Sediment transport modeling using CFD
Sediment Transport Modeling using Computational Fluid Dynamics
Background
- Project: High-fidelity CFD modeling of sediment dynamics in open channel flows with marine hydrokinetic turbines
- Understanding sediment transport mechanisms is crucial for predicting environmental impacts, bed morphology changes, and long-term sustainability of MHK installations in riverine and coastal environments.
- Key physics concepts: sediment transport, bed load and suspended load dynamics, erosion and deposition processes, multiphase flows, and morphodynamics.
Issues
- Accurate modeling of complex sediment-turbine interactions in natural waterway environments.
- Coupling of fluid dynamics with sediment transport physics in turbulent flows around MHK devices.
- Prediction of bed morphology evolution and scour patterns around turbine foundations.
- Assessment of environmental impact on aquatic ecosystems due to sediment redistribution.
- Development of sustainable turbine placement strategies to minimize sediment-related operational issues.
Contributions to the project
- Implementation of coupled fluid-sediment transport models using Eulerian-Lagrangian approaches.
- Development of high-resolution CFD simulations for meandering river flows with MHK turbine arrays.
- Analysis of sediment deposition and erosion patterns around turbine installations.
- Investigation of different sediment grain sizes and their transport mechanisms in turbulent wakes.
Sediment transport modeling using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) for MHK turbines and large scale meandering rivers.
Technical environment
- Computing: High-performance computing clusters with parallel processing
- Programming: Python, C/C++, MATLAB, Bash
- Data & GIS: QGIS, Cloud Compare
- CFD Software: VFS Geophysics
- Meshing: Fidelity Pointwise, MeshLab, Cloud Compare, Blender
- Visualization: ParaView, Tecplot, MATLAB, Photoshop, Blender, InkSkape
- Data Analysis: Python scientific libraries, MATLAB
This research advances the understanding of sediment dynamics in marine energy systems, contributing to environmentally sustainable MHK turbine deployment and long-term operational efficiency in natural waterway environments.
This research advances the understanding of sediment dynamics in marine energy systems, contributing to environmentally sustainable MHK turbine deployment and long-term operational efficiency in natural waterway environments.