The Walt Disney Company
Particle-in-cell methods preserving shearing and rotation

Abstract:

The disclosure provides an approach for reducing information loss when transferring from particles to grid and vice versa in a hybrid Lagrangian/Eulerian simulation, while also preserving stability. In one aspect, referred to as the rigid particle-in-cell (RPIC) method, a simulation application stores a sampling of local angular momentum for each particle, helping to preserve the angular momentum that would otherwise be lost in the transfer from grid to particles. In another aspect that is more generally applicable and referred to herein as the rigid and shearing particle-in-cell (RSPIC) method, the simulation application stores, for each particle, a matrix with rotational and shearing information. The RSPIC method effectively reduces dissipation, preserves angular momentum exactly, and prevents instabilities. Further, the RSPIC method is applicable to both incompressible liquids and material point method (MPM) simulations of materials such as solids.