A variational integrator for the Discrete Element Method

DND Klerk and T Shire and ZW Gao and AT McBride and CJ Pearce and P Steinmann, JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS, 462, 111253 (2022).

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcp.2022.111253

A novel implicit integration scheme for the Discrete Element Method (DEM) based on the variational integrator approach is presented. The numerical solver provides a fully dynamical description that, notably, reduces to an energy minimisation scheme in the quasi-static limit. A detailed derivation of the numerical method is presented for the Hookean contact model and tested against an established open source DEM package that uses the velocity-Verlet integration scheme. These tests compare results for a single collision, long-term stability and statistical quantities of ensembles of particles. Numerically, the proposed integration method demonstrates equivalent accuracy to the velocity- Verlet method.(C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.

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