Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579

www.elsevier.com/locate/nel
Aeld smoothing stabilization of particle methods in elastodynamics
Hassan Ostad-Hossein

, Soheil Mohammadi
School of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Received 19 February 2007; received in revised form 10 January 2008; accepted 18 January 2008
Available online 26 March 2008
Abstract
One of the most important problems in solution of partial differential equations in their strong form with particle methods is the instability
of results. A number of methods have been developed for elimination of this deciency in past decade. Many of them, however, cannot be
efciently applied to all general engineering problems.
In this paper, two new methods for removing the instability in particle methods are presented. The rst method is based on an incremental
form of the Navier equation in small deformations combined with the Newmark time integration scheme. The second method is based on the
concept of eld smoothing. This method stabilizes the solution by removing high frequency vibrations of eld variables with a number of
eld smoothing techniques. This method is more general than the rst one and may be applied to various engineering problems. The proposed
methods have no requirements of considering any stabilizing terms in the main equations. Although the proposed approaches can be applied
to any particle method, the CSPM particle method is adopted for detail discussion. Several illustrative examples are analyzed to assess the
capability of the proposed approaches to enhance the stability of particle methods.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Meshfree particle methods; Stabilization; Field smoothing
1. Introduction
The basic concept of particle methods was originally devel-
oped by Gingold and Monaghan [1] and independently by Lucy
[2] in astrophysical problems in the form of standard smoothed
particle hydrodynamics (SPH).
The Lagrangian nature of these formulations provides the
capability of solving problems that involve large deformations
[3] and moving boundaries. Updating particle locations avoids
the requirement of any complex remeshing in large deformation
problems. These characteristics of the particle methods cause
researchers to apply them to a wide range of hydrodynamics
and solid mechanics problems. Development of the smoothed
particle hydrodynamics has also encountered serious decien-
cies. Lack of accuracy on boundaries and instability modes are
among the main drawbacks of the standard SPH. Apart from
early remedies such as the ghost point approach [4], borrowed
from the nite difference method (FDM), new efforts have

Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 7751 3217; fax: +98 21 6640 3808.
E-mail addresses: hostad@ut.ac.ir (H. Ostad-Hossein),
smoham@ut.ac.ir (S. Mohammadi).
0168-874X/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.nel.2008.01.014
led to developing some new particle methods such as RKPM
[5], NSPH [6] and CSPM [79]. Other modications have been
directed toward removing instability modes and resulted in the
introduction of articial viscosities [10,11]. This method pre-
vents inter-particles penetration by inducing an articial damp-
ing between the particles that move toward each other with high
velocities. In a different approach, two sets of particles; stress
particles for stress eld discretization and velocity particles,
to discretize the velocity eld [1214] are dened. Also the
use of displacement based equilibrium equations in solid me-
chanics problems has reportedly avoided the instability modes
[8,15,16].
In the present paper, sources of instabilities in small defor-
mation solid dynamics are investigated and an overview of
available stabilization methods is presented. Two different new
concepts for stabilizing the particle methods are introduced.
The rst method is based on combination of the incremental
displacement based equation and the Newmark time integration
scheme. It is shown that it can remove high frequency oscilla-
tions in results and make the solution more stable. The method
is adopted to investigate the wave propagation elastodynamics,
and is compared with other stabilizing methods. In addition,
H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579 565
similar to the articial viscosity based methods, this method
contains an inherent damping that can eliminate extra high fre-
quency vibrations and may lead to some loss in total energy of
the system.
The second proposed approach, called the eld smoothing,
is more general and may be easily implemented in various
particle methods for stabilizing purposes. The eld smoothing
is basically a weighted averaging over neighbor particles. This
approach can smooth existing oscillating elds and prevent the
spread of instability from one solution step to the next. The
eld smoothing technique can be performed on either one of
the acceleration, velocity or stresses elds.
The proposed eld smoothing approach is implemented for
both one- and two-dimensional elastodynamics problems and
is veried by other available exact or numerical solutions.
It is important to note that both proposed methods avoid
the necessity of either dening any articial viscosity terms in
equilibrium equations, or setting two different types of particles
for making the solution stable.
2. Particle methods
2.1. SPH methodology
SPHoffers a way of solving a differential equation in a strong
form similar to the FDM, with the superior capability of simu-
lation of any complicated geometry and irregularly distributed
particles. In addition, particles can move freely in a medium,
which simplies simulation of uid dynamics and large defor-
mation of solids in a Lagrangian space.
SPH is based on evaluation of values of a function and its
derivatives at a particle in terms of values of the function and
its derivatives in neighbor particles. The main concept of SPH
is based on the following Dirac delta function property:
_
+

u()o(x
i
) d = u(x
i
)
_
+

o(x
i
) d = u(x
i
),
(1)
where o is the Dirac delta function and u(x
i
) is the value of
function u at point x
i
. In SPH, the Dirac delta function is re-
placed by a weight (kernel) function w.
Therefore, Eq. (1) is transformed into
u(x
i
) u
h
(x
i
) =
_
O
u()w(x
i
) d, (2)
where O is a smoothing domain (or inuence domain); usually
dened as a circle with the radius of two times of a predened
smoothing length h. The discrete form of Eq. (2) becomes sim-
ilar to a weighted average of the neighbor nodal values within
the inuence domain,
u
h
(x
i
)
N

J=1
u
j
w(x
i
x
j
) v
j
(3)
where N is the number of neighbor particles located in the
smoothing domain O, w(x
i
x
j
) is the value of weight func-
tion that depends on the distance between nodes i and j and the
smoothing length h, and v
j
is the space that occupied by par-
ticle j. In one-dimensional problems, v
j
changes to x
j
, that
is an average distance from adjacent particles. By increasing
the distance of nodes i and j, the effect of particle j in evalua-
tion of a function value at particle i is reduced.
The rst derivative of a function can be estimated using
Eq. (2) and the rule of integration by part. By choosing an anti-
symmetric weight function, the rst derivative of a function is
further simplied:
u
h
(x
i
)
N

J=1
u
j
w(x
i
x
j
) v
j
. (4)
It is worth noting that in contrary to (4), it is difcult to remove
all boundary terms by choosing an appropriate weight function
for evaluation of the second derivative. Instead, the following
approximation can be used for the second derivative of the
function u.
_
j
2
u
jx
:
jx
[
_
i

_
j
2
u
jx
:
jx
[
_
h
i
=
N

J=1
u
j
_
j
2
w
jx
:
jx
[
_
ij
v
j
. (5)
The SPH method lacks consistency in and near boundaries.
Consequently, many studies have been directed toward improv-
ing this deciency, resulting in the development of new and
modied particle approaches such as RKPM [5], CSPM [79]
and MSPH [17].
2.2. CSPM methodology
CSPM was introduced by Chen et al. [79] in 1999 based
on the Taylor series expansion,
u(x) = u(x
i
) +
_
ju
jx
_
i
(x x
i
) + 1/2
_
j
2
u
jx
2
_
i
(x x
i
)
2
+ O(x
3
). (6)
For evaluation of u in an arbitrary point x
i
in terms of the
known values of the function in neighbor points x
j
, only the
rst term of the series is taken into account. Multiplying (6)
by a symmetric weight function w
s
, neglecting higher order
terms and integrating over the smoothing domain, result in the
following discretized form
(u)
h
i

N
j=1
u(x
j
) w
s
ij
v
j

N
j=1
w
s
ij
v
j
. (7)
For evaluation of the rst derivative of u, the rst two terms
of the series are taken into account. Following the similar proce-
dure performed for deriving (7) using an anti-symmetric weight
function w
a
, results in the following discretized form:
_
ju
jx
_
h
i

N
j=1
(u(x
j
) u(x
i
)) w
a
ij
v
j

N
j=1
w
a
ij
(x
j
x
i
) v
j
. (8)
Eqs. (7) and (8) ensure reduction of boundary errors that ap-
pear in the standard SPH. For evaluation of the second deriva-
tive of u, the rst three terms of the series are considered.
Multiplying (6) by a symmetric weight function w
s
, neglecting
566 H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579
Fig. 1. Accuracy of the standard SPH (left) in boundaries compared with CSPM (right).
sthe fourth and higher order terms and integrating over the
smoothing domain, results in the following equation for the
unknown (j
2
u/jx
2
)
h
i
:
_
j
2
u
jx
2
_
h
i

N
j=1
(u(x
j
)u(x
i
)).w
s
ij
.v
j

_
ju
jx
_
h
i
.

N
j=1
(x
j
x
i
)w
s
ij
.v
j
1
2

N
i=1
(x
j
x
i
)
2
w
s
ij
.v
j
.
(9)
In order to avoid denominator being zero in relations (79),
the weight functions w
s
and w
a
should be symmetric and anti-
symmetric, respectively.
Similar procedure can be performed to evaluate derivatives of
eld variable in two-dimensional space. The Taylor expansion
series in two-dimensional space around a point (x
i
, y
i
) can be
written as
u(x, y) u
i
(x, y) +
_
ju
jx
_
i
(x x
i
)
+
_
ju
jy
_
i
(y y
i
). (10)
Multiplying Eq. (10) by (jw/jx) and (jw/jy) and integrating
over the smoothing domain results in two equations with two
unknown values of (ju/jx)
i
and (ju/jy)
i
. Solving the set of
simultaneous equations leads to
_
ju
jx
_
i
=
W
22

_
(uu
i
)
jw
jx
dOW
12

_
(uu
i
)
jw
jy
dO
(W
11
W
22
W
2
12
)
, (11)
_
ju
jy
_
i
=
W
12

_
(uu
i
)
jw
jx
dO+W
11

_
(uu
i
)
jw
jy
dO
(W
11
W
22
W
2
12
)
, (12)
W
11
=
_
(x x
i
)
jw
jx
dO, W
12
=
_
(y y
i
)
jw
jx
dO,
W
21
=
_
(x x
i
)
jw
jy
dO,
W
22
=
_
(y y
i
)
jw
jy
dO. (13)
Evaluation of the integrals in Eqs. (11)(13) based on the
concept of the SPH, leads to the formulation of CSPM for
computing the rst derivative of u,
_
ju
jx
_
i

W
22

N
J
J=1
(u
j
u
i
)
jw
ij
jx
v
j
W
12

N
J

J=1
(u
j
u
i
)
jw
ij
jy
v
j
(W
11
W
22
W
2
12
)
,
(14)
_
ju
jy
_
i

W
12

N
J
J=1
(u
j
u
i
)
jw
ij
jx
v
j
+W
11

N
J
J=1
(u
j
u
i
)
jw
ij
jy
v
j
(W
11
W
22
W
2
12
)
,
(15)
W
11

N
J

J=1
(x
j
x
i
)
jw
ij
jx
v
j
,
W
12

N
J

J=1
(y
j
y
i
)
jw
ij
jx
v
j
,
W
21

N
J

J=1
(x
j
x
i
)
jw
ij
jy
v
j
,
W
22

N
J

J=1
(y
j
y
i
)
jw
ij
jy
v
j
. (16)
Fig. 1 demonstrates the efciency of CSPM for improv-
ing the boundary values, by comparing the standard SPH and
CSPM results for the derivative of the function u(x, y)=sin(x)
sin(y)with respect to x. More details can be found in [79].
Another important aspect of both SPH and CSPM methods,
is their concept of weighted averaging procedure, which can
H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579 567
-10
10
30
50
70
90
110
0.00
Oscillating function CSPM, h=0.25 CSPM, h=0.15
3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50
Fig. 2. Removing oscillation with CSPM smoothing.
also be used in eld smoothing as a measure of stabilizing
the results. To illustrate the power of CSPM for smoothing a
surface, an oscillating discrete function y = 100 sin((k
1)/20 )+(1)
k
5, (k=1, 2, . . . , 21) is considered ( Fig. 2).
The CSPM approximation (7) with two different smoothing
lengths 0.25, 0.15 is performed to eliminate the oscillation.
The distance between neighbor data points is 0.1571. It is clear
from Fig. 2 that high frequency vibrations can be removed by
properly choosing the smoothing length.
3. Truncation error
Differential equations can be solved in a strong form using
the Taylor expansion for determination of derivatives of a func-
tion at a node in terms of its neighbor nodal values. Neglecting
higher order derivatives in the Taylor series, results in approxi-
mate estimation of function derivatives, causing creation of the
truncation error. For example, the rst derivative of a time de-
pendent function u is obtained by
u
n
i+1
= u
n
i
+x
_
ju
jx
_
n
i
+
(x)
2
2
_
j
2
u
jx
2
_
n
i
+
(x)
3
6
_
j
3
u
jx
3
_
n
i
+ O(x
4
), (17)
_
ju
jx
_
n
i
=
u
n
i+1
u
n
i
x

(x)
2
_
j
2
u
jx
2
_
n
i

(x)
2
6
_
j
3
u
jx
3
_
n
i
O(x
4
), (18)
where the superscript n and the subscript i stand for the time
step number and the particle number, respectively.
The error term E
1
in estimating the rst derivative using the
FDM can be dened as
_
ju
jx
_
n
i
=
u
n
i+1
u
n
i
x
+ E
1
(x), (19)
E
1
(x) =

p=2
(x)
p1
p!
_
j
p
u
jx
p
_
n
i
. (20)
The same equation can be written in time domain
_
ju
jt
_
n
i
=
u
n+1
i
u
n
i
t
+ E
1
(t ), (21)
E
1
(t ) =

p
=2

(t )
p1
p!
_
j
p
u
jt
p
_
n
i
. (22)
The above procedure allows for evaluation of the error E
2
for the second derivatives,
_
j
2
u
jx
2
_
n
i
=
u
n
i+1
2u
n
i
+ u
n
i1
x
2
+ E
2
(x), (23)
E
2
(x) =

p=2
2 x
2p2
(2p)!

_
j
2p
u
jx
2p
_
n
i
. (24)
The same equation can also be written in time domain
_
j
2
u
jt
2
_
n
i
=
u
n+1
i
2u
n
i
+ u
n1
i
t
2
+ E
2
(t ), (25)
E
2
(t ) =

p=2
2 t
2p2
(2p)!

_
j
2p
u
jt
2p
_
n
i
. (26)
Eqs. (19)(26) dene the total error in various partial differ-
ential equations (PDEs) with the maximum order of two. For
instance, error of solving the rst order PDE using FDM can
be obtained from
ju
jt
= c
0
ju
jx
, (27)
u
n+1
i
u
n
i
t
= c
0
u
n
i+1
u
n
i
x
E
1
(t ) + c E
1
(x), (28)
where E
1
(x) and E
1
(t ) are dened in (20) and (22). By
using closed form solutions of PDE in (28), time derivatives in
Eq. (22) can be written in terms of displacement derivatives.
Therefore, the total error E
total
in numerical form of PDE in
(28) can be written as
E
total
= E
1
(t ) + c
0
.E
1
(x)
=

p=2
c
0
.(x)
p1
.((c
0
.
t
x
)
p1
1)
p!
_
j
p
u
jx
p
_
n
i
. (29)
According to the discussion by Kuzmin [18], neglecting the
terms with odd order of derivatives in equations similar to (29)
will induce dispersion in the solution, while neglecting the even
order derivatives will cause dissipation. Therefore, truncation
generates both dispersion and dissipation errors. Dissipation er-
ror appears in the form of amplitude decay, causing undesirable
numerical damping, whereas dispersion error causes exciting
vibration modes of short wave length and may nally cause
instability of the solution, as depicted in Fig. 3.
Another form of PDE that should be discussed here is the
second order PDE. Its closed and FDM forms are dened as
j
2
u
jt
2
= c
2
0
j
2
u
jx
2
, (30)
568 H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579
Fig. 3. Dissipation (left) and dispersion (right) numerical errors of a pulse loading.
u
n+1
i
2u
n
i
+ u
n1
i
t
2
= c
2
0
u
n
i+1
2u
n
i
+ u
n
i1
x
2
E
2
(t ) + c
2
0
E
2
(x). (31)
The error term can be evaluated in the same way as the rst
order PDE:
E
total
= E
2
(t ) + c
2
0
E
2
(x)
=

p=2
2 c
2
0
x
2p2
((
c
0
t
x
)
2p2
1)
(2p)!

_
j
2p
u
jx
2p
_
n
i
. (32)
Eq. (32) implies that only even order derivatives appear in the
error. As a result, only dissipation errors are induced in results.
Adding terms similar to those of error in Eqs. (29) or (32) to
discretized forms of PDE is expected to reduce the truncation
error.
Considering the fact that similar to FDM, SPH and CSPM
are somehow based on the Taylor series expansion and in some
special cases, the CSPM with some simplication reduces into
FDM formulation [9], the truncation error is expected to simi-
larly affect the results in these particles method.
4. Error reduction of wave propagation problems
In this section, effects of dispersion error in elastodynamic
problems are investigated and a number of dispersion error re-
duction methods are reviewed and their effects on the energy
loss and remained dissipation error are studied. Two new meth-
ods of reducing dispersion error are presented and applied to a
one-dimensional problem in order to compare them with other
available stabilizing methods.
A one end xed axial bar with 0.1 m length and 1.0 m
2
area of cross-section, built of steel with elasticity modulus of
2.27e5 MPa and density of 7800 kg/m
3
is considered to be sub-
jected to a 10
9
N step loading applied to its free end, as depicted
in Fig. 4.
Solution parameters such as the time step, smoothing length
and the number of particles are similarly assumed for all stabi-
lization methods.
Fig. 4. One-dimensional bar test.
The total number of particles used in the analysis is 101. The
time step is selected in a way that the wave propagation can
be observed in consecutive particles in successive time steps.
Therefore, t x/c
0
, where x is the distance between two
adjacent particles, and c
0
is the sound velocity in medium;
c
0
=

E/j. In the present simulations t is equal to 5.0e 8 s

and the smoothing length is set to 0.001 m.
The CSPM method is used to solve this one-dimensional
problem. First, the analysis is performed without any modi-
cation for error reduction. It is a stress based solution us-
ing numerical form of Eqs. (33), (34) and (35). The following
three sets of equations are written in strong forms at the time
step n:
Equilibrium equation:
_
dv
dt
_
n
=
1
j
_
jo
jx
_
n
(33)
Compatibility equation:
c
n
=
_
j u
jx
_
n
(34)
Constitutive relation:
o
n
= E. c
n
(35)
Eq. (33) is identical to Eq. (28). As a result, using CSPM
or similar derivative estimations based on the Taylor expansion
leads to truncation errors, including dissipation and dispersion
errors.
After evaluation of the acceleration, velocity and displace-
ment elds can be obtained using the nite difference time in-
tegration. The strain rate can then be evaluated by (34) and
(8), followed by calculation of the stress rate using (35). In the
next time step, the updated stress will be used for updating the
acceleration eld.
H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579 569
-40.0
-30.0
-20.0
-10.0
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
0.00000
Time (sec)
V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y

(
m
/
s
e
c
)
Unstabilized CSPM Exact solution
0.00030 0.00025 0.00020 0.00015 0.00010 0.00005
Fig. 5. Velocity time history of the free end of the bar using unstabilized
CSPM compared to the exact solution.
The time history of axial stress at the free end of the bar
compared with the exact solution is depicted in Fig. 5. The
period of the rst axial free vibration mode from the CSPM
solution is in good agreement with the exact solution.
As explained in Section 3 and can be clearly observed from
Fig. 5, these results contain truncation error in the form of
dispersion. The obtained results are polluted, as expected, by the
dispersion error with a saw tooth appearance in time histories
of acceleration, strain rate and stress as well as velocity.
4.1. Articial viscosity approach
One of the most conventional methods to reduce disper-
sion error and ctitious particle penetration modes is the use
of articial viscosity. By adding the stabilization terms that
are basically similar to error terms evaluated in Eq. (29), the
dispersion error is prevented and a more stable solution is
achieved.
Stabilization terms have already been discussed in several
studies. One of the most frequently used stabilizers was rst
proposed by Monaghan and Gingold [10] and can be also
used in the standard SPH and CSPM methods [79]. It is
dened as
H
ij
=

:
1
c
ij
j
ij
+ [
1
j
2
ij
j
ij
if v
ij
x
ij
<0,
0 otherwise,
(36)
j
ij
=
h
ij
v
ij
x
ij
|r
ij
|
2
+ h
2
ij
, (37)
where c
ij
, j
ij
and h
ij
are the average values of sound, density
and smoothing length in particles i and j, v
ij
and x
ij
are relative
velocity and relative distance of particles i and j, respectively.
Parameters :
1
, [
1
and are constants.
Another stabilizing term which has been widely used in sev-
eral applications of solid mechanics and hydrodynamics, has
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
0.0000
Time (Sec)
V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y

(
m
/
s
e
c
)
First type of artificial viscosity
Second type of artificial viscosity
Exact solution
0.0003 0.0003 0.0002 0.0002 0.0001 0.0001
Fig. 6. Velocity time history of the free end of the bar using articial viscosity
to remove extra vibrations, compared to the exact solution.
the following form [17]:
=

:
2
j c h
jv
jx
+ [
2
j h
2

_
jv
jx
_
2
if
jv
jx
<0,
0 otherwise
(38)
where :
2
, [
2
are constants. This stabilizing term is also added
to the stress term in equilibrium equation.
Dispersion and high frequency vibrations observed in Fig. 5
can be removed by using the rst or second types of articial
viscosity. The method is in fact based on prevention of two
particles to move toward each other with high relative velocity,
avoiding them to get too close to each other and so to prevent
penetration.
The same wave propagation problem is now solved using
the two articial viscosities. The viscosity coefcients in Eqs.
(36) and (37) are taken as :
1
= 1.0, [
1
= 1.0 and = 0.01,
while the viscosity coefcients used in Eq. (38) are taken as
:
2
= 1.0, [
2
= 1.0.
It can be clearly seen fromFig. 6 that the extra high frequency
vibrations have been removed from the velocity time history of
the left end point of the bar.
4.2. Displacement based formulation
Another approach that was originally proposed by Chen et al.
[8] is the use of displacement based equilibrium equations. In
the displacement based formulation, the second spatial deriva-
tives will appear to remove the truncation error as a main root
of the dispersion error. The displacement based formulation
of a one-dimensional elastodynamic problem can be obtained
by combining the three sets of Eqs. (33), (34) and (35) into
one equation in terms of the displacement variable (the Navier
equation):
j. u = E
j
2
u
jx
2
. (39)
570 H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579
Using the CSPM rst and second derivative approximations
(8), (9) and the FDM time integration method, Eq. (33) can be
written in the following numerical form (40):
u
n+1
=
E
j

(

N
j=1
(u
n
j
u
n
i
) w
s
ij
x
j
) a
1
(

N
j=1
(u
n
j
u
n
i
) w
a
ij
x
j
) a
2
1
2
a
3
a
1
(40)
with
a
1
=
N

j=1
w
a
ij
(x
j
x
i
) x
j
,
a
2
=
N

j=1
w
s
ij
(x
j
x
i
) x
j
,
a
3
=
N

j=1
w
s
ij
(x
j
x
i
)
2
x
j
.
In the case of an existing force boundary condition o
i
,
Eq. (41) has to be used instead of Eq. (40); considering the
CSPM rst derivative formulation in one-dimensional space
(8), the expression
E
a
1

j=1
(u
j
u
i
) w
a
ij
x
j
= E
_
ju
jx
_
i
can be replaced by o
i
u
n
i
=
E (

N
j=1
(u
n
j
u
n
i
) w
s
ij
x
j
) a
1
o
i
a
2
1
2
j a
3
. (41)
The result, depicted in Fig. 7, shows the performance of the
proposed approach in eliminating some of the extra vibration,
incapable of removing all existing dispersion errors.
In this paper, the original displacement based approach
has been improved by using the Newmarks time inte-
gration method. The new proposed approach is imple-
mented into an incremental displacement based equilibrium
equation.
Eq. (39) can now be rewritten in an incremental form
j. u
n
= E
_
j
2
u
jx
2
_
n
. (42)
Using the Newmarks formulation, incremental values of
variables can be determined:
u
n
=
_
1
[ (t )
2
u
n

1
[ t
u
n

1
2[
u
n
_
, (43)
u
n
=

[ t
u
n

[
u
n
+t
_
1

2[
_
u
n
, (44)
where [, are constants, taken as [ = 0.25, = 0.5 for the
average acceleration method, and [=1/6, =0.5 for the linear
acceleration approach.
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
0.0000
Time (Sec)
V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y

(
m
/
s
e
c
)
Displacement based and FD time integration
Incremental Displacement based and Newmark time
integration
Exact solution
0.0003 0.0003 0.0002 0.0002 0.0001 0.0001
Fig. 7. Velocity time history of the free end of the bar using displacement
approaches.
Combining the updating procedure (42) and (43) at the time
step n and the CSPM methodology for evaluation of the second
derivative of incremental displacement, the following numerical
form of (42) is obtained,
u
n
i
=

N
j=1
[(w
a
ij
x
j
a
2
a
1
w
s
ij
x
j
) u
n
j
]
ja
3
2E[t
u
n
i

ja
3
4E[
u
n
i

N
j=1
w
a
ij
x
j
a
2
a
1

N
j=1
w
s
ij
x
j

ja
3
2E[t
2
.
with
a
1
=
N

j=1
w
a
ij
(x
j
x
i
) x
j
,
a
2
=
N

j=1
w
s
ij
(x
j
x
i
) x
j
,
a
3
=
N

j=1
w
s
ij
(x
j
x
i
)
2
x
j
. (45)
Any displacement, velocity and acceleration bound-
ary conditions can be directly satised through Eq. (45)
by replacing the corresponding terms u
n
j
, u
n
i
and u
n
i
, respec-
tively.
In the case of an existing force boundary condition, Eq. (45)
has to be modied by replacing A u
n
from (43) into (42) and
(
j
2
u
jx
2
)
n
using (9), (8) and the expression
E
a
1

j=1
(u
j
u
i
) w
a
ij
v
j
= E
_
ju
jx
_
i
=o
i
H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579 571
leading to
u
n
i
=

N
j=1
[(w
s
ij
x
j
)u
n
j
]
ja
3
2E[t
u
n
i

ja
3
4E[
u
n
i
+o
n
i
a
2

N
J=1
w
n
ij
x
j

ja
3
2E[t
2
,
(46)
where o
n
i
is the force boundary condition.
It should be noted that both the Newmarks time integration
method and the second derivative evaluation using CSPM are
based on the rst three terms of the Taylor series expansion.
Because of similarity of CSPM and FDM, truncation errors
of (45) and (46) are nearly identical to the truncation error
discussed in Section 3. As a result, Eq. (32) leads to a truncation
error that only consists of dissipation error and no dispersion
will be induced in results.
Numerical tests have shown that the results of solving incre-
mental displacement based equation using the Newmarks time
integration method and the CSPM second derivative evaluation,
can totally remove the dispersion error. It is worth noting that
the dissipation error may also be reduced by adding an appro-
priate term to the Navier equation, which itself is the subject
of an independent study.
Solutions by the proposed method are illustrated in Fig. 7. As
expected, this method can remove the dispersion error without
addition of any articial viscosity terms.
4.3. Field smoothing approach
A new approach based on the concept of eld smoothing is
proposed in this paper for removal of high frequency vibra-
tions. As explained in Section 3, the source of dispersion error
is in using the truncated Taylor expansion series for determin-
ing spatial derivatives based on the CSPM method, instead of
exact derivatives in equilibrium equations. Therefore, the rst
value obtained from the CSPM discrete form of equilibrium
equations, i.e. acceleration, is polluted by dispersion and dissi-
pation errors. It will then be followed by high frequency vibra-
tions that appear in velocity, strain rate and stress elds. The
idea of smoothing the variable eld is adopted to overcome this
deciency. It is in fact a weighted averaging of the eld vari-
able and can be applied to the acceleration or velocity elds in
each time step.
In order to assess the performance of the proposed approach,
several analyses have been performed with different smooth-
ing lengths for ltering high frequency vibrations, whereas
the original smoothing length for spatial derivatives evalua-
tion with CSPM formulation remains the unchanged value
of 0.001.
The rst analysis has been performed with the eld smooth-
ing length of 0.0015 m. According to Fig. 8, extra vibrations
due to numerical approximation are removed while the dissipa-
tion error and amplitude decay remain visible in the solution.
Depending on the size of the smoothing length, this method
can induce a stabilizing damping in the solution. An appropri-
ate value should be selected for the eld smoothing length to
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
0.0000
Time (Sec)
V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y

(
m
/
s
e
c
)
h=0.001, h'=0.0015 h=0.001, h'=0.001
h=0.001, h'=0.0007 Exact solution
0.0003 0.0003 0.0002 0.0002 0.0001 0.0001
Fig. 8. Velocity time history of the free end of the bar using velocity eld
smoothing.
both avoid dispersion and to prevent dissipation and amplitude
decay.
Another analysis has been performed with the eld smooth-
ing length equal to 0.001 m which is equal to the smoothing
length used in spatial derivative evaluation. This value of
smoothing length can remove dispersion while the energy
loss remains less than the previous analysis. The best re-
sult is obtained when the eld smoothing length is taken as
0.0007 m. The smoothing length for spatial derivative eval-
uation and eld smoothing length are denoted by h and h

,
respectively.
It is observed that the overall behavior of the solution using
the velocity eld smoothing method is similar to the articial
viscosity based methods, as depicted in Fig. 6. The main su-
periority of the proposed approach; however, can be attributed
to its simplicity as well as higher exibility in ltering the un-
wanted high frequency modes.
5. Two-dimensional elastodynamics using CSPM
The fundamental two-dimensional governing equations of
elastodynamics can be expressed as
Equilibrium equations:
( v
x
)
I
=
1
j
I
_
jo
xx
jx
+
jo
xy
jy
_
I
, (47)
( v
y
)
I
=
1
j
I
_
jo
yx
jx
+
jo
yy
jy
_
I
. (48)
Compatibility equations:
( c
xx
)
I
=
_
jv
x
jx
_
I
,
( c
yy
)
I
=
_
jv
y
jy
_
I
,
( c
xy
)
I
=
1
2
_
j u
x
jy
+
j u
y
jx
_
I
(49)
572 H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579
and the constitutive equations for plane stress elastodynamics
are expressed as
= D. , D =
E
(1 v
2
)

1 v 0
v 1 0
0 0
1 v
2

, =
_
o
xx
o
yy
o
xy
_
,
=
_
c
xx
c
yy

xy
= 2 c
xy
_
. (50)
Spatial derivatives in Eqs. (47)(49) should be evaluated using
the two-dimensional CSPM approximations in (14) and (15).
6. Treatment of boundary conditions
Displacement boundary conditions can be replaced directly
into corresponding displacement variables, whereas for satis-
fying force boundary conditions it is necessary to directly de-
velop their associated equilibrium equations. Both traction and
traction free surfaces can be considered.
Relations between traction components and stress compo-
nents can be written as (Fig. 9)
o
xx
n
x
+ o
xy
n
y
= T
x
, (51)
o
yx
n
x
+ o
yy
n
y
= T
y
, (52)
where T
x
and T
y
are known traction components at a parti-
cle on the force boundary conditions, and n
x
and n
y
are the x
and y components of the normal vector, respectively. Two com-
ponents of the stress tensor can be expressed in terms of the
Fig. 9. General traction components on a boundary.
Fig. 10. Cantilever beam under gradually increasing traction.
third one:
o
xy
= o
xx

n
x
n
y
+
T
x
n
y
, (53)
o
yy
= o
xx

n
2
x
n
2
y
T
x

n
x
n
2
y
+
T
y
n
y
. (54)
To remove any ambiguities for the special case of n
y
= 0,
Eqs. (53) and (54) can be replaced by the followings:
o
xy
= o
yy
.
n
y
n
x
+
T
y
n
x
, (55)
o
xx
= o
yy
.
n
2
y
n
2
x
T
y
.
n
y
n
2
x
+
T
x
n
x
. (56)
Applying the force boundary conditions expressed in Eqs.
(53) and (54) leads to equilibrium equations in two directions
in terms of the o
xx
stress component:
j v
x
=
j
jx
(o
xx
) +
j
jy
_
o
xx
.
n
x
n
y
+
T
x
n
y
_
, (57)
j v
y
=
j
jx
_
o
xx
.
n
x
n
y
+
T
x
n
y
_
+
j
jy
_
o
xx
.
n
2
x
n
2
y
T
x
.
n
x
n
2
y
+
T
y
n
y
_
. (58)
Similarly, Eqs. (55) and (56) lead to the following equilib-
rium equations in two directions in terms of the o
yy
stress com-
ponent:
j v
x
=
j
jx
_
o
yy
.
n
2
y
n
2
x
T
y
.
n
y
n
2
x
+
T
x
n
x
_
+
j
jy
_
o
yy
.
n
y
n
x
+
T
y
n
x
_
, (59)
j v
y
=
j
jx
_
o
yy
.
n
y
n
x
+
T
y
n
x
_
+
j
jy
(o
yy
). (60)
In order to evaluate spatial derivatives in equilibrium and
compatibility equations, the discretized form of CSPM formu-
lation, expressed in Eqs. (14) and (15), should be used.
7. Instability in two-dimensional problems
The CSPM methodology without any modication for
elimination of dispersion, leads to more unstable solutions in
H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579 573
two-dimensional than previously observed one-dimensional
problems. The reason can be attributed to the fact that in
two-dimensional problems, the two discretized equilibrium
equations should be satised simultaneously. As a result, two
sources of dispersion may inuence the solution. The rst eld
to be polluted by the dispersion error is the acceleration which
is obtained directly from discretized equilibrium Eqs. (47) and
(48). Subsequently, velocity and strain rate elds are polluted
by high frequency vibrations. Therefore, all displacement re-
lated variables are inuenced by this drawback. Considering
both compatibility equations (49) and constitutive equations
(50), evaluation of each stress component is directly affected
by the error of displacement components in two directions. As
a result, extra high frequency vibrations appeared in strain rates
may contribute to make resonance, causing two-dimensional
Shear Force Loading
-0.00013
-0.00008
-0.00003
0.00002
0.00007
0.00012
0
Time (Sec)
S
t
r
a
i
n
e xx
e yy
0.003 0.0025 0.002 0.0015 0.001 0.0005
Fig. 11. Polluted c
xx
and c
yy
in the middle of the beam by high frequency
vibrations.
Particle Vibration in Y Direction
-0.10
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 0.00
X (m)
Y

(
m
)
Fig. 12. Modes of hourglass instability and penetrating particles in unstabilized CSPM method.
Gradually Sear Loading
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
1.20
1.40
0.00
X (m)
Y

(
m
)
5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00
Fig. 13. Stable solution for the special case of v = 0.
problems to be more unstable than one-dimensional problems.
In conclusion, it seems that resonance of high frequency vibra-
tions in two directions to be the main reason of instability.
To illustrate the effect of resonance of extra high frequency
vibrations, a cantilever beam is simulated using the CSPM
methodology. The length and height of the beam are taken as
4.95 and 0.45 m, respectively. The density of material is taken
7850 kg/m
3
and the Poissons ratio and elasticity modulus are
0.25 and 210 GPa, respectively. A gradually increasing traction
loading equal to 1e7 N/m
2
/s is applied on the free end of the
beam in y-direction (Fig. 10). The analysis is performed using
1000 regularly distributed particles with equal mass and the
time step is taken as 1e-5 s and the smoothing length is set to
0.03 m.
According to Fig. 11, it is observed that both strain compo-
nents c
xx
and c
yy
are polluted with high frequency vibrations,
leading to instability after some time steps.
Extra vibrations in y-direction are too large, and particles dis-
placement elds suffer an instability condition (Fig. 12) similar
to what happens in hourglass instability in the nite element
method.
An interesting point is that by reducing the Poissons ratio
to zero, the resonance effects of high frequency vibrations are
reduced. The reason can be sought through the reduced consti-
tutive equations,
o
xx
= E c
xx
, o
yy
= E c
yy
, o
xy
= E c
xy
. (61)
Therefore, the cumulative effect of high frequency vibrations
of strain rate elds for evaluation of o
xx
and o
yy
, is reduced
and a more stable solution is predictable. Fig. 13 shows the
stable solution and removal of unstable deformation elds for
the special case of v = 0.
574 H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579
Shear Force Loading
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0
Time (Sec)
Y

D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

(
m
)
Finite Element results CSPM
0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05
Fig. 14. Free vibration of the cantilever beam under step loading using an
un-stabilized CSPM with zero Poissons ratio.
Shear Force Loading
-2.00E+07
-1.00E+07
0.00E+00
1.00E+07
2.00E+07
3.00E+07
4.00E+07
5.00E+07
0
Time (Sec)
S
h
e
a
r

S
t
r
e
s
s

(
P
a
)
Finite Element results CSPM
0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05
Fig. 15. Shear stress time history of the cantilever beam under step loading
using un-stabilized CSPM with zero Poissons ratio.
The same example with zero Poissons ratio has also been
solved for a step traction loading equal to 1e7 N/m
2
in Y-
direction applied at free end of the beam. The displacement
time history of a particle (4.95, 0.2) on free end of the beam
is shown in Fig. 14.
The EulerBernoulli beam theory solves the vertical dis-
placement of the free end as o = Pl
3
/(3EI) = 0.114 m. The
maximum dynamic response of free vibration from the CSPM
analysis is predicted 0.222 m; nearly two times the static de-
ection.
Shear stress time history in a particle at coordinates
(2.45, 0.2) compared with the static value, obtained from the
EulerBernoulli beam theory, is shown in Fig. 15.
The reason for analyzing the cantilever beam with zero Pois-
sons ratio was only to demonstrate the fact that the main reason
of instability in multi-dimensional problems could be attributed
to the resonance of high frequency vibrations of two or more
oscillating elds which contribute into one of the equilibrium
or constitutive equations. Setting zero Poissons ratio reduces
the resonance and therefore, reduces the instability modes.
8. Velocity eld smoothing for two-dimensional problems
The proposed eld smoothing approach has shown to be
efcient and easy to implement, with a promise of being
successfully applicable to other particle simulation of phys-
ical problems. As explained before, this method is based on
the elimination of high frequency vibrations using a weighted
averaging over the neighbor particles governed by the CSPM
methodology. It leads to a smooth eld with reduced proba-
bility of occurrence of the resonance of extra high frequency
vibrations. Similar to other stabilizing methods, this method
has an inherent damping, which directly depends on the radius
of the domain used for smoothing the eld. Selection of the
eld smoothing length plays an important role in this approach;
increasing the smoothing length induces more damping and
is followed by amplitude decay, whereas smaller values of
the eld smoothing length cannot remove the instability. In
contrary to other existing stabilizing methods, this approach
neither requires denition of any articial viscosity for pre-
venting particles penetration [10], nor requires dening two
sets of particles as proposed by Dyka [12].
It is obvious from Fig. 12 that in near instability cases, adja-
cent particles oscillate in opposite directions which form high
frequency vibration modes. Using velocity eld smoothing with
CSPM removes these opposite vibrations and avoids particle
penetration.
The concept of eld smoothing may be performed on any
eld which shows extra oscillation such as acceleration, ve-
locity, strain and stress elds, depending on its inuence on
amplitude decay of variables.
In this paper, velocity smoothing eld is used to solve sev-
eral different problems within the small deformation elastody-
namics formulation. In order to demonstrate the stability of the
proposed approach, the analysis may have followed beyond the
limits of small deformation and well into the large deformation
thresholds.
8.1. Verication of the stabilization approach by the velocity
eld smoothing
A square plate of 0.2 0.2 m is subjected to a linearly
distributed instant normal load pressure on the boundary of
x = 0.2 m (Fig. 16). The pressure magnitude is 0 at y = 0.
and 1.0 GPa at y = 0.2 m. The edge of x = 0 is xed and
the two other surfaces are left free. The elastic modulus, den-
sity and Poissons ratio are taken as 200 GPa, 7833 kg/m
3
and 0.3, respectively. The domain is discretized into 121
regularly distributed particles with equal mass and distance
of 0.02 m and the time step is set to 1e-7 s. The smoothing
length used for spatial derivatives evaluation, h, is equal to
0.015 m while the velocity eld smoothing length h

is set
to 0.0105 m.
The results are in good agreement with the one obtained
by Chen et al. [7] (Fig. 17). In addition to the stabilization
effect of the eld smoothing, its effect on amplitude decay is
obviously clear. The results, depicted in Fig. 17, are compared
H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579 575
with the nite element solution consisting of 100 rectangular
plane stress membrane elements.
Effects of the proposed method on stabilization of the
solution are depicted in Fig. 18, which also illustrates the
Fig. 16. A square plate under linearly variable axial pressure.
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
0
Time (micro sec)
D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

(
m
m
)
Ux obtained by stabilized CSPM Uy obtained by stabilized CSPM
Ux obtained by FE Uy obtained by FE
2000 1600 1200 800 400
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
0
Time (micro sec)
D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

(
m
m
)
2000 1600 1200 800 400
Fig. 17. Displacement time history of the middle of the right side in two directions. (a) CSPM with velocity eld smoothing using 121 particles, compared
with FE results. (b) Results by Chen et al. [7] using 1681 particles.
importance of the value of the smoothing length on the
solution. Decreasing the smoothing length leads to the so-
lution instability, while large increases in the smoothing
length causes amplitude decay. An optimal value of the
0.0000
0.0002
0.0004
0.0006
0.0008
0.0010
0.0012
0.0014
0.0000
Time (Sec)
X

d
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

(
m
)
h=0.015 m, h'=0.0015 m
h=0.015 m, h'=0.01125 m
h=0.015 m, h'=0.0105 m
0.0020 0.0015 0.0010 0.0005
Fig. 18. Displacement time history of the middle of the right side in
x-direction.
576 H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579
eld smoothing length has to be selected through numerical
studies.
8.2. Square plate under applied velocity
A 0.45 0.45 m square plate with xed left and right sides
in two directions, X and Y, is assumed. An instant uniform
velocity 1 m/s in negative X-direction is applied onto the left
side (Fig. 19), and the response of the plate is investigated with
the proposed eld smoothing stabilized CSPM method.
The density, Poissons ratio and elasticity modulus are taken
as 7850 kg/m
3
, 0.25 and 210 GPa, respectively. The analysis is
performed using 100 regularly distributed particles with equal
masses and the time step is taken as 1e-6 s. The smoothing
lengths for both the spatial derivatives evaluation and the ve-
locity eld smoothing are set as 0.05 m.
The smoothing length for the velocity eld smoothing has to
be selected in such a manner that the free vibration of plate will
vanish after a few cycles. Noting to this fact that the period of
Fig. 19. A square plate under applied 1 m/s velocity.
Deformation of
square under axial
-0.10
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.00
X (m)
Y

(
m
)
-1.6E+11
-1.4E+11
-1.2E+11
-1E+11
-8E+10
-6E+10
-4E+10
-2E+10
0
0.025
Y (m)
A
x
i
a
l

S
t
r
e
s
s

(
N
/
m
2
)
Finite Elements
CSPM with velocity field smoothing
Exact 1D solution
0.20 0.10
0.425 0.325 0.225 0.125
velocity of one end
Fig. 20. Deformation (left) and axial stress distribution on cross-section of the plate at X = 0.2 m after 0.3 s (right) and comparison with FE.
the axial mode of the plate is about 3.9e-4 s, the time inter-
val of 0.3 s is long enough to remove free vibration of the
plate due to the damping induced by the eld smoothing.
Therefore, the problem is transformed into a static monotonic
analysis. Obtained results show a good agreement with the
results obtained from a traditional nite element analysis us-
ing a structured mesh with 81 rectangular membrane elements
(Fig. 20).
The same plate is now subjected to a shear velocity 1 m/s
applied to the right edge of the plate. Deformed shape of the
plate and distribution of the shear stress on its cross-section
are shown in Fig. 21. The induced damping causes the free vi-
bration of the square plate to vanish and the response is trans-
formed into a static monotonic solution after several time steps.
Fig. 21 compares the obtained result from the proposed sta-
bilized CSPM with a model composed of 81 membrane nite
elements.
It can be seen from Fig. 21 that in contrary to the traditional
nite element, CSPM predicts a zero value for the shear stress
on free surface boundaries, consistent with the physical model.
8.3. Rotated square plate
In this example the same square plate dened in Section 8.2
is rotated by 45

(Fig. 22). It is a simple test to assess the way

general boundary conditions are treated.
A constant velocity equal to 1 m/s is applied to the side op-
posite the xed side. The general formulation presented for
applying force boundary conditions in Eqs. (58)(61) is used
in this example and the proposed velocity eld smoothing ap-
proach is used for stabilizing the results. Again, removal of
free vibrations is anticipated. As a result, and from elementary
strength of material, it is expected that in a particle located near
the center of the plate, all stress components should become
approximately equal, as illustrated in Fig. 23.
H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579 577
Deformation of square
of one end
-0.50
-0.40
-0.30
-0.20
-0.10
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.00
X (m)
Y

(
m
)
-9.00E+10
-8.00E+10
-7.00E+10
-6.00E+10
-5.00E+10
-4.00E+10
-3.00E+10
-2.00E+10
-1.00E+10
0.00E+00
0.025
Y (m)
S
h
e
a
r

S
t
r
e
s
s

(
N
/
m
2
)
Finite Element results
CSPM with velocity field
smoothing
0.425 0.325 0.225 0.125
0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10
under shear velocity
Fig. 21. Deformation (left) and shear stress distribution on cross-section of the plate at X = 0.2 m after 0.5 s (right) and comparison with FE.
Fig. 22. Rotated square plate under applied 1 m/s velocity.
0.00E+00
2.00E+09
4.00E+09
6.00E+09
8.00E+09
1.00E+10
1.20E+10
1.40E+10
1.60E+10
0.00
Time (Sec)
S
t
r
e
s
s

(
N
/
m
2
)
Sxx
Syy
Sxy
0.06 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01
Fig. 23. o
xx
, o
xy
and o
yy
in a particle close to the plate center.
-0.06
-0.04
-0.02
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0
Time (Sec)
X

D
i
s
p
l
a
s
e
m
e
n
t

(
m
)
CSPM without modification, h=0.03
h=0.03, h'=0.03
h=0.05h'=0.04
h=0.05 h'=0.05
CSPM stabilized with artificial viscosity, h=0.03
0.01 0.008 0.006 0.004 0.002
Fig. 24. Efciency of the velocity eld smoothing compared to the articial
viscosity method.
8.4. Axial loading applied to a bar
The same 4.95 m length beam explained in Section 7 is
assumed to be under axial step traction loading equal to
1e9 N/m
2
applied to its free end. The time step is taken as
1e-6 s. Fig. 24 illustrates how the solution is stabilized by the
proposed method. The results demonstrate that although the
eld smoothing method can effectively stabilize the CSPM
solution, selection of the smoothing length in both spatial
derivatives evaluation (h) and eld smoothing (h

) remains a
very important factor affecting the amount of amplitude decay.
8.5. Fully clamped beam
A fully clamped beam with the same properties as the prob-
lem in Section 7, is subjected to shear velocity 1 m/s applied
to the right end of the beam (Fig. 25).
578 H. Ostad-Hossein, S. Mohammadi / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 44 (2008) 564579
Fig. 25. Fully clamped beam subjected to vertical velocity at one end.
-7.00E+06
-6.00E+06
-5.00E+06
-4.00E+06
-3.00E+06
-2.00E+06
-1.00E+06
0.00E+00
1.00E+06
2.00E+06
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04
Time (sec)
S
u
p
p
o
r
t

r
e
a
c
t
i
o
n

(
N
)

h=0.04 m, h'=0.04 m
Euler-Bernoulli beam theory
Fig. 26. Beam deformation at t = 6.0 s (left) and shear force time history in the left support.
The time step is 1e-6 s and the smoothing length for evalua-
tion of the spatial derivatives (h) is taken as 0.05 m, while the
smoothing length for velocity eld smoothing (h

) assumed to
be 0.04 m.
Deformed shape of the beamafter several time steps is shown
in Fig. 26. Such a deformation has already reached to the large
deformation threshold, and the only aim of presenting this g-
ure is to illustrate the ability of the proposed method to perform
in such an extreme case.
Although the solution was stable, but due to induced damp-
ing, free vibration of the beam was totally damped out after
several time steps and the solution changed into a beam under
monotonic loading. According to the time history of the shear
force in the left support in Fig. 26, it is observed that after some
cycles of vibration, the shear force converges to the results
of static monotonic loading obtained from the EulerBernoulli
beam theory.
9. Conclusion
In this paper the source of error in elastodynamic problems
using particle methods has been investigated, and an overview
on existing stabilizing methods is performed. Two new meth-
ods to make CSPM particle method more stable are proposed.
One of them is based on combining the incremental displace-
ment based equilibrium equations and the Newmarks time in-
tegration approach. It is shown that the method can perform
similar to articial viscosity methods; however, it may be dif-
cult to implement for general multi-dimensional problems.
Another proposed method that promises to be more applicable
in various physical subjects, is the eld smoothing approach.
In this method high frequency vibrations are eliminated by a
weighted averaging using the CSPM methodology. Several il-
lustrative examples have been adopted for assessing the ef-
ciency of the proposed method. As a result of several analyses,
an initial estimate for the optimized value of the ratio of the
smoothing length for velocity eld to the smoothing length for
evaluation of spatial derivatives (h

/h), between 0.7 and 0.8,

can be proposed to ensure stable solutions by essential reduc-
tion of dispersion and dissipation errors while conserving the
energy of the system. An appropriate value, however, will have
to be set for any individual analysis.
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