Sediment Transport Mechanics
Oral
Yashar Rafati, PhD Student
Research Assistant
University of Delaware
Zhen Cheng, PhD
Postdoc investigator
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Xiao Yu, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Florida
Onshore/offshore sediment transport in the nearshore is often associated with flow skewness causing the so-called sheet flow transport regime. The open-source solver CFDEM that couples fluid solver (OpenFOAM) with discrete element method solver (LIGGGGHTS) was extended for sheet flow transport of coarse sand under skewed oscillatory flows. Comprehensive simulations with wide grain distributions and a range of flow skewness were performed. Furthermore, time-averaged transport rates were compared with the predictions from practical sand transport formula. Results showed that wide grain size distribution causes 10-40% increase in onshore transport rate depending on flow skewness and intensity.