LAUSR

Abstract The transformation of energy is an intrinsic process that is needed to trigger the internal erosion of soils subjected to a fluid flow, but how to capture this process is not understood very well. This is why this study aims to address these complex processes through a numerical fluid-particle coupling simulation. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to model fluid flows which is coupled with the discrete element method (DEM) employed to simulate soil particles. Detailed migration of particles and fluid variables are recorded to enable their kinetic energy to be computed. Successful experiments are used to demonstrate how the numerical method can be used to model the internal erosion associated with energy computation. This study shows a good agreement between the numerical and experimental results in terms of the hydraulic conductivity and erosion rate of soils subjected to upward flows. A significant loss in energy is also found as fluid flows through the soil whereas only a small amount of kinetic energy is needed to make particles migrate at a considerable degree. The influence that the porosity and uniformity of soils has on the transformation of energy is also discussed in the paper.