Thermo-mechanical analysis of continuous and discrete media with PFEM and DEM

Resumo

This work presents the development of coupled formulations of the Particle Finite Element Method
(PFEM) and the Discrete Element Method (DEM) for the simulation of thermo-mechanical problems involving
materials that can be modeled both as a continuous or a discrete medium. The thermally-coupled PFEM combines
the Lagrangian and remeshing features of the PFEM for solving fluid dynamics problems with the FEM solution
of the diffusion in thermodynamics problems. The result is a numerical tool that provides the possibility to apply
different types of thermal boundary conditions, including to the free-surface contours. In addition, temperature
dependency can be set to the mechanical and thermal properties of the materials. Concerning the constitutive
models, both Newtonian and non-Newtonian constitutive laws can be employed. The thermally-coupled DEM, on
the other hand, is developed by combining the classical soft-sphere approach for the mechanical behavior of
particles with the solution of the energy conservation equation for the thermal behavior of the elements. Several
different models of contact forces and heat transfer between particles can be employed. With these two numerical
tools presented, the continuous and discrete approaches for thermo-mechanical analysis of granular materials will
be explored together in the next steps of this project.