TECHNICAL INFORMATION ABOUT MODELLING CONCRETE WITH FIBERS WITH CFD-DEM APPROACH

Ivan_97

Good morning, i'm an Italian Ph.D. student and i'm studying the effects of fibers inside the concrete at its fresh state. 

I would like to make a CFD simulation of this Non-Newtonian fluid, which flows from a specific volume to another to fill it. Inside this initial volume are dispersed randomly a certain number of  steel fibers, which i would like to analyse with a DEM coupling approach (fibers are subjected to drag forces generated by the moving of the non-newtonian concrete) in order to obtain their orientation in this fluidodynamic study.
Could someone help me? This research could be very important to compare these results with my experimental studies.

Tayen_Aguilar_57

Hello Ivan, thank your comment. 

Non-Newtonian slurries like concrete are difficult to simulate as they sit between the area of dry/cohesive particles (which would require Altair's EDEM stand-alone) and particles fully immersed in a fluid with (Altair's EDEM-AcuSolve)

The EDEM team is developing a 'Bingham' model that aims to represent the non-Newtonian fluid-like interactions of the particles, if/when this is implemented then theoretically we'd be able to model the concrete flow and introduce some fiber-type particles in the flow, however, we have no release or implementation date for this. 

Currently, there is not much we can do, as coupling the CFD modeling with EDEM is not supported. 

We are sorry for the inconvenience,

Best regards, 

Tayen Aguilar 

Altair Support