GPU-accelerated smoothed particle hydrodynamics modeling of granular flow

Abstract

In this paper, the dynamical behavior of granular media is investigated numerically using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) with an elastoplastic and a phase-change constitutive model. A GPU-accelerated SPH code for granular flow modeling is implemented and validated using four test cases: (1) the collapse of an axisymmetric sand pile; (2) the impact force of sand on a rigid wall; (3) the head-on collisions of dense granular jets; and, (4) the impact of a granular jet with a wave structure on the granular film. The results of SPH simulations with the two models are compared to available experimental and numerical results. The validation showed that the dynamics of granular media are well predicted using the SPH methodology with an appropriate material model. An SPH simulation of granular flow run on a rather outdated GPU was already about 160 times as efficient as the same simulation run on a mainstream single CPU.