A generalization of distinct element method to tridimensional particles with complex shapes
Lionel Pournin, Thomas M. Liebling · Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) · 2005
The distinct element method was originally designed to handle spherical particles. Here, this method is generalized to a wider range of particle shapes called spherosimplices. A contact detection method is given as well which uses weighted Delaunay triangulations to detect contacts occurring in a population of particles with such shapes. Finally, a set of numerical experiments is performed indicating that the overall contact detection complexity is linear in the number of particles.