An introduction to the PFEM (Particle-Finite Element Method)

The aim of the presentation is to give a "friendly" introduction to the PFEM (Particle-Finite Elements Method), a quite recent and powerful numerical method, designed to handle very non-linear problems, involving large displacements and deformations, in a Lagrangian framework.
In some cases, as for example in dynamic fluid-structure interaction problems, the Eulerian approach can become very cumbersome, due to the intimate Lagrangian nature of the phenomenon; on the other hand, it is well-known that classical Lagrangian numerical approaches can suffer from mesh distortion problems: the PFEM is one of the methods which try to avoid this kind of issues, still working in a pure Lagrangian framework.
During the presentation, some of the key features of the method will be pointed out, also underlining its differences with others so-called "meshless" and "particle" methods.
The first applications of the PFEM belong mostly to the fluid dynamics domain, but chances are that the method could be used in a very interesting way in solving solids non-linear problems as well: therefore some perspectives on the possible future applications of PFEM are given.