A fully Lagrangian DEM-MPS mesh-free model for ice-wave dynamics

Abstract: This paper develops and evaluates a novel 3D fully-Lagrangian (particle-based) numerical model, based on the hybrid discrete element method (DEM) and moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) mesh-free techniques, for modeling the highly-dynamic ice-wave interactions. Both MPS and DEM belong to mesh-free Lagrangian (particle) techniques. The model considers ice-wave dynamics as a multiphase continuum-discrete system. While the MPS solves the continuum equations of free-surface flow in a Lagrangian particle-based domain, the DEM uses a multi-sphere Hertzian contact dynamic model to simulate the ice floes motion and interaction. The hybrid model predicts the motion and collision of ice floes as well as their interaction with water, boundaries, and any obstacle in their way. Considering the mesh-free Lagrangian nature of both DEM and MPS, the developed model has an inherent ability to predict the free-drift (absence of internal stress) movements of the ice floes, e.g., sliding, rolling, colliding, and piling-up, in violent free-surface flow. A small-scale and challenging experiment based on dam-break flow over dry and wet beds with floating block floes, which mimics the characteristics of an idealized jam release, has been conducted to provide useful and comprehensive quality data for the validation of the proposed model, as well as other numerical models. Experimental and numerical results of the free-surface profile and the position of the blocks are compared. The results show the ability of the model to numerically reproduce and predict the complex three-dimensional dynamic behavior of wave-ice floes interaction. Overall, this study is a first effort toward developing an ice-wave dynamics within a fully Lagrangian framework, and its results can be extended to bring an in-depth understanding of the physics of the real-scale ice-wave or river ice dynamic problems in the future.