Discrete particle simulation of mixed sand transport

An Eulerian/Lagrangian numerical simulation is performed on mixed sand transport. Volume averaged Navier–Stokes equations are solved to calculate gas motion, and particle motion is calculated using Newton's equation, involving a hard sphere model to describe particle-to-particle and particle-to-wall collisions. The influence of wall characteristics, size distribution of sand particles and boundary layer depth on vertical distribution of sand mass flux and particle mean horizontal velocity is analyzed, suggesting that all these three factors affect sand transport at different levels. In all cases, for small size groups, sand mass flux first increases with height and then decreases while for large size groups, it decreases exponentially with height and for middle size groups the behavior is in-between. The mean horizontal velocity for all size groups well fits experimental data, that is, increasing logarithmically with height in the middle height region. Wall characteristics greatly affects particle to wall collision and makes the flat bed similar to a Gobi surface and the rough bed similar to a sandy surface. Particle size distribution largely affects the sand mass flux and the highest heights they can reach especially for larger particles.