Coupled Multibody Dynamics and Discrete Element Method Co-Simulation

This course is designed for engineers involved in structural and mechanical design of material-handling and agricultural equipment, including those working on load frames, hopper and skip design, bucket and boom mechanisms, and structural assessment under impact loading from bulk granular materials.

Engineers designing equipment that handles bulk granular materials, such as skips, hoppers, and support frames, need to quantify dynamic loads arising from sudden material impact without relying solely on physical prototypes. This one-day intensive course provides hands-on experience of two-way coupled Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) and Discrete Element Method (DEM) particle simulation. The course is entirely hands-on. There are no lectures or slides. Participants work inside the simulation environment from the first minute to the last, building a coupled model of a tractor front loader lifting and tipping gravel into a skip mounted on a steel support frame, then validating the results against a real physical discharge test. All concepts are introduced in context as they arise during the build. Each participant is provided with remote access to a dedicated high-performance workstation for the duration of the day. No travel to campus is required and no local software installation is needed beforehand.

Who should attend?

This course is suitable for engineers working on material-handling equipment, structural frame design, and bucket or hopper systems, as well as R&D engineers on agricultural and construction machinery programmes and engineering postgraduate students with an interest in coupled multibody-particle simulation. No prior simulation experience is required, though a working knowledge of basic mechanical engineering principles is assumed.

Benefits

By the end of this course, participants will have built a fully constrained multibody dynamics model of a tractor front loader, with chassis, boom mechanism, bucket linkage, and revolute, translational, and actuator joints defined to reproduce lifting and tipping motion, together with measurement points for bucket trajectory, angular displacement, velocity, and reaction forces. Created a discrete element particle model of gravel, specifying particle size distribution, material density, and particle-particle and particle-wall contact properties, and used the bucket and skip geometry from the multibody model to run the discharge simulation. Configured live two-way co-simulation between the multibody and particle domains, with the multibody model supplying bucket position and orientation to the particle domain and the particle domain returning contact forces to the multibody model in real time, capturing how impact loads develop as gravel lands in the skip. Compared simulated deflection, gravel accumulation profile, discharge duration, and filled volume against a real physical discharge test to judge how well the coupled model captured actual frame behaviour, including whether the frame deformed under the sudden load.

Course content

Multibody assembly of the tractor front loader with chassis, boom mechanism, and bucket linkage. Joint definition (revolute, translational, actuator) and configuration of lifting and tipping motion profiles. Measurement point setup for bucket trajectory, lift height, angular displacement, velocity, and reaction forces. Discrete element particle model construction for gravel, including particle size distribution, material density, and friction, restitution, and damping contact parameters. Transfer of bucket and skip geometry from the multibody model into the particle domain and execution of the discharge simulation. Two-way co-simulation configuration and live coupled run, with real-time exchange of motion data and contact forces between the multibody and particle domains, and direct observation of particle trajectories, mass flow rate, and impact locations on the skip and support structure. Post-processing of filling and spillage behaviour and dynamic reaction forces transferred to the support frame. Validation of simulated deflection, accumulation profile, discharge duration, and filled volume against video and measurement data from a corresponding real gravel discharge test.

Course delivery

Fully online. Participants connect remotely to dedicated high-performance workstations hosted at the Collaborative Simulation Lab, Harper Adams University. Each workstation is pre-configured with all software, geometry, and material parameter files required for the course. Maximum 8 participants.

To secure your place please contact scco@harper-adams.ac.uk