Author(s): Qihua Ran; Jian Tong; Xudong Fu; Qian Liao; Songdong Shao
Linked Author(s): Xudong Fu
Keywords: ISPH; Scour model; Scouring velocity; Dam break; Movable bed; Time-dependent scouring
Abstract: The paper presented an incompressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (ISPH) method to simulate the unsteady flow and bed scouring process. The SPH method is a full Lagrangian particle modelling approach that does not use any grid and it can track the flow with large deformation of the free surface in an easy and straightforward manner. The incompressible SPH method employed a truly hydrodynamic formulation to solve the fluid pressures through a pressure Poisson equation. In the movable bed scouring model, the initiation of bed particles is determined based on the comparisons between the flow velocity and sediment threshold velocity. The proposed ISPH with scour model is tested on an unsteady dam break flow over a movable sediment bed. The computational results have indicated that the SPH simulated bed scour shape and free surface are in good agreement with the documented data. Thus the time-dependent scouring process has been well predicted. It shows that the SPH modelling approach could provide a very promising tool to predict the dynamic sediment scour process without the need to use the empirical sediment equations and thus it can complement the existing sediment prediction formulae based on the steady flow conditions.
Year: 2013