Evaluating Several Meshless Methods for Soil Impact Analysis in Dynamic Compaction Applications

This study evaluates various meshless methods for soil impact analysis in dynamic compaction applications, focusing on smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), smoothed particle Galerkin (SPG), and the discrete element method (DEM). A laboratory-scale experiment was conducted on sandy soil with an impactor to replicate the soil dynamic compaction process. Results from SPH, SPG, and DEM models, along with a Lagrangian FEM model, were compared to the experimentally measured soil surface deformations. The findings show that all methods successfully captured the experiment’s maximum crater depth. However, the DEM method stood out by accurately capturing the heave with greater precision than the other methods, though it required significantly more computational time. SPH and SPG methods were also effective, but had longer runtimes compared to Lagrange FEM. This study concludes that the choice of method depends on the desired accuracy, output requirements, and available computational resources. For initial simulations involving moderate deformations, the Lagrangian FEM is recommended due to its simplicity and low runtime. For detailed analyses, DEM is preferable despite its higher computational demands.