Discrete-Element and Material-Point Method (DEM and MPM) Based Solvers for Sustainable Technologies

Research output: NRELPresentation

Abstract

We present the use of discrete element method (DEM) and material point method (MPM) in three relevant green technology applications that include biomass feedstock handling, lithium-ion battery manufacturing, and high-pressure reverse osmosis. Our open-source DEM and MPM solvers are developed using performance portable grid and particle management library, AMReX, thus enabling superior performance on NVIDIA and AMD GPUs with > 100 million particles. Our DEM solver resolves the motion of individual particles in a granular system and includes a bonded sphere method for modeling non-spherical particles along with Hertzian and liquid bridge-based contact models. We simulate highly variable biomass feedstock flows in large-scale hoppers for biofuel production and electrode calendering in battery manufacturing using DEM. Our simulations predict flow blockage in large scale biomass hoppers and electrode microstructure variations, thus providing valuable information for biofuel and battery manufacturers, respectively. The second half of the talk will be on MPM and its application towards pore resolved simulations of reverse osmosis membranes under compressive loads. We present a validation study of our MPM simulations with membrane microscopy imaging thus providing useful insights on membrane stability under high pressure conditions. We also present a spectral stability analysis of using linear hat, quadratic and cubic spline basis in MPM indicating regions of numerical stability.
Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages23
StatePublished - 2024

Publication series

NamePresented at the SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Planet Earth (MPE24), 10-12 June 2024, Portland, Oregon

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/PR-2C00-90245

Keywords

  • discrete element method
  • granular flow
  • material point method
  • meshless methods
  • multiphase flow
  • structural mechanics

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