Multi Scale Modeling for Granular Flows

A numerical method has been developed to predict granular flows. This work involves the combination of the Discrete Element Method (DEM) to describe the discrete flow of the granular solids and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to describe the continuum flow of the interstitial fluid. The numerical models can satisfactorily describe granular materials for all flow regimes, quantify fluid-particle and particle-particle interactions and their effects on the granular materials via detailed micro-dynamic analysis and finally provide the macroscopic continuum equations with constitutive equations such as stress, strain and other physical quantities describing the state of the system based on a newly developed micro-macro averaging procedure.