Recent advances in modelling of global-scale collisions using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

TL;DR

This review discusses how smoothed particle hydrodynamics models various impact regimes in the Solar System, emphasizing recent advances and the importance of material properties and physics in simulations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of impact regimes, physics, and recent simulation advances, especially using SPH, for understanding Solar System object collisions.

Findings

SPH simulations help interpret impact outcomes on small bodies.

Recent observations inform and validate impact models.

Modeling shear strength and porosity is crucial for large asteroid impacts.

Abstract

Impacts play a fundamental role in shaping the physical and chemical properties of the objects in our Solar System. Given the challenges in replicating such collisions through laboratory experiments, computer simulations are an important tool to investigate their outcomes. Accurately modelling material properties such as shear strength, porosity, and the formation of cracks is crucial for understanding impacts on small bodies like asteroids and comets. Very large and massive objects are dominated by self-gravity and can be approximated as a fluid. In this regime the equation of state used to model the behaviour of the constituent materials plays a key role. However, for bodies of several hundred kilometres, which are already spheroidal due to self-gravity, shear strength must still be considered. This impact regime is most challenging to model and therefore often overlooked in publications. In this review we present different impact regimes and the relevant physics that must be included. We then discuss their application to a variety of Solar System objects and assess how recent observations and numerical simulations, focussing on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method, can be used to inform our understanding of impact processes and solar system formation.