A generic contact detection framework for cylindrical particles in discrete element modelling.pdfVIP

Available online at ScienceDirect Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 315 (2017) 632–651 /locate/cma A generic contact detection framework for cylindrical particles in discrete element modelling Y.T. Fenga,?, K. Hanb, D.R.J. Owena a Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering, Swansea University, UK b CD-adapco, UK Received 5 May 2016; received in revised form 11 October 2016; accepted 2 November 2016 Available online 11 November 2016 Highlights ? Develops a generic framework for detecting contact between cylindrical particles based on a full exploitation of the axisymmetrical property of cylinders. ? Derives a four-parameter based local representative system to describe the spatial relationship between two cylinders. ? The 3D cylinder–cylinder intersection problem is reduced to a series of 2D circle–ellipse intersections. ? Proposes a two-stage contact detection scheme in which no-overlap contact pairs are identified in the first overlap check stage. ? The actual overlap region is determined in the second resolution stage and represented by two schemes. ? Develops two theorems that establish a fundamental relationship between the contact point and contact normal of two contacting cylinders. ? These theorems are valid not only for cylinders, but also for any axi-symmetrical shapes and their combinations. Abstract This paper aims to develop a generic framework for detecting contact between cylindrical particles in discrete element modelling based on a full exploitation of the axi-symmetrical property of cylinders. The main contributions include: (1) A four-parameter based local representative system is derived to describe the spatial relationship between two cylinders so that the 3D cylinder– cylinder intersection problem can be reduced to a series of 2D circle–ellipse intersections, which considerably simplifies the contact detection procedure. (2) A two-stage contact detection scheme is proposed in which no-overlap contact pairs are identified in the first ove