TY - JOUR
T1 - A discretization-convergent level-set-discrete-element-method using a continuum-based contact formulation
AU - Feldfogel, Shai
AU - Karapiperis, Konstantinos
AU - Andrade, Jose
AU - Kammer, David S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024/3/15
Y1 - 2024/3/15
N2 - The level-set-discrete-element-method (LS-DEM) was developed to overcome the shape limitation of traditional discrete element method. LS-DEM's shape generality relies on a node-based surface discretization of grain boundary, and it has been used to shed new light of a variety of granular mechanics applications with realistically shaped grains and structural assemblies made of unbonded building blocks. Due to the node-based discretization of grain boundary, the original LS-DEM is discretization-sensitive and it suffers from divergence of the response with discretization refinement, particularly for highly compressible problems. Previous studies have identified and addressed this issue in different ways, each with its own advantages and shortcomings. Here, we propose a methodologically-rigorous and computationally-efficient adapted formulation which solves LS-DEM's discretization-sensitivity issue. It adopts the classical contact description of continuum mechanics, wherein the contact interactions are traction-based. We demonstrate the convergence of the adapted LS-DEM in several highly compressible cases studies, show that it is key to correctly capturing the mechanical response, and compare it to alternative formulations.
AB - The level-set-discrete-element-method (LS-DEM) was developed to overcome the shape limitation of traditional discrete element method. LS-DEM's shape generality relies on a node-based surface discretization of grain boundary, and it has been used to shed new light of a variety of granular mechanics applications with realistically shaped grains and structural assemblies made of unbonded building blocks. Due to the node-based discretization of grain boundary, the original LS-DEM is discretization-sensitive and it suffers from divergence of the response with discretization refinement, particularly for highly compressible problems. Previous studies have identified and addressed this issue in different ways, each with its own advantages and shortcomings. Here, we propose a methodologically-rigorous and computationally-efficient adapted formulation which solves LS-DEM's discretization-sensitivity issue. It adopts the classical contact description of continuum mechanics, wherein the contact interactions are traction-based. We demonstrate the convergence of the adapted LS-DEM in several highly compressible cases studies, show that it is key to correctly capturing the mechanical response, and compare it to alternative formulations.
KW - DEM
KW - contact
KW - convergence
KW - granular material
KW - level set
KW - level-set-DEM
KW - mesh-sensitivity
KW - topologically interlocked structures
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85177206238&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/nme.7400
DO - 10.1002/nme.7400
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AN - SCOPUS:85177206238
SN - 0029-5981
VL - 125
JO - International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
JF - International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
IS - 5
M1 - e7400
ER -