A fully resolved SPH-DEM method for heterogeneous suspensions with arbitrary particle shape

Abstract

The study on fluid-solid interaction in heterogeneous suspensions is essential for theoretical research and engineering practice. In this paper, a three-dimensional fully resolved SPH-DEM method is presented to model suspensions with non-Newtonian fluids and solid particles of arbitrary shape. The fluid phase is modelled using SPH with a regularized Bingham model, whereas aggregates with irregular shapes is modelled using a DEM method based on surface mesh representation. A simple unified hybrid contact method is proposed to model the SPH-boundary, SPH-DEM, DEM-DEM, and DEM-boundary interactions in a generalized fashion. Furthermore, GPU parallelization is employed to increase the numerical efficiency. The coupling method is validated using numerical examples including: (1) water-entry of a sphere, (2) Poiseuille flow of a Bingham material, (3) collapse of columns of irregular particles, and (4) gravity-driven heterogeneous flows with irregular particle shape. The simulation results indicate that the presented method is suitable for heterogeneous flows with irregular solid particles.