A SPH APPLICATION TO GRANULAR FLOWS

Preliminary results obtained from the application of SPH for simulating granular flows are presented in the paper. A constitutive equation for a visco-plastic fluid with a pressure dependent yield stress has been employed for simulating the granular material using SPH. The proposed model, taking advantage of well known SPH abilities, can be used to model flows of incoherent granular material with a free surface. The model also represents a first step towards an alternative approach to sediment transport in natural and artificial channels: an extension of the model to multiphase flows might indeed be able to reproduce such phenomena. A first test for the model has been made by reproducing a granular material collapse in which a sand column initially contained inside a cylindrical shaped container, was suddenly released. Numerical results showed a good agreement with existing experimental data.