Numerical Coupling between DEM (Discrete Element Method) and FEM (Finite Element Method)
AUTHOR(S)
D. Nasato, F. N. Diesel, J. R. Nunhez, N. Spogis
PUBLISHER
Sociedad Chilena de Mecánica Computacional
SOURCE
Jornada de Mecánica Computacional 09 - Chile
YEAR
ABSTRACT
This work presents a method for the numerical platform developed to integrate the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Finite Element Method (FEM). EDEM was used for the DEM and ANSYS was used for FEM methodology. A simple test case was formulated in order to validate the coupling and 3 test cases using different mesh refinements were simulated.The DEM in this work was used to estimate the particle flow and forces that all particles apply on surfaces. The numerical results of the model were obtained with the use of the EDEM software. The forces estimated on EDEM were interpolated to the ANSYS mesh (different meshes) through a 1-way conservative interpolation. The Bucket Search Method was applied to transfer the estimated loads to the FEM mesh interface. The results of the model show good agreement both between EDEM and ANSYS results, as well as with the analytical solution.
KEYWORDS
dem, FEM, validation