Coupling SPH-DEM method for simulating the dynamic response of breakwater structures under severe free surface flow

This paper introduces a novel smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) - discrete element method (DEM) to enhance our understanding of the impact of free-surface flow on breakwater structures. SPH is employed to simulate incompressible fluid, while DEM is utilized to track the trajectories of solid particles. Advanced strategies including polyhedral particle modeling and contact model are adopted to enhance the model's capability in solving the dynamic behavior of irregular particles. Several cases are analyzed to validate the accuracy of coupling model, showing a high level of agreement. Additionally, the impact of wave flow on coastal breakwaters composed of irregular rocks is simulated. This work reveals that the coupling model effectively provides extensive information about the flow field and dynamic response of multi-particle systems, such as velocity, fluid force and force chain distribution. This model exhibits significant potential for analyzing the dynamic response of severe free surface flow on the multi-block structures.