Title :
Modelling sand transport under waves using a two-phase flow approach
Location :
LEGI - Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels - Grenoble, France
Supervisors :
Antoine MATHIEU
Julien CHAUCHAT
Cyrille BONAMY
Period :
February to July 2021 – 5 to 6 months
Description :
Understanding the different mechanisms that lead to the mobilization, suspension, transport and deposition of sediments is essential for predicting the morphological evolution of sandy beaches. This is especially important in the context of climate change with increased storms frequencies and intensities which threatens coastal zones. The goal of this master project is to validate a turbulence-averaged (RANS) two-phase flow model, sedFoam (Chauchat et al., 2017), developed in the open-source CFD toolbox OpenFOAM. From a scientific point of view the key question is to better understand the physical mechanisms associated with sand transport under symmetric and asymmetric waves. In particular, experimental data from O’Donoghue and Wright (2002) and results from two-phase Large Eddy Simulations (LES) will be used to better understand the so-called phase-lag effect for fine-sand which is responsible for off-shore net transport.
Profile :
Preparing a master or equivalent in fluid mechanics, hydraulics, geophysics or environment, The candidate should have a good knowledge in fluid mechanics, CFD, scientific programing (python) and should be familiar with Linux environment. A good level in English is mandatory.