NSPFEM2D: A lightweight 2D node-based smoothed particle finite element method code for modeling large deformation

Abstract

The study presents a lightweight code that implements 2D node-based smoothed particle finite element method (NSPFEM) to fulfill the requirement of modeling large deformation in a variety of research fields and engineering applications. NSPFEM discretizes the problem domain with a set of Lagrangian nodes and employs Delaunay triangulation to build/re-build mesh on the nodes at each time step. It is therefore able to tackle large deformation without suffering from mesh entanglement. The method also adopts the nodal integration technique to avoid interpolation of material variables after remeshing which can eliminate interpolation-induced errors. The code has been built using hybrid C++ and Python programming, and is thus efficient and versatile to couple with other well-developed codes, such as MFront for the incorporation of various constitutive models and YADE, a discrete element method code, for multiscale simulations. The implementation of NSPFEM has first been validated using two examples, i.e., axial vibration of an elastic cantilever beam and a rolling cylinder down incline. Next, the capability and flexibility of the code has been demonstrated by three examples, namely retrogressive slope failure, pullout of a strip plate anchor, and multiscale modeling of trapdoor.