Particle-based computational methods are being increasingly employed for solving a variety of problems in engineering and applied science. While such Lagrangian methods can yield significant advantages compared to traditional mesh-based methods, their accurate and efficient implementation also provides a number of challenges.

This course presents the fundamental methodologies and basic implementation of two specific particle-based methods:

  • Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is used to resolve partial differential equations, generally for convection-dominated fluid flows, and is based on the interpolation of field quantities around discrete points that are free to move in space.
  • Discrete Element Method (DEM) is used for simulating granular and particulate flows and tracks the motion and detects and models collisions between particles and with their environment.