A general method for modelling deformable structures in DEM

Abstract

The discrete element method was originally designed to handle rigid spherical particles. In this work, the method is extended to model arbitrary deformable structures, such as membrane and container structures. The paper focuses on the implementation of a deformable discrete element called PFacet (particle facet) in the open-source frame- work YADE. A PFacet element is geometrically constructed by the Minkowsky sum of a triangular facet and a sphere. Contact detection is based on the three primitives: sphere, cylinder and facet. It allows the representation of arbitrary deformable structures by using the standard contact models for spheres. Finally, the model is validated and an example is presented illustrating the capabilities of the model to simulate arbitrary deformable structures.