The sediDriftFoam is an open source solver using the OpenFOAM CFD library. It computes suspended particles in a fluid flow using and Eulerian approach. This means that the particles are computed as a concentration instead of following individual particles.
The current web page contains supplementary information for the article An OpenFOAM solver for computing suspended particles in water currents, by N. R. B. Olsen, S. Kadia, E. Pummer and G. Hillbrand. doi:10.2166/hydro.2023.309. The article was accepted to Journal of Hydroinformatics on the 31st of July 2023.
The solver has been tested on two cases:
1. A straight channel flume, 6.7 cm deep and 8 meters long, where concentrations of suspended plastic particles have been measured (Born et al, 2023).
2. Deposition of sand in a sand trap geometry from a flume study by Olsen and Skoglund (1994).
The figure below shows a longitudinal profiles of a channel with plastic particle concentrations.
Longitudinal profile with plastic concentrations. The flow direction is from left to right. The figure is distorted with a factor 10 in the vertical direction.
3D view of the sand trap with sand concentration and grid
Plastic concentrations in a laboratory flume
Sand deposition in a sand trap geometry
Born, M., Brull, C., Schaefer, D., Hillebrand, G. and Schuttrumpf, H. (2023) Determination of Microplastics vertical concentration transport (Rouse) profiles in flumes, Environmental Science and Technology, doi:10.1021/acs.est.2c06885.
Olsen, N. R. B. and Skoglund, M. (1994), Three-dimensional numerical modeling of water and sediment flow in a sand trap, Journal of Hydraulic Research, Vol. 32, No. 6,pp. 833-844.
Last updated 22. September 2023.