On bridging domain methods to couple particle- and finite-element-based simulations

This contribution investigates schemes to couple domains of different resolutions in space, a problem frequently arising in multi-scale modelling of materials. To couple a standard finite element domain with a high resolution atomistic or molecular, i.e. particle-based domain, a so-called bridging domain is considered, e.g. Xu and Belytschko [1], Zhang, Khare, Lu and Belytschko [2] and Bauman et al. [3]. The main goal is to separate the computation of finite element and atomistic domains as much as possible, amongst others, to calculate the different domains on several CPUs. (© 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)