Efficient meshless SPH method for the numerical modeling of thick shell structures undergoing large deformations

Abstract The objective of this paper is to present an extension of the Lagrangian Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method to solve three-dimensional shell-like structures undergoing large deformations. The present method is an enhancement of the classical stabilized SPH commonly used for 3D continua, by introducing a Reissner–Mindlin shell formulation, allowing the modeling of moderately thin structure using only one layer of particles in the shell mid-surface. The proposed Shell-based SPH method is efficient and very fast compared to the classical continuum SPH method. The Total Lagrangian Formulation valid for large deformations is adopted using a strong formulation of the differential equilibrium equations based on the principle of collocation. The resulting non-linear dynamic problem is solved incrementally using the explicit time integration scheme, suited to highly dynamic applications. To validate the reliability and accuracy of the proposed Shell-based SPH method in solving shell-like structure problems, several numerical applications including geometrically non-linear behavior are performed and the results are compared with analytical solutions when available and also with numerical reference solutions available in the literature or obtained using the Finite Element method by means of ABAQUS © commercial software.