Modelling elastoplastic frictional collisions of ellipsoidal granules with collisional-SPH

The Collisional-SPH method models the combined evolution of deformation and frictional contact forces in elastoplastic granular collisions. However, there are many applications in which the granules are not spherical. In this paper, CSPH is extended to model an impact of an ellipsoidal granule on a flat deformable substrate. The CSPH spring-stiffness formulation is developed to account for the contact area eccentricity. Validation for different granule orientations and aspect-ratios are presented. The combined effect of substrate deformation and non-spherical granule shape on the contact-zone mechanics is investigated for different granule orientations and aspect ratios. It is found that the granule’s orientation and aspect ratio influences the interdependence between substrate deformation and contact-force distribution and should be accounted for in collision models.