Geometry‐Adaptive Peridynamics for Fast Simulation of Mechanical and Thermal Behaviors Under Varying Geometries

ABSTRACT During structural design, the geometry of the structure is frequently modified. Each configuration requires numerical simulations to determine the associated physical fields, which are both computationally demanding and labor‐intensive. This study presents a geometry‐adaptive peridynamics (GAPD) method to enhance simulation efficiency under varying geometries. In our method, a grid trimming technique is introduced to avoid the need for geometric reconstruction with each new configuration. New configurations are generated through the trimming of a parent configuration. Specifically, the bonds in the parent configuration that intersect with the boundary of the new configuration are broken. While this trimming operation facilitates grid generation, it also introduces certain limitations, such as the inability to perform grid refinement. Then, high‐dimensional equations of the new configuration are projected onto a low‐dimensional system with fewer degrees of freedom (DOFs) using a set of geometry‐adaptive basis vectors, which are extracted from the flexibility matrix of the parent configuration. The number of DOFs in the problem is effectively reduced, thereby enhancing the simulation efficiency. Numerical examples are conducted using GAPD to investigate the thermal and mechanical behaviors of laboratory specimens, demonstrating the promising applicability of GAPD even under significant geometric changes. In addition, two practical engineering problems are studied: first, the rapid structural design optimization of aircraft seats; second, the fast assessment of the thermal performance of different turbine rotors during their structural design process. The results show that GAPD significantly enhances computational efficiency while maintaining numerical accuracy.