Extended Applications of the δ-SPH Model for the Numerical Study of Fluid–Soil Interactions

Abstract

The fluid–soil interactions play a significant role in coastal and ocean engineering applications. However, there are still some complex mechanical problems with large deformations of water–soil interfaces to be solved. As a particle-based Lagrangian method, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is good at solving multiphase problems with large deformations of boundaries or interfaces. Therefore, in this work, the [Formula: see text]-SPH method is extended for the simulation of fluid–soil interacting problems. First, based on the weakly compressible assumption, the water is modeled as a viscous fluid while the soil is considered as a material with elastic–perfectly plastic behaviors. The [Formula: see text]-SPH method is implemented on the two phases separately, while the stress diffusive term only acts on the soil. The seepage force is introduced to model the interaction between two phases. After that, several numerical test cases with small to large interface deformations are presented. It is shown that the fluid–soil interacting model based on the [Formula: see text]-SPH model gives satisfying results compared with experimental data. Finally, the model is further extended for the simulation of vertical or oblique water jet scouring problems which demonstrates the potential applications of the SPH model for complex engineering problems.