Coupling of an SPH-based solver with a multiphysics library

Abstract

A two-way coupling between the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics-based (SPH) code with a multiphysics library to solve complex fluid-solid interaction problems is proposed. This work provides full access to the package for the use of this coupling by releasing the source code, completed with guidelines for its compilation and utilization, and self-contained template setups for practical uses of the novel implemented features, is provided here. The presented coupling expands the applicability of two different solvers allowing to simulate fluids, multibody systems, collisions with frictional contacts using either non-smooth contact (NSC) or smooth contact (SMC) methods, all integrated under the same framework. The fluid solver is the open-source code DualSPHysics, highly optimised for simulating free-surface phenomena and structure interactions, uniquely positioned as a general-purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software with a GPU-accelerated solver. Mechanical systems that comprise collision detection and/or multibody dynamics are solved by the multiphysics library Project Chrono, which uses a Discrete Element Method (DEM). Therefore, this SPH-DEM coupling approach can manage interactions between fluid and complex multibody systems with relative constraints, springs, or mechanical joints. Program summaryProgram title: DualSPHysics-ChronoCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/g2cc37dw4f.1Licensing provisions: DualSPHysics and DSPHChronoLib under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL); Project Chrono under BSD-3-Clause License.Programming language: C++ and CUDANature of problem: The simulation of turbulent free-surface flows in interaction with complex fixed or floating structures is essential to address typical marine and coastal engineering problems. The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method is particularly suitable for solving this type of nonlinear problems. However, this type of application usually requires mechanical restrictions between the different structural elements (spherical joints, hinges, or springs), as well as the correct simulation of collisions between solid objects. In these cases, it is necessary to combine the SPH method with other numerical methods that allow performing these multiphysics simulations.Solution method: DualSPHysics-Chrono is a two-way coupling between an SPH solver and a multiphysics library that combines fluid simulation using a Lagrangian approximation and interactions between solids using Discrete Element Method (DEM). DualSPHysics solver is a GPU-optimized implementation of the SPH method that allows efficient simulation of fluid-structure interaction problems. Whereas Project Chrono is a DEM implementation for simulating multibody dynamics that includes collision detection and numerous mechanical constraints to solve complex mechanisms. The coupling of DualSPHysics and Project Chrono combines the capabilities of both models under a free software framework.Additional comments including restrictions and unusual features: The SPH solver includes a version implemented with CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) to exploit the parallelism of NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs).