Development of Moving-particle Semi-implicit Method (MPS) in Simulation of Granular flow

Rapid sediment motion, which is usually induced by highly erosive and transient flow (e.g. in rivers), is commonly encountered in hydro-environmental problems. Dam-break flow on erodible bed, landslide, failure of river banks and reservoir sediment flushing are few examples of these problems. Accurate prediction of the complexities involved in this water-sediment two-phase system (a multiphase granular flow) is challenging for many conventional mesh-based models. Due to their ability to handle the fragmentation and deformations of interfaces, the mesh-free particle/Lagrangian methods provide a unique opportunity to handle such complexities. The objective of this paper is to develop and implement a multiphase mesh-free model, based on Moving Particle Semi-Implicit (MPS) method, for simulation of rapid sediments transport. The model considers the sediment material as a non-Newtonian viscoplastic fluid whose behaviors is predicted using an exponentially-regularized Herschel-Bulkley (H-B) rheological model. MPS method has some fluctuations non-physical pressure associated. Such fluctuations (though small) can induce some non-physical vibrations and yield criteria for granular flows will be affected. In some recent SPH and MPS studies the use of hydrostatic pressure have been proposed for cases where vertical accelerations are negligible. In cases with significant vertical acceleration, the hydrostatic pressure is not applicable. In this study, by using a smoothed thermodynamic pressure instead of hydrostatic pressure, an improved granular flow simulation is achieved. Two test cases including: dry sediment collapse and mobile-bed dam-break are modeled and compared with experimental results. Results show that sedimentation processes are well-reproduced by the developed model and numerical results show good agreement with laboratory measurements.