CFD-DEM based numerical simulation of liquid-gas-particle mixture flow in dam break

This study investigates the multiphase flow of a liquid-gas-particle mixture in dam break. The open source codes, OpenFOAM and CFDEMproject, were used to reproduce the multiphase flow. The results of the present study are compared with those of previous results obtained by numerical and experimental methods, which guarantees validity of present numerical method to handle the multiphase flow. The particle density ranging from 1100 to 2500 kg/m3 is considered to investigate the effect of the particle density on the behavior of the free-surface and the particles. The particle density has no effect on the liquid front, but it makes the particle front move with different velocity. The time when the liquid front reach at the opposite wall is independent of particle density. However, such time for particle front decrease as particle density increases, which turned out to be proportional to particle density. Based on these results, we classified characteristics of the movement by the front positions of the liquid and the particles. Eventually, the response of the free-surface and particles to particle density is identified by three motion regimes of the advancing, overlapping and delaying motions.