A New Formula for Predicting the Crater Size of a Target Plate Produced by Hypervelocity Impact

Hypervelocity impact (HVI) of materials is usually associated with large deformations of structures, big craters, phase transition of materials and scattered debris cloud. It is difficult to predict the size of damage caused by HVI while comprehensively considering all the influencing factors for both experimental and numerical approaches. In this paper, the HVI process is modeled by using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method with Kernel Gradient Correction (KGC) technique. The SPH method with KGC (SPH-KGC) has been demonstrated to have better accuracy and reliability for modeling the HVI problems in our recent work. In this paper, the SPH-KGC method is used to investigate the HVI of a sphere on a target plate. The sizes of the craters produced by HVI at different initial impact velocities are obtained, and the variation of the crater size over the impact velocity is studied. According to the present simulation results, a critical velocity is identified and the increase of the crater size versus the initial impact velocity can be divided into two stages, a varying stage and a steady stage. A new empirical formula is presented for predicting the crater size of the target plate produced by HVI. This formula comprehensively considers the influence of many model parameters, such as the densities of the materials of both the projectile and the target, the sound speed of the target material, the diameter of the projectile and the thickness of the target plate. The results obtained by the presented prediction formula agree well with the experimental observations as well as the present SPH simulation results.

Investigations of the Hydraulic Characteristics of Stilling Basin with Baffle-Blocks Using an Integrated SPH Method

The stilling basin has been one of the most powerful hydraulic structures for the dissipation of the flow energy. Meshfree and particle methods have special advantages in modeling incompressible flows with free surfaces. In this paper, an integrated smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is developed to model energy dissipation process of stilling basins. The integrated SPH includes the kernel gradient correction (KGC) technique, the dynamic solid boundary treatment, [Formula: see text]-SPH model and density reinitialization. We first conducted the simulations of dam-breaking and hydraulic jump to validate the accuracy of the present method. The present simulation results agree well with the experimental observations and numerical results from other sources. Then the discharge process of stilling basin with baffle-blocks is simulated with the integrated SPH. It is demonstrated that the detailed discharge process can be well captured by this method. The energy dissipation effect of stilling basin could be significantly improved by the baffle-blocks. The structure and position of the baffle-block directly affect the energy dissipation effect, while the height of the baffle-block has big influence on the drainage capacity.

Numerical Study on High Velocity Impact Welding Using a Modified SPH Method

High velocity impact welding (HVIW) involves processes like the impact of metal structures and strong fluid-structure interactions with complex phenomena such as interfacial waves and jet generation. It is very difficult to model the HVIW process with typical physics well captured due to the large deformation and moving interfaces, while the associated mechanisms inherent in HVIW are also not well understood. In this paper, the HVIW process is simulated using a modified smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model, in which the kernel gradient correction is used to improve computational accuracy and an artificial stress term is used to ease stress instability during the welding process. The mechanisms in HVIW are investigated, and typical phenomena including the wavy interface, jet formation, interfacial temperature and pressure distribution are captured. It is demonstrated that with proper impact welding velocity and initial welding angle, the modified SPH method can well reproduce the morphology evolution of the welding interface from straight to wavy and further to wavy interface with vortex shedding. Based on comprehensive numerical data from SPH simulations, the weldability windows for the HVIW are obtained and are compared with experimental and theoretical results. Welding limits for HVIW are also discussed in detail.

Numerical Simulation of Violent Impinging Jet Flows with Improved SPH Method

This paper presents an implementation of an improved smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method for simulating violent water impinging jet flow problems. The presented SPH method involves three major modifications on the traditional SPH method, (1) The kernel gradient correction (KGC) and density correction are used to improve the computational accuracy and obtain smoothed pressure field, (2) a coupled dynamic solid boundary treatment (SBT) is used to remove the numerical oscillation near the solid boundary and ensure no penetration condition, (3) a free surface condition, which is obtained from the summation of kernel function and volume, is used to describe the water jet accurately. Different cases about violent impinging jet flows are simulated. The influences of impact velocity and angles are investigated. It is demonstrated that the presented SPH method has very good performance with accurate impinging jet patterns and pressure field distribution. It is also found that the pressure time histories of observation points are greatly influenced by the rarefaction wave from surrounding air. Closer distance from free surface can lead to quicker decay of the pressure time history.

IMPROVED SMOOTHED PARTICLE HYDRODYNAMICS WITH RANS FOR FREE-SURFACE FLOW PROBLEMS

This paper presents an implementation of an improved smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method for numerical simulation of free-surface flow problems. The presented SPH method involves two major modifications on the traditional SPH method: (1) kernel gradient correction (KGC) and density correction to improve the computational accuracy in particle approximation and (2) RANS turbulence model to capture the inherent physics of flow turbulence. In the simulation, artificial compressibility for modeling incompressible fluid and ghost particles for treating solid boundaries are both applied. The presented SPH has been applied to two dam-breaking problems. We demonstrated that the presented SPH method has very good performance with more accurate flow patterns and pressure field distribution.