New Paper Published in Aeolian Research
Published:
Our new paper “Coupled simulation of airflow and sand surface evolution around a bluff body: Dynamic-mesh CFD analysis with wind tunnel validation” has been published in Aeolian Research.
Zitao Jiang, Jun Ikarashi, Yoshihide Tominaga
Aeolian Research, Vol. 77, 101083, 2026
Free access until November 1, 2026
Elsevier has provided a 50-day free-access Share Link for this article. Anyone can access the final published version on ScienceDirect through the link below until November 1, 2026, with no registration or fees required.
Wind-blown sand can cause erosion and deposition around buildings and infrastructure, creating serious problems in coastal and desert regions. Predicting these processes is challenging because airflow affects sand surface deformation, while the evolving sand surface simultaneously modifies the surrounding airflow.
In this study, we developed a dynamic-mesh CFD framework to simulate this two-way interaction. The sand surface is continuously updated according to predicted erosion and deposition, allowing changes in surface morphology to feed back into the airflow and near-surface shear stress.
The numerical predictions were validated against wind tunnel experiments, in which three-dimensional sand surface deformation around bluff bodies was measured using photogrammetry. Three configurations were examined: a cube at wind directions of 0° and 45°, and a circular cylinder.
Compared with a conventional static approach, where sand deformation is calculated from a fixed initial flow field, the dynamic-mesh approach generally reproduced wider erosion zones and smoother surface transitions, showing closer agreement with the experimental observations.
The results demonstrate the importance of considering morphodynamic feedback between airflow and surface evolution when predicting wind-induced erosion and deposition.
This study was conducted in collaboration with Jun Ikarashi and Prof. Yoshihide Tominaga of Niigata Institute of Technology.
Our research continues to combine CFD simulations and wind tunnel experiments to better understand coupled airflow and environmental processes in the built environment.