Thesis supervisor: Balázs Havasi-Tóth
Location of studies (in Hungarian): BME Department of Fluid Mechanics Abbreviation of location of studies: ÁT
Description of the research topic:
a.) Preliminaries:
In engineering and geological processes, we frequently encounter the transport, collisions and morphological evolution phenomena of sedimentary particles of various sizes and masses induced by fluid flows. In geological material transports, the particle morphology resulting from the collision, abrasion, and fragmentation of particles provide useful information about their long history and helps to understand the prevailing past conditions at geographical sites. The morphological development of sedimentary particles has been a subject of study for a long time, yet due to its high degree of complexity, it remains an actively researched area to this day.
b.) Aim of research:
There is no widely accepted explanation for the collective morphological development of sedimentary particles or the formation of dominant morphological characteristics observed in nature. The currently known morphological development models attribute various aspects of the process to geometric and solid mechanics problems, while the effects of the flow driving the transport process and the presence of water are poorly understood. Our goal is to extend the already established dry abrasion experiments and morphological development models to consider the presence of the flow field and the liquid medium.
c.) Tasks, main items, necessary time:
The tasks listed below can be partially conducted simultaneously:
1. Literature review related to morphological development observed in geological and engineering processes, laboratory experiments, field sampling results, and mathematical models (1 year).
2. Experimental or possibly numerical investigation, modeling, and model development of solid bodies colliding in a liquid medium (0.5 year).
3. Numerical investigation of collisional statistics of sedimentary particles of identical or varying sizes placed in flow, which are difficult to study experimentally (0.5 year).
4. Conducting abrasion experiments, tracking morphological development, and comparing the predicted evolution by numerical and analytical models (0.5 year).
5. Writing publications (1 year).
6. Summarizing results and writing the doctoral dissertation (0.5 year).
c.) Required equipment:
A suitable computer for numerical model investigations, as well as equipment provided by the HUN-REN-BME Morphodynamics research group for dry and wet abrasion experiments, along with 3D scanners to measure morphological development are available. Additionally, open-source software for constructing coupled numerical models is also accessible.
d.) Expected scientific results:
A deeper understanding of the morphological development of particles induced in fluid flows, including the effects of water presence and water flow on morphological evolution. The fluid and solid mechanics knowledge acquired during the research can be applied to flow processes involving solid bodies in engineering fields such as granular material transport and abrasive cleaning.
f.) References:
[1] Havasi-Tóth, B. (2020). Nauticle: A general-purpose particle-based simulation tool. Computer Physics Communications, 246, 106855.
[2] Havasi-Tóth, B. (2020). Particle coalescing with angular momentum conservation in SPH simulations. Computers & Fluids, 197, 104384.
[3] Fehér, E., Havasi-Tóth, B., & Ludmány, B. (2023). Fully spherical 3D datasets on sedimentary particles: Fast measurement and evaluation. Central European Geology, 65(2), 111-121.
[4] Balázs Havasi-Tóth, Eszter Fehér. Resolving the evolution of natural fragment shapes. (Under review. Submitted to the journal Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (October 2023))
[5] Balázs Havasi-Tóth. Can repeller dynamics explain dominant pebble axis ratios? (Under review. Submitted to the journal Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (December 2023))
Required language skills: English Number of students who can be accepted: 1
Login
