Smoothed particle hydrodynamics method for fluid flows, towards industrial applications: Motivations, current state, and challenges

• Published in: Computers & fluids 2016-09, Vol.136, p.11-34
• Main Authors: Shadloo, M.S., Oger, G., Le Touzé, D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD); Fluid mechanics; Industrial applications; Interfacial flows; Mechanics; Meshless methods; Physics; Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH)
• ISSN: 0045-7930; 1879-0747
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compfluid.2016.05.029

•Summarizing the motivations behind utilizing the SPH method in an industrial context.•Reviewing recent industrial applications of this technique.•Stressing the remaining challenges in order to make it an hand-on computational tool. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a relatively new meshless numerical approach which has attracted significant attention in the last two decades. Compared with the conventional mesh-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods, the SPH approach exhibits some unique advantages in modeling multiphysic flows and associated transport phenomena due to its capabilities of handling complex boundary evolution as well as modeling complicated physics in a relatively simple manner. On the other hand, as SPH is still a developing CFD method, it is crucial to identify its advantages and limitations in modeling realistic multiphysic flow problems of real life and of industrial interest. Toward this end, this work aims at summarizing the motivations behind utilizing the SPH method in an industrial context, making the state-of-the-art of the present application of this method to industrial problems, as well as deriving general conclusions regarding its assets and limitations and stressing the remaining challenges in order to make it an hand-on computational tool.