Rhale: a 3-d Mmale Code for Unstructured Grids

This paper describes RHALE, a multi-material arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (MMALE) shock physics code. RHALE is the successor to CTH, Sandia’s 3-D Eulerian shock physics code, and will be capable of solving problems that CTH cannot adequately address. We discuss the Lagrangian solid mechanics capabilities of RHALE, which include arbitrary mesh connectivity, superior artificial viscosity, and improved material models. We discuss the MMALE algorithms that have been extended for arbitrary grids in both twoand three-dimensions. The MMALE addition to RHALE provides the accuracy of a Lagrangian code while allowing a calculation to proceed under very large material distortions. Coupling an arbitrary quadrilateral or hexahedral grid to the MMALE solution facilitates modeling of complex shapes with a greatly reduced number of computational cells. RHALE allows regions of a problem to be modeled with Lagrangian, Eulerian or ALE meshes. In addition, regions can switch from Lagrangian to ALE to Eulerian based on user input or mesh distortion. For ALE meshes, new node locations are determined with a variety of element based equipotential schemes. Element quantities are advected with donor, van Leer, or Super-B algorithms. Nodal quantities are advected with the second order SHALE or HIS algorithms. Material interfaces are determined with a modified Young’s high resolution interface tracker or the SLIC algorithm. RHALE has been used to model many problems of interest to the mechanics, hypervelocity impact, and shock physics communities. Results of a sampling of these problems are presented in this paper.