Public defence in Civil Engineering, M.Sc.Seyedmohammadjavad Seyedan

Creating a tool for modelling granular flows 

Granular materials like sand, seed, gravel and rice are everywhere. A body of granular materials usually consists of numerous grains of different sizes and shapes. Under the right conditions, these grains can sustain shear stress like a solid, move like a liquid, or randomly hit each other like gas particles. The movements of granular materials are common in nature, for example, movements of sediments in rivers, sands in deserts, and snow in the mountains. These movements can cause slope instability, resulting in landslides and sediment flows which endanger people in these areas and cause significant infrastructure damages and economic losses.

Numerical modelling creates the possibility of predicting the movements of granular flows. These predictions can help improve the safety of infrastructures and optimise the design of protective structures against avalanches.

This doctoral research created a tool for modelling granular flows. The tool enables engineers and researchers to replicate granular flow movement with reasonable computational costs and simple constitutive models. The thesis modifies the continuum mechanic-based material point method, employs simple constitutive models and enhances them for capturing the behaviour of different stages of granular flows. The results of this tool are considerably more realistic compared to other material point method formulations.

Opponent: PhD Philip Vardon, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

Custos: Professor Wojciech Solowski, Aalto University School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering

Contact information of the doctoral student: Seyedmohammadjavad Seyedan, [email protected]

The public defence will be organised on campus (auditorium M1, Otakaari 1).

The thesis is publicly displayed 10 days before the defence in the publication archive Aaltodoc of Aalto University.

Electronic thesis