Sand storms: CFD analysis of Reynolds stress and collision stress of particles near sand bed

Sand storm is a serious environmental threat to humans. Sand particles are transported by saltation and suspension, causing soil erosion in one place and deposition in another. In order to prevent and predict sand storms, the causes and the manners of particle motions must be studied in detail. In this paper a standard k–ɛ model is used for the gas phase simulation and the discrete element method (DEM) is used to predict the movements of particles using an in-house procedure. The data are summarized in an Eulerian–Eulerian regime after simulation to get the statistical particle Reynolds stress and particle collision stress. The results show that for the current case the Reynolds stress and the air shear stress predominate in the region 20–250 mm above the initial sand bed surface. However, in the region below 3 mm, the collision stress must be taken into account in predicting particle movement.