Simulation of particle erosion and sediment transport

Aquatic ecosystems occur in huge abundance all around the world. In this context, sediment transport plays a crucial role as it determines morphology and set conditions for flow, transport of pollutants and nutrients, for flora and fauna hence the complete development of such a system. In this project, the mobilisation and transport of a sediment under the influence of fluid flow is studied. The available empirical mobilisation criteria are mostly related to the Shields criterion and involve huge uncertainties. Hence, basic research is needed to understand this process in a better way and to develop practice-oriented criteria for particle mobilization and for understanding the transport mechanisms. 

© PSM

For this purpose, Direct Numerical Simulations are conducted with a dedicated multiphase flow solver on high performance computers. Prototypical configurations of an open-channel flow are investigated so that interdependencies can be elucidated with a reduced set of parameters. Such simulations are extremely costly, but on the other hand generate enormous wealth of data which can then be analysed addressing various aspects. An important focus of the project is to simulate non-spherical particles for which such simulations so far do not exist.