Liquid-solid multiphase flow
 

Hello,
I am starting my PhD and I've been asked to model the following problem:

Two sliding surfaces are separated by a (newtonian) fluid containing solid particles. The particles have a dimension comparable to the surface roughness and there is particle-particle and particle-wall interaction.

Do you have any suggestion on how to model this problem?
I would like to mesh the asperities of the surfaces and to introduce particles following a lagrangian approach (e.g. Discrete Element Method)... what do you think?

Thanks a lot,
rob1

I am thinking of using Discrete Element Method (DEM) coupled with CFD.
Does anybody has experience in it?

Because my particles are not points, since they are at the scale of flow and wall asperities...