DC04: Towards a unified constitutive model for saturated granular fluids and solids

Doctoral Candidate

Shihui Yu

I am Shihui Yu, I am from China. I obtained my master’s degree from China University of Petroleum (Beijing), my major is Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering. I obtained my bachelor’s degree from the Yangtze University, my major is Offshore Oil and Gas Engineering. My master’s thesis is titled “Investigation of the Influence of Fracturing Fluid Leak-off on Shale Gas Recovery.”

I am currently working as DC04 on Towards a unified constitutive model for saturated granular fluids and solids at University of Twente. My supervisors are Prof. Stefan Luding, Prof.  Vanessa Magnanimo and Dr. Hongyang Cheng. My project focuses on improving the understanding and modeling of submarine landslides, particularly the transition from static to motion and back to static conditions in fluid-saturated sediments. We aim to enhance existing constitutive frameworks to better describe the behavior of saturated granular masses during these transitions. The ultimate goal is to develop a unified granular micromechanically based solid-fluid model.

Project Details

Host Institutions
University of Twente
Secondments

University of Liverpool
[3 months]
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute
[3 months]
State of the Art Engineering BV
[3 months]

Contact
Supervisors

Submarine landslides, from the mobilization to the transport of fluid-saturated sediments, involve the understanding and modeling of geomechanical processes at multiple length and time scales. This project aims to come up with a sensible model structure for a unified granular micromechanically based solid-fluid model.

Specific objectives:

  1. Understand the capabilities of fluid-solid models for granular media and their limitations to model the collapse of saturated granular flows;
  2. Study the complex transitions from static to motion and back using coarse grained fluid-DEM simulations;
  3. Implement the unified model in a continuum solver to accurately predict the runout distance of submarine landslide and compare the results with experimental data.

Expected Results:

  1. Assessment of the suitability of theoretical frameworks to describe solid-to-fluid (collapse) and fluid-to-solid (runout) transition in saturated granular masses;
  2. Micromechanical-based unified constitutive models that correctly capture these transitions;
  3. Comparison and validation via laboratory experiments.
This project has received funding from the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101120236
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