Thoughts on future development and application of hybrid finite-discrete element method

The combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM) proposed in 1995 incorporates the advantages of the most advanced continuous and discontinuous methods and thus can naturally model the transition from continuum to discontinuum during material damage and failure.

Correspondingly, FDEM has been applied and further developed by a number of researchers around the world to simulate the damage and fracture of civil engineering materials and the collapse and fragmentation of civil engineering structures, especially since the first two-dimensional (2D) open-source FDEM software, i.e. the Y2D code, was made available to the research community in 2004.

Most notably, Y-GUI was developed to facilitate other researchers to use the Y2D code by providing a graphic user interface. At the same time, the three-dimensional (3D) FDEM was developed and a virtual geoscience workbench, i.e. Y-VGW, was proposed to simplify the use of Y2D/3D code through a series of open-source and commercial periphery software such as GID or GMESH for visually preparing the numerical model and MAYAVI for graphically displaying the computational results.