Influence of DE-cluster refinement on numerical analysis of rockfall experiments

Sautter, Klaus Bernd; Hofmann, Helene; Wendeler, Corinna; Wüchner, Roland; Bletzinger, Kai‐Uwe

doi:10.1007/s40571-020-00382-x

Cited by 6 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Contact algorithms for the combination sphere/surface, sphere/ line, and sphere/vertex are very effective and fast to perform. By using clusters of spherical particles, arbitrarily shaped objects can be modeled despite the efficient contact algorithms for spheres (Sautter et al, 2021) describes the successful application of these clusters already for the simulation of other types of rockfall protection systems]. To decide on the appropriate particle method, it is again helpful to look at the discrete characteristics of the rockfall event.…”

Section: Dem-fem Couplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although spherical particles are unable to model complex geometries by themselves, this work combines spherical particles together into clusters to model complex rock geometries while still using the simple contact search of the spherical particles. Madhusudhan et al (2009) has studied these in detail and Sautter et al (2021) has already used clusters of spheres for simple rockfall events. Chapter 4.2 describes in detail how this strategy is used in the simulation.…”

Section: Demmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As described in Sasiharan et al (2006), Dhakhal et al (2011), Sautter et al (2021 membrane finite elements are suitable to approximate the behavior and response of rock-fall cable nets. With respect to the mesh geometry illustrated in Figure 6C, an anisotropic material law defined in Eq.…”

Section: Plate In Membrane Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the set-up of the experiment, similar to the set-up in Sautter et al (2021), and the complicated geometry of the SPIDER net system (see Figure 6C), the net has been idealized as a closed homogeneous surface discretized with plane-stress membrane finite elements. Publications such as Mentani et al (2018), Tahmasbi et al (2019) suggest shell elements to be used, although they introduce additional complexity and computational expense compared to membrane elements.…”

Section: Protection Netmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically related to the case of rockfall Chau et al (2002) studied the appropriate coefficient of restitution for rockfall events. The use of simple spherical particle clustered together to describe arbitrarily shaped objects in DEM was formulated by Madhusudhan et al (2009) and subsequently employed by Sautter et al (2021) for the analysis of rotationfree rockfall events. This flexible modeling strategy, employed in this paper, allows the use of simple contact algorithms without sacrificing the approximate modeling of irregular rock geometries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advanced Modeling and Simulation of Rockfall Attenuator Barriers Via Partitioned DEM-FEM Coupling

Sautter

Hofmann

Wendeler³

et al. 2021

Front. Built Environ.

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Attenuator barriers, in contrast to conventional safety nets, tend to smoothly guide impacting rocks instead of absorbing large amounts of strain energy arresting them. It has been shown that the rock’s rotation plays an important role in the bearing capacity of these systems. Although experimental tests have to be conducted to gain a detailed insight into the behavior of both the structures and the rock itself, these tests are usually costly, time-consuming, and offer limited generalizability to other structure/environment combinations. Thus, in order to support the engineer’s design decision, reinforce test results and confidently predict barrier performance beyond experimental configurations this work describes an appropriate numerical modeling and simulation method of this coupled problem. For this purpose, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and the Finite Element Method (FEM) are coupled in an open-source multi-physics code. In order to flexibly model rocks of any shape, sphere clusters are used which employ simple and efficient contact algorithms despite arbitrarily complicated shapes. A general summary of the FEM formulation is presented as well as detailed derivations of finite elements particularly pertinent to rockfall simulations. The presented modeling and coupling method is validated against experimental testing conducted by the company Geobrugg. Good agreement is achieved between the simulated and experimental results, demonstrating the successful practical application of the proposed method.

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Section: Dem-fem Couplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Demmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Plate In Membrane Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Protection Netmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Advanced Modeling and Simulation of Rockfall Attenuator Barriers Via Partitioned DEM-FEM Coupling

Sautter

Hofmann

Wendeler³

et al. 2021

Front. Built Environ.

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A unified and modular coupling of particle methods with fem for civil engineering problems

et al. 2023

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In this work, a modular coupling approach for particle methods with the FEM (finite element method) is presented. The proposed coupled strategy takes advantage from the ability of particle methods of dealing with large displacements and deformations, especially when solving complex fluid–structure and solid–structure interaction problems. The coupling between the FEM and particle methods is done using a co-simulation approach implemented in the open-source Kratos Multiphysics framework. The particle methods considered in this work are the DEM (discrete element method) and the PFEM (particle finite element method). The Lagrangian description of the PFEM is well suited for modeling fluids undergoing large deformations and free-surface motions, and the DEM can be used to simulate rocks, debris and other solid objects. To accelerate the convergence of the coupled strategy, a block Gauss–Seidel algorithm with Aitken relaxation is used. Several numerical examples, with an emphasis on natural hazards, are presented to test and validate the proposed coupled method.

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A partitioned material point method and discrete element method coupling scheme

Singer

Sautter

Larese

et al. 2022

Adv. Model. and Simul. in Eng. Sci.

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Mass-movement hazards involving fast and large soil deformation often include huge rocks or other significant obstacles increasing tremendously the risks for humans and infrastructures. Therefore, numerical investigations of such disasters are in high economic demand for prediction as well as for the design of countermeasures. Unfortunately, classical numerical approaches are not suitable for such challenging multiphysics problems. For this reason, in this work we explore the combination of the Material Point Method, able to simulate elasto-plastic continuum materials and the Discrete Element Method to accurately calculate the contact forces, in a coupled formulation. We propose a partitioned MPM-DEM coupling scheme, thus the solvers involved are treated as black-box solvers, whereas the communication of the involved sub-systems is shifted to the shared interface. This approach allows to freely choose the best suited solver for each model and to combine the advantages of both physics in a generalized manner. The examples validate the novel coupling scheme and show its applicability for the simulation of large strain flow events interacting with obstacles.

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Influence of DE-cluster refinement on numerical analysis of rockfall experiments

Cited by 6 publications

References 19 publications

Advanced Modeling and Simulation of Rockfall Attenuator Barriers Via Partitioned DEM-FEM Coupling

Advanced Modeling and Simulation of Rockfall Attenuator Barriers Via Partitioned DEM-FEM Coupling

A unified and modular coupling of particle methods with fem for civil engineering problems

A partitioned material point method and discrete element method coupling scheme

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