Computational Modelling of Fluid-Solid Interaction Problems by Coupling Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics and the Discrete Element Method

Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics \n(SPH) are integrated to investigate the macroscopic dynamics of fluid-solid \ninteraction (FSI) problems. This coupled model is originated from two \ndifferent meshless methods without mesh generation, which can handle \nfluid-particle-structure interactions with structural deformation/failure. With \nSPH the fluid phase is represented by a set of SPH particle elements \nmoving in accordance with the Navier-Stokes equations. The solid phase \nconsists of single or multiple solid particle(s) phase and deformable \nstructure(s) phase which are represented by DEM particle elements using a \nlinear contact model and a linear parallel contact model to account for the \ninteraction between particle elements, respectively. To couple the fluid \nphase and solid particle phase, a local volume fraction and a weighted \naverage algorithm are proposed to reformulate the governing equations and \nthe interaction forces. The structure phase is coupled with the fluid phase by \nincorporating the structure’s DEM particle elements in SPH algorithm. The \ninteraction forces between the solid particles and the structure phases are \ncomputed using the linear contact model in DEM. The proposed model is \ncapable of simulating simultaneously fluid-structure interaction, particleparticle \ninteraction and fluid-particle interaction, with good agreement \nbetween complicated hybrid numerical methods and experimental results \nbeing achieved. Finally, two engineering problems in injection moulding and \n3D printing process are carried out to demonstrate the capability of the integrated particle model for simulating fluid-solid interaction problems with \nthe occurrence of structural failure.