A Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) formulation and implementation of the classical two-phase mixture model are reported, with a particular focus on the turbulent sediment transport and the sediment disturbances generated by moving equipment operating near or on the seabed. In the mixture model, the fluid-particle system is considered to be an equivalent medium whose evolution is described by a set of equations for the mixture continuity and momentum conservation, with the particle volume fraction being tracked by a transport equation. The governing equations are adapted to a Lagrangian, weakly-compressible SPH framework, the turbulence is modeled by a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes approach, and adaptive boundary conditions for shear stress and turbulent quantities are implemented to account for laminar or turbulent local flow conditions. The complex rheological behavior of clay sediment/water mixtures is modeled using a volume fraction, shear rate-dependent viscosity which accounts for the existence of a yield stress. Hence, the proposed work encompasses several challenging modeling aspects: turbulence, non-Newtonian fluid behavior, sediment transport, and fluid-structure interactions. It is then illustrated on diverse cases of interest: a fluid-particle mixture column release, its subsequent turbulent transport and return to a hydrostatic equilibrium, the settling of particle clouds and two cases of particle-driven gravity currents, and their comparisons with available results. Finally, SPH simulation results for the disturbance of a bed of clay sediment/water mixture induced by a moving plate are reported and compared with experiments performed in our laboratory. The proposed SPH two-phase mixture model agrees well with the existing results considered in this study.

Ocean-scale sediment dispersion and sedimentation problems are studied using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). A SPH formulation based on a mixture model for two-phase flows is developed to investigate the problem. The sediment mass transport via the settling advection and the turbulent diffusion of the suspended sediment are fully accounted for in the current SPH model. The simulations are carried out in an opened boundary domain with a unidirectional underlined current, with relevant deposition/re-suspension boundary conditions on the seafloor. The factors influencing the sedimentation process, such as the hindering and the bottom shear stress effects, are also considered. The simulation results reveal that the sediment convection near the sediment source location is caused by both the ocean current and secondary density driven flows that are created by the concurrent settling motion of suspended sediment particles, while the downstream sediment transport in the far field is only driven by the ocean current. The peak sediment concentration in the ambient ocean water is found to correlate with the sediment release rate, and the settlement rate is inversely proportional to the initial height of the disturbed sediment.

Technical activities on seafloor for harvesting polymetallic nodules result in a displacement of a large amount of sediment, which is convected away from the site by the underlying currents and turbulent diffusion, with a possible impact on the benthic communities living in the neighborhood. To better understand the dispersion mechanism of the resuspended sediment, a smoothed particle hydrodynamics technique augmented by a message passing interface parallel algorithm to address the intensive demand on the three-dimensional simulations is developed. Our numerical results show that the resuspended sediment would occupy a downstream area extending to about 5 km, for a nominal current speed of 5 cm/s. The evolution of the sediment plume occurs mainly along the current direction, while the turbulent diffusion disperses the sediment laterally. Coarse sediment particles are found to return to the seafloor fairly quickly after being resuspended, while fine particles are more persistent in the suspended state and travel much further downstream. In 900 tons of sediment resuspended for 18 h, 318 tons have returned to the bottom at the end of the simulation period. The majority of the deposited sediment is composed of coarse sediment particles (d > 60 μm), and almost half of the deposited sediment is distributed within the harvesting region. The sediment deposition rate reaches up to 48% of the resuspension rate and is still rising after 18 h. The horizontal turbulent diffusivity, which is supposed to be weak at the ocean bottom, does not have any obvious influence on the dispersion of the resuspended sediment; it only slightly reduces the deposition rate.

The motion of a flexible elastic plate under wave action is simulated, and the well–known phenomena of overwash is investigated. The fluid motion is modelled by smoothed particle hydrodynamics, a mesh-free solution method which, while computationally demanding, is flexible and able to simulate complex fluid flows. The freely floating plate is modelled using linear thin plate elasticity plus the nonlinear rigid body motions. This assumption limits the elastic plate motion to be small but is valid for many cases both in geophysics and in the laboratory. The principal conclusion is that the inclusion of flexural motion causes significantly less overwash than that which occurs for a rigid plate.

Ceramic membranes are currently favourable in membrane filtration applications due to their excellent mechanical strength, thermal and chemical resistance, backflush capability, and thus a long-service cycle. Coated on top of a mesoporous support, the selective top layer of ultrafiltration ceramic membranes has pore size not exceeding a few tens of nanometers and thickness in the order of $\text{O}\left(\right.10\mu \text{m}\left)\right.$ . In fact, the permeability of an ultrafiltration ceramic membrane can be estimated by the permeability of the top layer due to its smallest pore size. Without impairing the filtration function but still improving the permeability, a gradient conical pore shape is proposed. Two formulae for the filtrate flow rate versus pressure drop relationship through a conical pore exhibiting surface slippage are established here by extending the Hagen-Poiseuille law and an analytical solution for the axisymmetric creeping flow. It is analytically proved that the surface slip length in a conical flow is proportional to a local pore radius by a slip coefficient that is unique for a given pore configuration at a prescribed flow rate. The permeability of a conical-pore membrane is enhanced for radius ratio not exceeding 6.5. The optimum configuration, achieved at a ratio of 2.3, produces an enhancement factor for a membrane permeability of 1.5 for a no-slip surface; this enhancement increases linearly with the slip coefficient if a surface slippage exists.