Study on Numerical Methods for Particle Material Penetration Problems

Four numerical methods, i.e., purely Continuum based Finite Element Method (C-FEM), Discrete Element Method (DEM), Discrete particle based Finite Element Method (D-FEM) and combination of FEM and DEM (FEM-DEM), were explored through numerical examples of steel sphere normally impacting on the sand target at 100 m/s and 200 m/s velocities. Comparing computing efficiencies and precisions of the methods, it is shown that FEM-DEM is the most suitable to simulate problems of sand target penetration.