Physics Engine Based Parallelised Discrete Element Model

Recently, software libraries known as physics engines have begun to gain interest within the computing communities. They are designed primarily for use within the computer game industry but also currently find credence within real-time animation and robotics simulation. The technical requirements of a Discrete Element Model (DEM) are markedly similar to that of a gaming rigid body problem. A DEM needs to calculate which elements are in contact and integrate forces in time to avoid inter-body penetration accordingly. The contact detection techniques utilised in a physics engine are relatively complex and as a result, many DEM simulations do not make use of these optimised techniques. Physics engines provide a well documented and maintained software library upon which a researcher could build a complex rigid body simulation such as a DEM. This also has the effect that DEM simulations that utilise a known physics engine are being calculated using standardised code, something which is considered best practice amongst the computing community when dealing with well defined algorithms. This paper discusses the suitability of the modern physics engine architecture for calculating a DEM. It also details a novel distributed parallelisation technique to allow a physics engine to be used to calculate a DEM with more elements than the majority of current physics engines will allow. The technique is described and a pictorial example given.