The response of granular soil to increasing hydraulic gradient through LBM-DEM coupling

Authors

Minh Nghi Phan, University of WollongongFollow
Buddhima Indraratna, University of WollongongFollow
Thanh Trung Nguyen, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

142562

Publication Details

Phan, M., Indraratna, B. & Nguyen, T. Trung. (2019). The response of granular soil to increasing hydraulic gradient through LBM-DEM coupling. Proceedings of the 9th Asian Young Geotechnical Engineers (9YGEC) (pp. 174-178).

Abstract

The migration of particles under the foundation due to increasing hydraulic flow, which causes instability of the foundation, is a significant issue over damp and transport engineering. Conventional experiment and analytical approaches can normally capture the macro-behaviors of soil such as soil settlement, hydraulic conductivity and erosion rate; however, it becomes challenging or impossible to observe the microscopic response between particle-particle and fluid-particle. Therefore, using numerical methods which can better capture the micro-behaviors of particles and fluid have received increasing attention in recent years. This paper uses the Discrete Element Method (DEM) to simulate particle behavior in coupling with the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) to describe the fluid dynamic variables. The results show a reasonable prediction of particle response and evolution in hydraulic properties while the hydraulic gradient is increasing.