A spatially resolved fluid-solid interaction model for dense granular packs/Soft-Sand.
File(s)A_spatially_resolved_fluid-solid_interaction.pdf (9.51 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Gago, Paula
Raeini, Ali
King, Peter
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Fluid flow through dense granular packs or soft sands can be described as a Darcy’ s flow for low injection rates, as the friction between grain-grain and grain-walls dominate the solid system behaviour. For high injection rates, fluid forces can generate grain displacement forming flow channels or “fractures”, which in turn modify local properties within the system, such as permeability and stress distribution. Due to this kind of “self organized” behaviour, a spatially resolved model for these interactions is required to capture the dynamics of these systems. In this work, we present a resolved model based on the approach taken by the CFDEM open source project which uses LIGGGHTS – a discrete elements method (DEM)– to model the granular behaviour and OpenFoam finite volume library for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), to simulate the fluid behaviour. The capabilities provided by the DEM engine allows the properties of the solid phase, such as inter-grain cohesion and solid confinement stress to be controlled. In this work the original solver provided by the CFDEM project was modified so as to deal with dense granular packs more effectively. Advantages of the approach presented are that it does not require external “scaling parameters” to reproduce well known properties of porous materials and that it inherits the performance provided by the CFDEM project. The model is validated by reproducing the well-known properties of static porous materials, such as its permeability as a function of the system porosity, and by calculating the drag coefficient for a sphere resting inside a uniform flow. Finally, we present fracture patterns obtained when modelling water injection into a Hele-Shaw cell, filled with a dense granular pack.
Date Issued
2020-02
Date Acceptance
2019-10-29
Citation
Advances in Water Resources, 2020, 136, pp.1-7
ISSN
0309-1708
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
1
End Page
7
Journal / Book Title
Advances in Water Resources
Volume
136
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
BP International Limited
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0309170819303756
Grant Number
75195/ICAM39(Uoc + IC)
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Water Resources
CFDEM project
Soft-sand fractures
Resolved CFD-DEM
Immersed boundary method
IMMERSED BOUNDARY METHOD
FLOW
Environmental Engineering
0102 Applied Mathematics
0905 Civil Engineering
0907 Environmental Engineering
Date Publish Online
2019-10-31