ELASTIC-PLASTIC LARGE DEFORMATION

ANALYSIS USING SPH

Y. Sakai1 and A. Yamasita2
1
2

Faculty of Education and Human Sciences, Yokohama National University, Japan

Faculty of Engineering, Nihon Bunri University, Japan

Abstract

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is extended to the strain rate independent

elastic-plastic large deformation analysis for low velocity contact problems. The
volume constant condition is imposed on the plastic deformation process using
a pressure equation given by the particle density condition in a unit volume. Test
problems show that these improvements lead to good stability and accuracy of
large deformation analysis.

Keywords:

particle method, SPH, large deformation, elastic-plastic.

1.

INTRODUCTION

During the past decade there has been a effort to apply SPH (Smoothed
Particle Hydrodynamics) to the problem of high velocity impact. The superior
points of SPH for high velocity impact is that it is based on Lagrangian form and
is substantially one of meshless methods. SPH technique can easily be applied
to severe distortions and fragmentation process of impact bodies. However
there has been almost no study for applying SPH to the elastic-plastic large
deformation analysis of relatively low velocity contact problems. This paper
presents 2D and 3D elastic-plastic large deformation algorithms using SPH
method, where the Dp matrix method and the volume constant condition are
used for the plastic process of materials.

2.

THE SPH METHOD

The foundation of SPH [1] is one of the interpolation technique. The equation of motion and the conservation laws of substance, in the form of partial
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C 2006 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands.

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Y. Sakai and A. Yamasita

differential equations, are introduced into integral equations through the use
of an interpolation function (weight function) that gives the estimate of the
field variables at a point. In numerical process, information is given at discrete
points, so that the integrals are evaluated as summing over neighboring particles. Consider a function f and a kernel W which has a radius (support domain)
h, the kernel estimate is

f (x)
f (x  ) W (x x  , h) d x 
(1)
As a typical weight function we used the spline function of three degrees. If
we identify (x  )d x  as the differential mass dm and make summation over
neighbouring particles, the discrete kernel estimate becomes
f (x)

N

mJ
J =1

f (x J )W (x x J , h)

3.

ANALYSIS

3.1

Elastic-Plastic Models for Particle Methods

(2)

It is well known that the constitutive relation for elastic-plastic field varies
in regard to the strain rate. For high velocity impact Johnson and Cook [2] have
successfully described for a variety of materials.

= (A + B n )(1 + C ln )(1
T m)

(3)

Where is the strain rate, and A, B, C, n and m are material constants; T

is the ratio (TTroom )/(Tmelt Troom ), and T is the absolute temperature. SPH
structural analyses have been performed mainly for high strain rates and large
strain as space-debris impact problems.
In this study as a constitutive relation for low velocity deformation of metals we
use. Dp matrix method which is a standard algorithm for plastic deformation
independent on strain rate. The incremental form of a constitutive relation is
{d } = [D]{d}

(4)

The plastic flow regime is determined by the von Mises criterion and using
stress invariant the plastic constitutive model is described using Dp matrix.
{d } = [Dp ]{d}

(5)

The details of Dp matrix method is described in the standard FEM text book
[3]. In a particle method the evaluation of yield condition and the calculation
of strain components are executed at each particle position.

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Elastic-Plastic Large Deformation Analysis Using SPH

Fe

V=0.01m/s

Al

SPH

FEM
0.1s

0.2s

0.3s

Figure 1. The growth of plastic regions.

Figure 1 shows the growth of plastic regions in an impact model using

FEM and SPH. An aluminum plate is loaded by an iron rod with the constant
velocity 0.01 m/s. The both materials are modeled as a von Mises elastic-plastic
material with a Young of 160 GPa, 55 GPa, an initial yield strength of 5 GPa,
0.55 GPa, and a constant hardening slope of 40 GPa, 5 GPa, Poissons ratio is
0.3. The FEM analysis is performed using triangular elements. As shown in
the figures the growth of plastic regions are very similar and the stress-strain
relations at any points in a materials are also in good agreement in FEM and
SPH simulations.

3.2

The Elastic-Plastic Analysis Under

Large Deformation

There are the growing demands for computing super large deformation of
materials in mold manufacturing techniques. Up to now the analysis has been
done by FEM, however the large deformation causes severe mesh distortion
in elements near the boundary, thereby dramatically reducing the stable time
increment during solution. Moreover rezoning and adaptive meshing technique
are necessary during FEM large deformation analysis.
On the other side particle methods are meshless techniques that no longer
use connectivity data, so users are free from the troublesome problems to decide
how frequently remeshing should be done and what method to use to map the
solution from the old mesh to the new mesh as the solution processes.
During the plastic deformations of metals under sufficiently low velocity
it is noted that the volume of the deformed material has been nearly constant
throughout the process. This is the typical feature of plastic flow theory and this
effect should be taken into account to the analysis of plastic large deformation
of metals.

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Y. Sakai and A. Yamasita

Al

V = 0.01m/s

Fe
t = 2s

t = 0s

t = 20s

t = 7s

Figure 2. The deformed shapes of a rod under compression.

In a particle simulation the constant volume condition (incompressibility

condition) is obviously maintained by considering the following equation [4].

=0
t

(6)

The constant of density of a material becomes the constant of density of

particles in SPH simulation. When the temporal particle number density n i is
different from the constant value n 0 , the volume constant condition is
n i + n i = n 0

(7)

where n i is an adjusting value. In plastic flow theory the conservative of mass

is
1 n 
+ u  = 0
n 0 t

(8)

Where u is the velocity of plastic flow caused by the temporally occurred

pressure from the change of density n i . The gradient of pressure causes the
temporal velocity,
u 
1
= P n+1
t

(9)

Elastic-Plastic Large Deformation Analysis Using SPH

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Using Equations (6)(9) the following Poisson equation is obtained.

n i n 0
(10)
t 2 n 0
By solving above equation we can calculate temporal pressure due to the
variation of density of metals and then coordinates of particles are corrected by
using the pressure gradient. Figure 2 shows the elastic-plastic large deformation
behaviours of metals using above algorithm. The deformed shapes show good
general agreement and thee is no large void or split between particles. All these
results appear to be reasonable and well-behaved.
2 P n+1 =

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1.
2.

3.
4.

J.J. Monaghan and R.A. Gingold (1983), Shock simulation by the particle method SPH.
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G.R. Johnson and W.H. Cook (1985), Francture characteristics of three metals subjected to
various strains, strain rates, temperatures and pressures. Engineering Fracture Mechanics,
21, pp. 3148.
O.C. Zienkjewicz and R.L. Taylor (1996), The Finite Element Method, McGraw-Hill Book
Company, New York.
S. Koshizuka, H. Tamako and Y. Oka (1995), A particle method for incompressible viscous
flow with fluid fragmentation, Computational Fluid Dynamics Jounal, 4, 1, pp. 2946.