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A new algorithm for contact detection between spherical particle and triangulated mesh boundary in discrete element method simulations
Author(s) -
Hu L.,
Hu G.M.,
Fang Z.Q.,
Zhang Y.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.421
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1097-0207
pISSN - 0029-5981
DOI - 10.1002/nme.4487
Subject(s) - polygon mesh , triangle mesh , computation , collision detection , discrete element method , algorithm , boundary (topology) , intersection (aeronautics) , vertex (graph theory) , spheres , computer science , geometry , topology (electrical circuits) , mathematics , collision , physics , mathematical analysis , theoretical computer science , graph , engineering , combinatorics , mechanics , computer security , astronomy , aerospace engineering
SUMMARY In discrete element method (DEM) simulations of real scale, the spherical particles are commonly employed for increasing the computation speed, and the complex boundary models are represented by triangle meshes with controllable accuracy. A new contact detection algorithm has been developed to resolve the contacts between the spheres and the triangle mesh boundaries. The application of the barycentric coordinates makes this algorithm more efficient to identify contacts in the intersection test. As a particle probably collides with several triangles at the same time, the multiple contacts would be reported as face contacts, edge contacts, or vertex contacts. Moreover, the particle embedding in a triangle can be also contact with the edges or vertices of the next triangles. These contacts should be considered as invalid for updating contact forces in the DEM. To exclude invalid records from the multiple contacts, the algorithm gives attention to the mesh structure nearby contacts and analyzes all possible collision situations. Numerical experiments have been conducted to verify this algorithm by using the algorithm in the DEM simulation framework. The numerical results suggest that the algorithm can resolve all contacts precisely and stably when the spherical particles collide on the complex boundary circumstances. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.