Polygon-based contact description for modeling arbitrary polyhedra in the Discrete Element Method

Many real-life applications of the Discrete Element Method (DEM) require a particle description which accounts for irregular and arbitrary shapes. In this work, a novel method is presented for calculating contact force interactions between polyhedral particles. A contact between two polyhedra is decomposed as a set of contacts between individual polygonal facets. For each polygon-polygon contact, an individual contact force is obtained by integrating a linear pressure over the area of its intersection. Both convex as well as partially concave polyhedra can be accurately represented. The proposed algorithm is validated by comparing to previously published experimental and computational gravitational particle depositions of identical cubes. Finally, the model is demonstrated in simulations of gravitational packing of various other polyhedral shapes.