Type
PhD Research
Duration
2021-2025
Persons involved
ir. X. Wang (PhD candidate)
prof.dr. K.M. Wijnberg (Promoter)
dr.ir. G.H.P. Campmans (Daily supervisor)
dr. T. Weinhart (Daily supervisor)
prof.dr. S. Luding (Advisor)
prof.dr. A.R. Thornton (Advisor)
Funding of the project
SectorPlan
Summary of the research
This project is in collaboration between the Marine and Fluvial System group and the Multiscale Mechanics group, part of Mechanical Engineering to explore a new angle to the challenging problem of predictively modelling of coastal wind-driven sand dynamics.
Worldwide, coastal dunes protect coastal areas against flooding and consist of essentially just loose sand. To better understand and predict the large-scale natural dynamics, it is important to gain fundamental knowledge on the micro-scale processes of the sand grains that are being moved by air flow. The aim of the PhD project is to gain knowledge on wind-driven sand transport on the granular scale, and to translate this knowledge into macroscopic sediment transport model. An upscaling technique will be applied to provide information for modelling large-scale sediment transport in coastal engineering practice.
Wind-driven, or Aeolian, sand transport in coastal environments strongly depends on the environmental conditions. Next to wind and sediment properties the moisture level of sand turns out to have a particularly large role in wind-driven sediment transport. Therefore, one of the important goals in this research will be to include a liquid bridge model between the individual sediment grains and to investigate the moisture effects on wind-driven sediment transport.
The main research methodology in this project is numerical modeling of granular material interacting with the air flow. Besides, field visit on the Dutch beach is also included for a better understanding and the validation work of the numerical model.
Keywords
Aeolian sediment transport; Sand dynamics; Moisture content; Discrete element modelling
More information
Xiuqi Wang
Room Horst Ring W207
Tel. +31534897134
E-mail x.wang-8@utwente.nl