Investigation of performance of programming approaches and languages used for numerical simulation of granular material by the discrete element method

Performance of programming approaches and languages used for the development of software codes for numerical simulation of granular material dynamics by the discrete element method (DEM) is investigated. The granular material considered represents a space filled with discrete spherical visco-elastic particles, and the behaviour of material under imposed conditions is simulated using the DEM. The object-oriented programming approach (implemented via C++) was compared with the procedural approach (using FORTRAN 90 and OBJECT PASCAL) in order to test their efficiency. The identical neighbour-searching algorithm, contact forces model and time integration method were implemented in all versions of codes.Two identical representative examples of the dynamic behaviour of granular material on a personal computer (compatible with IBM PC) were solved. The results show that software based on procedural approach runs faster in compare with software based on OOP, and software developed by FORTRAN 90 runs faster in compare with software developed by OBJECT PASCAL.