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The discrete element method (DEM) is the most widely applied numerical tool to simulate triaxial test, a common geotechnical test to measure the shear strength of soil. However, the typical DEM model uses sphere clusters to approximate soil particles, which is not sufficiently accurate to simulate realistic soil particles. This paper shows the potential of using a physics engine technique as a promising alternative to typical DEM method. Originally developed for simulating realistic physical and mechanical processes in video games and computer-animated films, physics engines have developed quickly and are being applied in scientific computing. Physics engines use triangular face tesselations to represent realistic objectives, which provides higher accuracy to model realistic soil particle geometries. In this paper, physics engine is applied to simulate true triaxial tests ofMonterey No. 0 sand. The numerical results agree well with experimental results. This study provides DEM modelers with the physics engine technique as another promising option to simulate realistic soil particles in geotechnical tests.
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Comparing Realistic Particle Simulation Using Discrete Element Method and Physics Engine
Discrete element method (DEM) has been widely applied to simulate granular soil behavior. However, traditional DEM uses sphere clusters to approximate realistic particles, which is computationally demanding when simulating many particles. This study explores the use of physics engine, a platform developed for simulating physical processes in video games, to simulate realistic particles. This paper compares realistic particle simulation methodologies using physics engine and discrete element method, including contact models, parameter settings, computational speeds, and simulation results. The results show that the physics engine and DEM achieve similar simulation outputs, while the physics engine runs significantly faster than DEM, because PhysX uses both CPUs (central processing units) and GPUs (graphics processing units) of computers, triangular face tessellations to represent realistic particles, and a simplified contact model to accelerate simulations. This study provides geo-mechanicians and DEM modelers with one more option for them to consider when they simulate realistic particles.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1917332
- PAR ID:
- 10213184
- Editor(s):
- Hambleton, J. P.
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geo-Congress 2020
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 464 to 472
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482803.050
