Accelerating Coupled DEM-CFD Simulations

We report on an augmentation for the synthesis of the Discrete Element Method (DEM) modelling the behaviour of granular materials and a finite volume model for the continuous interstitial fluid using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). DEM captures the physics of granular materials best but is computationally time-consuming. For this reason, the DEM is complemented by a Discrete Phase Model (DPM) for disperse granular flow in order to accelerate the overall simulation. Both DEM and DPM are applied within one simulation by using spatial domain decomposition. We also demonstrate the validity of our approach. The implementation of the code permits fully parallel simulations for all three models.