A numerical approach for fluid-particle-structure interactions problem with CFD-DEM-CSD coupling method

Abstract

Fluid, particle, and structure interactions are widely encountered in the engineering field. This study presents a multi-phase coupled method based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), discrete element method (DEM) and computational structural dynamics (CSD) for simulating fluid, particle and structure interactions problems (FPSI). For the proposed CFD-DEM-CSD coupling method, the CFD-DEM method based on locally averaged theory is applied to capture the motion of the fluid-particle flow, and the CSD method within the finite volume method (FVM) is used to resolve the deformation of the structure. The proposed coupling method is first tested by simulating a classical fluid–structure interaction problem (FSI3) and an upward seepage flow through sand. Then, the process of water and particle leakage through a crack affected by an immersed elastic plate is analyzed by both the laboratory experiment and the proposed numerical method. The particle motions and elastic plate deformation obtained from both methods show good agreement, which verifies the performance of the proposed method. The developed CFD-DEM-CSD method can be used to acquire in-depth knowledge of the fluid state, particle motions and structural deformation of the fluid, particle and structure system.