Two-Phase Flow Modeling for Bed Erosion by a Plane Jet Impingement

Abstract

This paper presents experimental and numerical studies on the erosion of a horizontal granular bed by a two-dimensional plane vertical impinging jet to predict the eroded craters’ size scaling (depth and width). The simulations help understand the microscopic processes that govern erosion in this complex flow. A modified jet-bed distance, accounting for the plane jet virtual origin, is successfully used to obtain a unique relationship between the crater size and a local Shields parameter. This work develops a two-phase flow numerical model to reproduce the experimental results. The numerical techniques are based on a finite volume formulation to approximate spatial derivatives, a projection technique to calculate the pressure and velocity for each phase, and a staggered grid to avoid spurious oscillations. Different options for the sediment’s solid-to-liquid transition during erosion are proposed, tested, and discussed. One model is based on unified equations of continuum mechanics, others on modified closure equations for viscosity or momentum transfer. A good agreement between the numerical solutions and the experimental measurements is obtained.