Energy-conserving contact interaction models for arbitrarily shaped discrete elements - Yuntian Feng (Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 2012)
The treatment of contact conditions in discrete element models has traditionally been based on simple engineering principles and heuristic approaches. This paper establishes a unified and energetically based formulation for contact modelling applicable to arbitrary shaped particles, which has a clear geometrical interpretation and can recover well-known models used in practice. The approach is implemented in commercial codes, including Rockfield’s discrete element system ELFEN (j.rance@rockfield.co.uk). Specific advantages of the methodology in terms of efficiency and stability have been found by Orica, Australia in application of ELFEN to simulation of their mine blasting operations.