Lahars represent natural phenomena that can generate severe damage in densely populated urban areas. The evaluation of pressures generated by these mass flows on constructions (buildings, infrastructure…) is crucial for civil protection and assessment of the structures’ vulnerability. The existing tools developed to model the spread of flows at large scale in densely populated urban areas remain inaccurate in the estimation of mechanical efforts.
Karen joined Itasca Australia in 2017, and with a background in marketing and process improvement, she provides administration support to the team and manages software sales for the region.
PFC (Particle Flow Code) is a general purpose, distinct-element modeling (DEM) framework that is available as two- and three-dimensional programs (PFC2D and PFC3D, respectively). PFC Suite includes both PFC2D and PFC3D. PFC2D can also be purchased separately.
PFC models synthetic materials composed of an assembly of variably-sized rigid particles that interact at contacts to represent both granular and solid materials. PFC models simulate the independent movement (translation and rotation) and interaction of many rigid particles that may interact at contacts based on an internal force and moment. Particle shapes can include disks in 2D, or spheres in 3D, rigidly connected “clumps” of disks in 2D, or spheres in 3D, and convex polygons in 2D or polyhedra in 3D. Contact mechanics obey particle-interaction laws that update internal forces and moments. PFC includes twelve built-in contact models with the facility to add custom C++ User-Defined Contact Models (UDMs).
Perpetual, monthly lease, and annual lease licenses are available, secured with either a local USB key (which is portable) or a multiple-seat network USB key. Qualified academic institutions qualify for special pricing discounts.
Thanks to its general design, PFC can be customized and applied to a very broad range of numerical investigations where the discrete nature of the systems is of interest. Since the release of the first version in 1994, PFC has been successfully used by many academic institutions and private companies around the world for geoscience investigations ranging from fundamental research on soil and rock behavior at the micro scale to many large scale applications, including: hydraulic fracturing, soil-tool interactions, brittle rock fracturing, slope stability, bulk material flow/mixing, and cave mining.
In addition, PFC has been used to simulated a wide range of other applications in the fields of carbon nanotubes, molecular dynamics, magnetic materials, and medicine.
PFC has no options and the following analysis tools are included with PFC.
Thermal Analysis: The thermal module of PFC allows simulation of transient heat conduction and storage in materials consisting of PFC particles, as well as development of thermally induced strains and forces. PFC supports both thermal-only and coupled thermal-mechanical analysis.
C++ Contact Models: Enables users to add new contact models (force-displacement response between particles) in PFC using C++ scripting. This component provides the flexibility to incorporate the physics relevant to particular problems into the distinct-element framework.
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
This policy applies to the site www.itasca.com.au (hereinafter the "Site").
A cookie is a small text file in alphanumeric format deposited on the hard disk of the user by the server of the Site visited or by a third party server (advertising network, web analytics service, etc.). When you log on to our Site, we may install various cookies on your device. The cookies we issue are:
In accordance with the regulations, cookies are kept for 13 months.
By browsing our site, you can click on the "social networks" buttons to consult our LinkedIn profile and our YouTube page. By clicking on the icon corresponding to the social network, the latter is likely to identify you. If you are connected to the social network during your navigation on our Site, the sharing buttons allow you to link the contents consulted to your user account. Google, through Google Analytics, places cookies and tracks the site's audience. We can not control the process used by third-party applications to collect information about your browsing on our Site. We invite you to consult their policy of protection of personal data to know their purpose of use and the navigation information they can collect.
When you visit our Site for the first time, a cookies banner will appear indicating the purposes of the cookies. Please note that further navigation on the Site is equivalent to giving your consent to the use of cookies by ITASCA AUSTRALIA. You can choose at any time to adapt the management of cookies according to your preferences, disable them or express a different choice via the means described below. If you refuse the use of cookies, you may no longer have access to a number of features necessary to navigate certain areas of our Site.
For the management of cookies and your choices, each browser offers a different configuration.
For Chrome:
For Internet Explorer 8:
For Internet Explorer 10 and 11:
For FireFox:
For Safari:
For Opera:
According to the GDPR, you have the right to access, rectify, oppose, delete and limit information from cookies and other tracers. You also have the right to withdraw your consent. For this, please contact [email protected].