PFEM–DEM for particle-laden flows with free surface

This work proposes a fully Lagrangian formulation for the numerical modeling of free-surface particle-laden flows. The fluid phase is solved using the particle finite element method (PFEM), while the solid particles embedded in the fluid are modeled with the discrete element method (DEM). The coupling between the implicit PFEM and the explicit DEM is performed through a sub-stepping staggered scheme. This work only considers suspended spherical particles that are assumed not to affect the fluid motion. Several tests are presented to validate the formulation. The PFEM–DEM results show very good agreement with analytical solutions, laboratory tests and numerical results from alternative numerical methods.