Open Access

ARTICLE

A Coupling Algorithm of Finite Element Method and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics for Impact Computations

by Yihua Xiao¹, Xu Han¹, Dean Hu¹

1 State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University,Changsha, China, 410082
2 Corresponding author: hanxu@hnu.edu.cn; Fax: +86 0731 88822051

Computers, Materials & Continua 2011, 23(1), 9-34. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmc.2011.023.009

Abstract

For impact computations, it is efficient to model small and large deformation regions by Finite Element Method (FEM) and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), respectively. However, it requires an effective algorithm to couple FEM and SPH calculations. To fulfill this requirement, an alternative coupling algorithm is presented in this paper. In the algorithm, the coupling between element and particle regions are achieved by treating elements as imaginary particles and applying equivalent tractions to element sides on coupling interfaces. In addition, an adaptive coupling technique is proposed based on the algorithm to improve the computational efficiency of FEM-SPH coupling further. For this technique, the initial model can totally consist of elements. During the deformation process distorted elements are converted to particles automatically and the generated particles are linked to adjacent elements with the present coupling algorithm. Several examples are included to demonstrate the accuracy and utility of the present coupling algorithm and adaptive coupling technique.

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Keywords

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