Flocculation is a special phenomenon for fine sediment or silt in reservoirs and estuaries. Flocculation usually results in changes of size, morphology, and settling velocity of sediment particles and finally changes of bed topography of reservoirs and estuaries. The process of flocculation and sedimentation was simulated based on population balance modeling (PBM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD); the changes of particle or floc size and their settling velocities over time were examined. The results showed that flocculation is a dynamic and nonlinear process containing aggregation, breakage, reaggregation, and rebreakage between particles, microflocs, and macroflocs. Furthermore, the visual process of flocculation and sedimentation was directly created by the simulation results and is in good agreement with the results of the previous experiments.

Turbulence is a key feature of solid-liquid two-phase flows, and the pulsating velocity is the basis for calculating turbulence characteristics. In general, the method of mathematical expectation is used to calculate pulsating velocity. However, this method does not reflect the fluctuating state of the instantaneous velocity. Therefore, the method of extreme-point symmetric mode decomposition (ESMD) is adopted to calculate pulsating velocity and turbulence characteristics. The ESMD involves two stages, namely, modal decomposition and time-frequency analysis. The optimal adaptive global mean (AGM), which is the result of modal decomposition, can accurately reflect the fluctuation state of the instantaneous velocity, and the theory of the pulsating velocity defined on this basis is reasonable. Moreover, the flow pattern and turbulence behaviour of a two-phase flow can be predicted using the calculated turbulence characteristics. The method is used to analyse the pulsating velocity of the flume, and its rationality in theoretically predicting the turbulence behaviour of flume flows is demonstrated.