SedFoam-2.0: a 3D two-phase flow numerical model for sediment transport

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper, a three-dimensional two-phase flow solver, SedFoam-2.0, is presented for sediment transport applications. The solver is extended upon twoPhaseEulerFoam available in the 2.1.0 release of the open-source CFD toolbox OpenFOAM. In this approach the sediment phase is modeled as a continuum, and constitutive laws have to be prescribed for the sediment stresses. In the proposed solver, two different inter-granular stress models are implemented: the kinetic theory of granular flows and the dense granular flow rheology μ(I). For the fluid stress, laminar or turbulent flow regimes can be simulated and three different turbulence models are available for sediment transport: a simple mixing length model (one-dimensional configuration only), a k-ϵ and a k-ω model. The numerical implementation is first demonstrated by two validation test cases, sedimentation of suspended particles and laminar bed-load. Two applications are then investigated to illustrate the capabilities of SedFoam-2.0 to deal with complex turbulent sediment transport problems with different combinations of inter-granular stress and turbulence models.