Impact analysis of arbitrarily-shaped bodies using a finite element method and a smoothed particle hydrodynamics method

Abstract

We propose a new method to obtain contact forces under a non- smoothed contact problem between arbitrarily- shaped bodies which are discretized by finite element method. Contact forces are calculated by the specific contact algorithm between two particles of smoothed particle hydrodynamics, which is a meshfree method, and that are applied to each colliding body. This approach has advantages that accurate contact forces can be obtained within an accelerated collision without a jump problem in a discrete time increment. Also, this can be simply applied into any contact problems like a point- to- point, a point- to- line, and a point- to- surface contact for complex shaped and deformable bodies. In order to describe this method, an impulse based method, a unilateral contact method and smoothed particle hydrodynamics method are firstly introduced in this paper. Then, a procedure about the proposed method is handled in great detail. Finally, accuracy of the proposed method is verified by a conservation of momentum through three contact examples.