CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)-DEM (Discrete Element Method) method is used for simulation of complicated behaviour including interaction between particle and fluid in the hybrid domain, involving both a porous region and a clear fluid region. A comparison of the results taken from our numerical tool with the experimental data available in two literatures proved that the numerical tool developed here can be used in situations where the Reynolds number and the porosity are different. The effects of the dynamic characteristics of porous medium, including angle of inclination, inlet flow velocity, discharge velocity and porosity, on the particle movement were further investigated. The statistical results demonstrate that the average horizontal component of the particle velocity follows a Gaussian distribution for each case. The average particle velocity and the average flow velocity within the free-fluid region increase with increasing angle of inclination, inlet flow velocity, discharge velocity and porosity. This 3D CFD-DEM method, as demonstrated by the scheme proposed and applied in this work, may serve as an effective simulation tool for the simulation of particle-fluid flows. Keywords: particle-fluid flow, open channels, porous media, free surface flow. 1 Introduction Transport phenomena at the interface between a fluid and porous medium has remained an important topic of research because of their fundamental interest in understanding the phenomena of infiltration into the porous medium and its wide field of applications in industry and environmental analyses, for example, river hydraulics, urban hydrology, pollution and remediation of soils, water treatment,

Keywords

particle-fluid flow, open channels, porous media, free surface flow