Numerical Simulation of Gravity Current Using SPH Method

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Researcher, School of Mathematical Sciences, Monash University, Australia

Abstract

The current induced by removing a gate separating two fluids of close densities is simulated using a developed Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) model. The simulation is performed for fluids with density ratios between 0.9 and 1.0. To develop the two-phase model, no significant changes are applied to the basic SPH formulations, regarding the low density difference between the two fluids. The classic SPH equations are used with a small change: the speed of sound and the reference density are changed in order to produce the same reference pressure for both phases. In addition, density re-initialization is applied for each phase separately. The resulted inviscid flow has characteristics very close to or the same as the experimental results. The flow depth and the flow front speed are two parameters selected to validate the simulations. The effects caused by the variations in the density differences to the phenomenon and effectiveness of the applied method are evaluated by performing a series of simulations of different density ratios and resolutions.

Keywords


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