Development of the Particle Method Code for Coupled Discrete-Continuum Simulation of Friction

Computer simulation is widely used in the design and development of technical products. Multiscale nature of deformation and fracture of novel materials requires to use for this purpose not only the conventional finite element method but particle methods at different spatial scales as well. This paper presents a computer code aimed for discrete continuum simulation of friction based on coupling finite elements (as a continuum method) with movable cellular automata (discrete particle method). Two computer codes based on finite elements and written in different programming languages are used: commercial and in-house. Peculiarities of the application program interfaces of the particle code for coupling with both finite element codes are described and analyzed. It is shown that the code developed takes the advantages of both cases and promises to be very efficient for simulating various contact problems including friction.