SoliDualSPHysics: An extension of DualSPHysics for solid mechanics with hyperelasticity, plasticity, and fracture

TL;DR

SoliDualSPHysics is an open-source GPU-accelerated extension of DualSPHysics that enables comprehensive simulation of solid mechanics, including hyperelasticity, plasticity, and fracture, within a unified SPH framework.

Contribution

It introduces a novel total Lagrangian SPH formulation for solids with fracture modeling via phase-field, enhancing flexibility and computational efficiency in solid mechanics simulations.

Findings

Accurately models crack initiation and propagation under dynamic loads.

Achieves significant computational speed-up on GPU architectures.

Validated against benchmark problems and experimental data.

Abstract

We introduce SoliDualSPHysics, a novel open-source and GPU-accelerated software that extends DualSPHysics to enable the numerical simulation of hyperelastic, finite-strain plastic, and brittle fracture behavior in deformable solids within a unified smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) formulation. The software implements a total Lagrangian formulation for solid mechanics that allows direct application of external loads and boundary conditions, enabling independent solid mechanics simulations. Brittle fracture is modeled through a phase-field approach coupled with SPH, allowing crack initiation, propagation, and branching under dynamic loading without the need for additional criteria or local refinement. The framework also supports user-defined mathematical expressions to prescribe time- and space-dependent quantities, complementing the solid and fracture extensions and enhancing flexibility across existing and future DualSPHysics applications. Leveraging DualSPHysics' native CPU/GPU parallel architecture, the software achieves substantial computational acceleration for large-scale simulations, and the implementation is verified and validated against benchmark numerical problems and experimental data, demonstrating accuracy, robustness, and favorable scaling performance. Comprehensive implementation details and user documentation are provided to ensure reproducibility and to support further development by the community. The framework and source code are freely available through a public GitHub repository.