The Office of Graduate Administration is pleased to announce that Mohammadhassan Ahmadian will be defending their thesis/dissertation as a candidate for the degree Master of Science in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, Environmental Science.

You are encouraged to attend the defence. The details of the defence and how to attend are included below:

DATE: 10 April, 2024

TIME: 2:30 PM (PT)

DEFENCE MODE: HYBRID - In-person and Remotely via Zoom

In-Person Attendance: 5-140D, UNBC Prince George Campus

Virtual Attendance: Please contact the Office of Graduate Administration for information regarding remote/online attendance. 

To ensure the defence proceeds with no interruptions, please mute your audio and video on entry and do not inadvertently share your screen. The meeting will be locked to entry 5 minutes after it begins: ensure you are on time.

THESIS ENTITLED: SIMULATION OF IRREGULARLY SHAPED PARTICLES USING COUPLING METHOD OF LATTICE BOLTZMANN AND DISCRETE ELEMENT MODELLING

ABSTRACT: In this study, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and the discrete element method (DEM) are coupled to simulate the interaction between the fluid phase and irregularly shaped solid particles. For this purpose, the geometry of real particle shapes is represented as clumps of overlapping spheres and then simulated through a multi-sphere model in DEM and coupled with LBM using two open-access codes, LIGGGHTS and Palabos. The accuracy of the coupling method with clumps is demonstrated by simulating several benchmark cases and comparing them with the results from the literature. The coupled LBM-DEM method is then used to simulate the collapse and transport of submerged granular particles with four different irregular particle shapes in addition to sphere particle shapes to highlight the influence of grain morphology in the solid-fluid interaction. To the authors’ best knowledge, it is the first time that LIGGGHTS and Palabos were used to simulate the LBM-DEM coupling of irregular particles. This study demonstrates the potential and accuracy of LBM-DEM method in simulating particles with irregular shapes. The research also provides insight into the importance of considering real shape particles in simulating granular flows in geotechnical engineering.

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP:

Chair: Dr. Hossein Kazemian, University of Northern British Columbia

Examining Committee Members:

Supervisor: Dr. Wenbo Zheng, University of Northern British Columbia

Committee Member: Dr. Jueyi Sui, University of Northern British Columbia

Committee Member: Dr. Fan Jiang, University of Northern British Columbia

Committee Member: Dr. Sumi Siddiqua, University of British Columbia

External Examiner: Dr. Cheng Lin, University of Victoria