Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Its Diverse Applications

This review focuses on the applications of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to incompressible or nearly incompressible flow. In the past 17 years, the range of applications has increased as researchers have realized the ability of SPH algorithms to handle complex physical problems. These include the disruption of free surfaces when a wave hits a rocky beach, multifluid problems that may involve the motion of rigid and elastic bodies, non-Newtonian fluids, virtual surgery, and chemical precipitation from fluids moving through fractured media. SPH provides a fascinating tool that has some of the properties of molecular dynamics while retaining the attributes of the macroscopic equations of continuum mechanics.