Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics modeling of granular column collapse

Abstract: The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a particle-based, Lagrangian method for fluid-flow simulations. In this work, fundamental concepts of this method are first briefly recalled. Then, the ability to accurately model granular materials using an introduced visco-plastic constitutive rheological model is studied. For this purpose sets of numerical calculations (2D and 3D) of the fundamental problem of the collapse of initially vertical cylinders of granular materials are performed. The results of modeling of columns with different aspect ratios and different angles of internal friction are presented. The numerical outcomes are assessed not only with respect to the reference experimental data but also with respect to other numerical methods, namely the Distinct Element Method and the Finite Element Method. In order to improve the numerical efficiency of the method, the Graphics Processing Units implementation is presented and some related issues are discussed. It is believed that this study corresponds to a new application of SPH approaches for simulations of granular media and results reveal the interest of this method to capture fine details of processes of such complex problems as waves-seabed interactions.