An ellipsoidal particle-finite element method for hypervelocity impact simulation

A number of coupled particle–element and hybrid particle–element methods have been developed for the simulation of hypervelocity impact problems to avoid certain disadvantages associated with the use of pure continuum-based or pure particle-based methods. To date these methods have employed spherical particles. In recent work a hybrid formulation has been extended to the ellipsoidal particle case. A model formulation approach based on Lagrange’s equations, with particle entropies serving as generalized co-ordinates, avoids the angular momentum conservation problems which have been reported with ellipsoidal smooth particle hydrodynamics models