Solver recommendations for river (air, water, sediment) simulations
 

Hello.


In the past few weeks I've been working with hydrodynamics of tanks which are meant for the separation of water and sediment. Currently, I've got the simulation running for two phases using interFoam and (aside from more testing needed for my BCs) it's worked out.


I'm aware there are many ways to approach this problem, the most simple one being driftFluxFoam, but since the there are important changes of the geometry on the 3 directions, I think it's not the best solver to use. Currently, I'm thinking about using other multiphase solvers such as:

• multiphaseInterFoam
• multiphaseEulerFoam
• interMixingFoam

I know of some other custom solvers too.



In simple words, what solver would you recommend (and why)? And if so, is there an article I can base my work on?



Thanks in advance for your help.

Hey!


I would go for multiphaseEulerFoam:

• It can handle more than two phases
• There is an interface compression feature to get a sharp interface between water and air
• For the solid phase, you can choose to model it as solid particles of varying diameter and with a packing limit.

Alternatively, you could use twoPhaseEulerFoam and model the free surface as a wall with a slip condition. I mention this solver because it has pseudo-transient capabilities which I am not sure multiphaseEulerFoam has (check the C file if needed). There are also more features available concerning phases interacting with each other, except the interface compression.



Good luck :)

Hello Jahir,


you could also be interested in sedFoam: https://sedfoam.github.io/sedfoam/


It is a two phase solver for sediment transport solving momentum equations for both the fluid and the sediments.



Have a nice day,
Matthias

Hi, Alczem, I'll definitely check this. For the solid phase, would I need to couple with a DEM model? I'm very new to lagrangian modeling in OF.



This approach sound amazing for simple geometries where I could neglect the water-air interphase but, what tools do I have if I can't neglect it? Like when hydraulic jumps are present or, for instance, the filling of a tank where sedimentation occurs. Sorry if I'm asking for too much. :D

Thank you guys for your recommendations!

Not necessarily if I am not mistaken, the solid phase would also be modelled in an Eulerian way like the other fluids, which is the point of multiphaseEulerFoam.

Ok, actually my first thought was using multiphaseInterFoam for simulating the sediment as its own immiscible phase, I guess the same logic applies to multiphaseEulerFoam but without the immiscible part.


I'll read more about lagrangian methods too. Thanks!