Numerical modelling of slurry transport for coarse particles

Abstract

Transportation of the coarse materials is one of the major challenges in slurry transport for dredging. Unfavorable situations may occur, e.g., the strong hydraulic resistance and the blocking in the pipe. In this study, An Eulerian-Lagrangian coupled algorithm is implemented to model the pipeline transport process of coarse particles. Codes of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element modeling (DEM) are utilized for simulating the fluid and the solid behavior respectively. The numerical modeling of particles with a diameter of 10mm transported in a pipeline with a diameter of 15.24cm is carried out under three different conveying line speeds. Qualitative study is made on the transitions between different flow regimes, and quantitative analysis is made on the volumetric concentration and the hydraulic gradient in the pipe.