Interesting. I wonder what parts of this approach could be adapted to DEM models of solids. For those unaware - even though DEM is naturally chosen for fluids, depending on how you configure the force laws between particles you can easily model solids as well, where each particle is essentially a chunk of material. There are then some interesting choices to make about (a) what kind of lattice you set the initial particles up in, and (b) how you tune the force flaws to get the macroscopic properties you want around stiffness, etc and (c) if you use multiple “types” of particles forming a composite etc.