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Price, M. C.; Conway, S. J.; Towner, M. C. and Burchell, M. J.
(2011).
URL: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2011/pdf/1771...
Abstract
We explore the possibility of using ANSYS’ CFX computational fluid dynamics software to model the flow of water down beds of fine sand (median diameter, d, of 230 μm), medium sand (d=614 μm) and crushed rock (d=1.86 mm) at both Earth and Mars ambient temperatures (293K and 253K respectively) and atmospheric pressures (1000 mbar and 7 mbar respectively). The aim of the project is twofold; firstly to test the applicability of CFX (and eventually FLUENT) for modelling such systems, and secondly using it to gain insight into observed Martian flow features, such as kilometre-scale gullies by scaling up the model. Refinement of the modelling is ongoing and is being validated against a well characterised set of lab-scale experiments which demonstrated that the flow runout length increases with decreasing pressure and temperature due to the freezing of the water at the base of the flow. This effectively decreases the permeability of the granular bed. Careful comparison of modelled to experimental results is giving us confidence in the model parameters and the robustness of the physics built into CFX. The aim is to extend the model to include the effect of reduced Martian gravity, phase changes (boiling, sublimation and freezing of the water) and grain size of the sand.
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