A Contact Proxy Splitting Method for Lagrangian Solid-Fluid Coupling

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel operator splitting method for robust and efficient Lagrangian solid-fluid coupling, leveraging variational formulations and interior point barriers to handle complex interactions with guaranteed non-penetration.

Contribution

It proposes a new time-splitting approach with contact proxies and custom solvers for improved solid-fluid simulation accuracy and efficiency.

Findings

Handles nonlinear hyperelastic objects of various geometries.

Maintains non-penetrating contact during simulations.

Demonstrates superior performance in benchmarks.

Abstract

We present a robust and efficient method for simulating Lagrangian solid-fluid coupling based on a new operator splitting strategy. We use variational formulations to approximate fluid properties and solid-fluid interactions, and introduce a unified two-way coupling formulation for SPH fluids and FEM solids using interior point barrier-based frictional contact. We split the resulting optimization problem into a fluid phase and a solid-coupling phase using a novel time-splitting approach with augmented contact proxies, and propose efficient custom linear solvers. Our technique accounts for fluids interaction with nonlinear hyperelastic objects of different geometries and codimensions, while maintaining an algorithmically guaranteed non-penetrating criterion. Comprehensive benchmarks and experiments demonstrate the efficacy of our method.