The discrete element method with deformable particles

This work presents a new original formulation of the discrete element method (DEM) with deformable cylindrical particles. Uniform stress and strain fields are assumed to be induced in the particles under the action of contact forces. Particle deformation obtained by strain integration is taken into account in the evaluation of interparticle contact forces. The deformability of a particle yields a nonlocal contact model, it leads to the formation of new contacts, it changes the distribution of contact forces in the particle assembly, and it affects the macroscopic response of the particulate material. A numerical algorithm for the deformable DEM (DDEM) has been developed and implemented in the DEM program DEMPack. The new formulation implies only small modifications of the standard DEM algorithm. The DDEM algorithm has been verified on simple examples of an unconfined uniaxial compression of a rectangular specimen discretized with regularly spaced equal bonded particles and a square specimen represented with an irregular configuration of nonuniform‐sized bonded particles. The numerical results have been verified by a comparison with equivalent finite element method results and available analytical solutions. The micro‐macro relationships for elastic parameters have been obtained. The results have proved to have enhanced the modeling capabilities of the DDEM with respect to the standard DEM.     

Critical time step for DEM simulations of dynamic systems using a Hertzian contact model

The discrete element method (DEM) typically uses an explicit numerical integration scheme to solve the equations of motion. However, like all explicit schemes, the scheme is only conditionally stable, with the stability determined by the size of the time step. Currently, there are no comprehensive techniques for estimating appropriate DEM time steps when a nonlinear contact interaction is used. It is common practice to apply a large factor of safety to these estimates to ensure stability, which unnecessarily increases the computational cost of these simulations. This work introduces an alternative framework for selecting a stable time step for nonlinear contact laws, specifically for the Hertz-Mindlin contact law. This approach uses the fact that the discretised equations of motion take the form of a nonlinear map and can be analysed as such. Using this framework, we analyse the effects of both system damping and the initial relative velocity of collision on the critical time step for a Hertz-Mindlin contact event between spherical particles.     

Digital element approach for simulating impact and penetration of textiles

A micro-scale computational tool, based upon an explicit digital element method (DEM), has been developed for numerical simulation of ballistic impact and penetration of textile fabrics. In this approach, each yarn is digitized as an assembly of digital fibers. Each digital fiber is further digitized into a short digital rod element chain connected by frictionless pins (nodes). A search is conducted to find contacts between adjacent digital fibers. If a contact is detected, compressive and frictional forces between fibers will be determined, based upon contact stiffness and friction coefficient. Nodal forces are calculated for each time step. Nodal displacements are determined using an explicit procedure. Because the digital element approach operates on a sub-yarn micro-scale, one can determine textile penetration resistance based upon sub-yarn scale properties, such as inter-fiber compression, friction, and fiber strength. Research presented in this paper includes three parts. First, the explicit digital element algorithm used in dynamic simulation is explained. Second, the approach is used to generate 2-D woven fabric micro-geometries and to simulate ballistic penetration processes. Third, numerical results are compared to high resolution experimental impact and ballistic test data.     

A hybrid material-point spheropolygon-element method for solid and granular material interaction

Capturing the interaction between objects that have an extreme difference in Young's modulus or geometrical scale is a highly challenging topic for numerical simulation. One of the fundamental questions is how to build an accurate multiscale method with optimal computational efficiency. In this work, we develop a material-point-spheropolygon discrete element method (MPM-SDEM). Our approach fully couples the material point method (MPM) and the spheropolygon discrete element method (SDEM) through the exchange of contact force information. It combines the advantage of MPM for accurately simulating elastoplastic continuum materials and the high efficiency of DEM for calculating the Newtonian dynamics of discrete near-rigid objects. The MPM-SDEM framework is demonstrated with an explicit time integration scheme. Its accuracy and efficiency are further analyzed against the analytical and experimental data. Results demonstrate this method could accurately capture the contact force and momentum exchange between materials while maintaining favorable computational stability and efficiency. Our framework exhibits great potential in the analysis of multi-scale, multi-physics phenomena.     

Asynchronous collision integrators: Explicit treatment of unilateral contact with friction and nodal restraints

This article presents asynchronous collision integrators and a simple asynchronous method treating nodal restraints. Asynchronous discretizations allow individual time step sizes for each spatial region, improving the efficiency of explicit time stepping for finite element meshes with heterogeneous element sizes. The article first introduces asynchronous variational integration being expressed by drift and kick operators. Linear nodal restraint conditions are solved by a simple projection of the forces that is shown to be equivalent to RATTLE. Unilateral contact is solved by an asynchronous variant of decomposition contact response. Therein, velocities are modified avoiding penetrations. Although decomposition contact response is solving a large system of linear equations (being critical for the numerical efficiency of explicit time stepping schemes) and is needing special treatment regarding overconstraint and linear dependency of the contact constraints (for example from double‐sided node‐to‐surface contact or self‐contact), the asynchronous strategy handles these situations efficiently and robust. Only a single constraint involving a very small number of degrees of freedom is considered at once leading to a very efficient solution. The treatment of friction is exemplified for the Coulomb model. Special care needs the contact of nodes that are subject to restraints. Together with the aforementioned projection for restraints, a novel efficient solution scheme can be presented. The collision integrator does not influence the critical time step. Hence, the time step can be chosen independently from the underlying time‐stepping scheme. The time step may be fixed or time‐adaptive. New demands on global collision detection are discussed exemplified by position codes and node‐to‐segment integration. Numerical examples illustrate convergence and efficiency of the new contact algorithm. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

饱和两相介质近场波动问题的一种时域全显式数值计算方法

基于u-p形式的饱和两相介质弹性波动方程,开展了饱和两相介质近场波动问题时域显式数值计算方法的研究。通过对波动方程中的质量矩阵和孔隙流体压缩矩阵进行对角化处理,消除了方程中的动力耦联,实现了波动方程的解耦。分别应用中心差分法和Newmark常平均加速度法求解固相位移和速度,基于向后差分法求解孔隙流体压力,推导得到了饱和两相介质动力响应的时域显式逐步积分的计算列式,建立了饱和两相介质近场波动问题的一种新的时域全显式数值计算方法。进行了该文方法中矩阵对角化合理性的验证。将该方法的数值解与相应的解析解进行对比,二者符合良好,验证了该方法的正确性。将该文建立的时域数值计算方法与透射人工边界方法相结合,应用于饱和两相介质的近场波动问题,进行了饱和土场地地震响应的计算研究,计算结果符合弹性波动理论的基本规律,表明该方法对于饱和两相介质近场波动问题时域计算求解的适用性。基于该方法中时域递推计算格式的传递矩阵,进行了该方法稳定性特性的研究。该文建立的数值计算方法具有时域全显式算法的基本特征。方法中对动力响应的全部分量均采用递推和迭代的模式进行求解,避免了求解耦联的动力方程组。该方法具有较高的计算效率,...     

改进迭代过程的车轨耦合振动数值解法及应用

针对列车-轨道耦合振动迭代求解过程,结合Newmark-β 积分格式,提出一种基于有限元法与非线性接触理论的改进迭代过程数值解法。考虑分别建立车辆系统和轨道系统振动方程,在耦合和解耦迭代过程中,构造松弛因子函数和收敛准则函数,简化轮轨界面协调适应条件,利用轮轨相互作用力在两子系统之间的快速迭代实现动态耦合关系的高效求解。此算法增强了对迭代收敛精度、迭代过程稳定性的控制,同时也减小了程序设计的难度。应用此算法分别对竖错和路基沉降两类典型线路缺陷引起的车轨振动响应进行了算例对比和分析,计算结果表明,改进解法在迭代速度和迭代稳定性上具有优势,可广泛应用于高速铁路车辆运行和轨道结构动力学问题的分析中。     

Numerical recipes for elastodynamic virtual element methods with explicit time integration

We present a general framework to solve elastodynamic problems by means of the virtual element method (VEM) with explicit time integration. In particular, the VEM is extended to analyze nearly incompressible solids using the B-bar method. We show that, to establish a B-bar formulation in the VEM setting, one simply needs to modify the stability term to stabilize only the deviatoric part of the stiffness matrix, which requires no additional computational effort. Convergence of the numerical solution is addressed in relation to stability, mass lumping scheme, element size, and distortion of arbitrary elements, either convex or nonconvex. For the estimation of the critical time step, two approaches are presented, ie, the maximum eigenvalue of a system of mass and stiffness matrices and an effective element length. Computational results demonstrate that small edges on convex polygonal elements do not significantly affect the critical time step, whereas convergence of the VEM solution is observed regardless of the stability term and the element shape in both two and three dimensions. This extensive investigation provides numerical recipes for elastodynamic VEMs with explicit time integration and related problems.     

Truncation error and stability analysis of iterative and non‐iterative Thomas–Gladwell methods for first‐order non‐linear differential equations

The consistency and stability of a Thomas–Gladwell family of multistage time‐stepping schemes for the solution of first‐order non‐linear differential equations are examined. It is shown that the consistency and stability conditions are less stringent than those derived for second‐order governing equations. Second‐order accuracy is achieved by approximating the solution and its derivative at the same location within the time step. Useful flexibility is available in the evaluation of the non‐linear coefficients and is exploited to develop a new non‐iterative modification of the Thomas–Gladwell method that is second‐order accurate and unconditionally stable. A case study from applied hydrogeology using the non‐linear Richards equation confirms the analytic convergence assessment and demonstrates the efficiency of the non‐iterative formulation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mixed explicit-implicit iterative finite element scheme for diffusion-type problems: II. Solution strategy and examples

In Part I¹ of this paper we have established local stability and convergence criteria for the mixed explicit-implicit finite element scheme and have shown that the proposed iterative method converges under certain conditions. Part II describes various practical aspects of the solution strategy such as convergence criteria for terminating the iterations, automatic control of time step size, reclassification of nodes from explicit to implicit during execution, estimation of time derivatives, and automatic adjustment of the implicit weight factor. Several examples are included to demonstrate certain aspects of the theory and illustrate the capabilities of the new approach.     

Improvement of stability conditions, accuracy and uniqueness of penalty approach in contact modeling

The main objective of this paper is to improve stability conditions, uniqueness and convergence of numerical analysis of metal forming processes with contact constraints enforced by the penalty method. A commonly known drawback of this approach is the choice of penalty factor values. When assumed too low, they result in inaccurate fulfillment of the constraints while when assumed too high, they lead to ill-conditioning of the equations system which affects stability and uniqueness of the solution. The proposed modification of the penalty algorithm consists in adaptive estimation of the penalty factor values for the particular system of finite element equations and for the assumed allowed inaccuracy in fulfillment of the contact constraints. The algorithm is tested on realistic examples of sheet metal forming. The finite element code based on flow approach formulation (for rigid-plastic and rigid-viscoplastic material model) has been used.     

Internal variable formulations of elastic-plastic dynamic problems

The paper reviews work that has been carried out in recent years in the Centre for Research in Computational and Applied Mechanics (CERECAM) at the University of Cape Town on the compact internal variable formulation of the problem of an elastic-plastic body subject to incremental loading. The fundamental problem is expressed as a convex nonlinear programming problem. The simplest two step algorithm for the solution of this programming problem is shown to be the standard Newton-Raphson algorithm, and the formulation permits a discussion of the convergence of the iterative solution procedure. It is shown that this static formulation is readily extended to include inertia and linear damping terms, leading to an identical basic formulation in which the stiffness matrix and the residual are redefined for the dynamic problem. The static problem, and hence any software written for its solution, can thus be simply modified to include dynamic effects. The essential analogy between the static and dynamic problems was first presented as a master's thesis (R.D. Isted, 1988); subsequently there have been a number of additional contributions to the basic formulation for static problems, in which the internal variable framework was extended and clarified. Further contributions have also been made in respect of the dynamic problem, and these developments are summarised. Some of this later work has been directed at improvements in the implicit solution algorithms. These aspects will not be discussed in detail, however, the main purpose of this review is to demonstrate the formal relationship between the static and dynamic problems.     

A new algorithm for contact detection between spherical particle and triangulated mesh boundary in discrete element method simulations

In discrete element method (DEM) simulations of real scale, the spherical particles are commonly employed for increasing the computation speed, and the complex boundary models are represented by triangle meshes with controllable accuracy. A new contact detection algorithm has been developed to resolve the contacts between the spheres and the triangle mesh boundaries. The application of the barycentric coordinates makes this algorithm more efficient to identify contacts in the intersection test. As a particle probably collides with several triangles at the same time, the multiple contacts would be reported as face contacts, edge contacts, or vertex contacts. Moreover, the particle embedding in a triangle can be also contact with the edges or vertices of the next triangles. These contacts should be considered as invalid for updating contact forces in the DEM. To exclude invalid records from the multiple contacts, the algorithm gives attention to the mesh structure nearby contacts and analyzes all possible collision situations. Numerical experiments have been conducted to verify this algorithm by using the algorithm in the DEM simulation framework. The numerical results suggest that the algorithm can resolve all contacts precisely and stably when the spherical particles collide on the complex boundary circumstances. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improvement of a frictional contact algorithm for strongly curved contact problems

One of the challenges in contact problems is the prediction of the actual contact surface and the kind of contact that is established in each region. In numerical simulation of deep drawing problems the contact conditions change continuously during the forming process, increasing the importance of a correct evaluation of these parameters at each load step. In this work a new contact search algorithm devoted to contact between a deformable and a rigid body is presented. The rigid body is modelled by parametric Bézier surfaces, whereas the deformable body is discretized with finite elements. The numerical schemes followed rely on a frictional contact algorithm that operates directly on the parametric Bézier surfaces. The algorithm is implemented in the deep drawing implicit finite element code DD3IMP. This code uses a mechanical model that takes into account the large elastoplastic strains and rotations. The Coulomb classical law models the frictional contact problem, which is treated with an augmented Lagrangian approach. A fully implicit algorithm of Newton–Raphson type is used to solve within a single iterative loop the non‐linearities related with the frictional contact problem and the elastoplastic behaviour of the deformable body. The numerical simulations presented demonstrate the performance of the contact search algorithm in an example with complex tools geometry. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A contact algorithm for frictional crack propagation with the extended finite element method

We present an incremental quasi‐static contact algorithm for path‐dependent frictional crack propagation in the framework of the extended finite element (FE) method. The discrete formulation allows for the modeling of frictional contact independent of the FE mesh. Standard Coulomb plasticity model is introduced to model the frictional contact on the surface of discontinuity. The contact constraint is borrowed from non‐linear contact mechanics and embedded within a localized element by penalty method. Newton–Raphson iteration with consistent linearization is used to advance the solution. We show the superior convergence performance of the proposed iterative method compared with a previously published algorithm called ‘LATIN’ for frictional crack propagation. Numerical examples include simulation of crack initiation and propagation in 2D plane strain with and without bulk plasticity. In the presence of bulk plasticity, the problem is also solved using an augmented Lagrangian procedure to demonstrate the efficacy and adequacy of the standard penalty solution. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sandwich shell finite element for dynamic explicit analysis

The contribution of this paper consists of new development of transverse shear stresses through the thickness and finding an expression for the critical time step for explicit time integration of layered shells. This work presents the finite element (FE) formulation and implementation of a higher‐order shear deformable shell element for dynamic explicit analysis of composite and sandwich shells. The formulation is developed using a displacement‐based third‐order shear deformation shell theory. Using the differential equilibrium equations and the interlayer requirements, special treatment is developed for the transverse shear, resulting in a continuous, piecewise quartic distribution of the transverse shear stresses through the shell thickness. Expressions are developed for the critical time step of the explicit time integration for orthotropic homogeneous and layered shells based on the developed third‐order formulation. To assess the performance of the present shell element, it is implemented in the general non‐linear explicit dynamic FE code DYNA3D. Several problems are solved and results are presented and compared to other theoretical and numerical results. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Immersed smoothed finite element method for two dimensional fluid–structure interaction problems

A novel method called immersed smoothed FEM using three‐node triangular element is proposed for two‐dimensional fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problems with largely deformable nonlinear solids placed within incompressible viscous fluid. The fluid flows are solved using the semi‐implicit characteristic‐based split method. Smoothed FEMs are employed to calculate the transient responses of solids based on explicit time integration. The fictitious fluid with two assumptions is introduced to achieve the continuous form of the FSI conditions. The discrete formulations to calculate the FSI forces are obtained in terms of the characteristic‐based split scheme, and the algorithm based on a set of fictitious fluid mesh is proposed for evaluating the FSI force exerted on the solid. The accuracy, stability, and convergence properties of immersed smoothed FEM are verified by numerical examples. Investigations on the mesh size ratio indicate that the stability is fairly independent of the wide range of the mesh size ratio. No additional volume correction is required to satisfy the incompressible constraints. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.