The transport of solid particles in saturated porous material, subject to fluid flow occurs in natural environment and specifically in civil engineering. These solids can clog the pores of the porous material and therefore reduce its permeability or otherwise separate from the porous material and cause internal erosion. Thus, this work aims to study mechanisms of particle transport at the scale of the grains of the porous material and in the presence of incompressible fluid flow. This work is performed primarily by computations using the coupling between two codes: PFC3D for granular matrix and CFD-FINAS for fluid flow. Visualization experiments were used to validate the DEM-CFD numerical coupling (Distinct Element Method-Computational Fluid Dynamics). The numerical and experimental studies show the influence of particles on the fluid velocity field. These particles move to set in motion the fluid which in turn accelerates the filtration. Then the study of the particle-fluid interactions leads us to build a correlation of the drag force in function of porosity. Using Darcy's law, this correlation leads to a useful equation which can predict the permeability in function of the porosity. The work is extended to study the filtration of solid particles in a random packing of spheres. The analysis of the results shows areas of blockage developing in the porous medium. The extent of clogging leading to reduction of the permeability is analyzed in terms of different combinations of the dominant forces which are the gravity force and the viscous force. Distribution curves of the particles in the medium are found.
