Summary: Capturing the interaction between objects that have an extreme difference in Young’s modulus or geometrical scale is a highly challenging topic for numerical simulation. One of the fundamental questions is how to build an accurate multiscale method with optimal computational efficiency. In this work, we develop a material-point-spheropolygon discrete element method (MPM-SDEM). Our approach fully couples the material point method (MPM) and the spheropolygon discrete element method (SDEM) through the exchange of contact force information. It combines the advantage of MPM for accurately simulating elastoplastic continuum materials and the high efficiency of DEM for calculating the Newtonian dynamics of discrete near-rigid objects. The MPM-SDEM framework is demonstrated with an explicit time integration scheme. Its accuracy and efficiency are further analyzed against the analytical and experimental data. Results demonstrate this method could accurately capture the contact force and momentum exchange between materials while maintaining favorable computational stability and efficiency. Our framework exhibits great potential in the analysis of multi-scale, multi-physics phenomena.
{© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.}