Quantification of hydrodynamic energy losses by particle transport in the inner boundary layer of suspension flows with high particle concentrations

The transport of non-buoyant particles by fluids happens at the cost
of kinetic energy of the flow or amplitude of surface waves. Until now,
this is treated in sediment transport models in a pragmatic way by
tuning the bottom friction coefficient. The present project aims at the
definition of physics-based modifications in the numerical models
used for sediment transport. This is done by the generation of extra
experimental data with a in-house developed high-resolution twophase
flow solver in OpenFOAM (Ouda & Toorman, 2019), validated
with real experimental data, followed by parameterization and
implementation in the large-scale modelling open-source framework
TELEMAC-TOMAWAC-GAIA, where the mesh resolution does not
allow to resolve waves and the inner boundary layer processes. The
large-scale model will be validated with available field and remote
sensing data for the Belgian Coast and the Scheldt Estuary. It is
expected that this explicit quantification of energy losses will
significantly improve the predictive capacity of sediment transport
models.