A novel SPH method for sedimentation in a turbulent fluid

Abstract

A novel method for simulating sedimentation is described and applied to the sedimentation of dust in a turbulent fluid. We assume the dust grains are sufficiently numerous that they may be treated as a fluid and modelled by SPH particles. A different set of SPH particles describes the fluid. The equations of motion are therefore similar to those of Monaghan and Kocharyan [14] with the exception that the sedimentation of dust onto a solid surface is treated as if the surface mimics a sink for the dust fluid. The continuity equation for the dust then contains a sink term that can be modelled in the SPH formulation by allowing the mass of each SPH dust particle to decrease when it is sufficiently close to the boundary. We apply this method both to sedimentation in a nearly static fluid, and to sedimentation in a turbulent fluid. In the latter case we produce the turbulence by both a mechanical stirrer and by a stochastic algorithm. Our results agree very closely with the experiments of Martin and Nokes.