SEEPAGE FLOW SIMULATION USING CFD-DEM MULTILAYER SPHERE MODEL

Abstract

 While seepage failure is an old engineering problem, numerical studies on seepage failure have been progressing in recent years with the improvement of computer performance. When discrete element method (DEM) is used to simulate this problem, the soil is usually represented by spherical particles larger than the actual soil particles to reduce the simulation cost. However, when the difference in shape and size between the DEM particles and the actual particles get larger, it becomes more difficult to simultaneously represent changes in the mechanical and hydraulic properties of the soil. In this study, a multilayer sphere model that can represent both the mechanical and hydraulic properties even when using relatively large DEM particles, was developed and its applicability to seepage failure simulation was confirmed through comparison with elemental experiments.