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The '''discrete element method''' (DEM) is a family of [[numerical analysis|numerical]] methods for computing the motion of a large number of particles like molecules or grains of sand. The method is sometimes called ''[[molecular dynamics]]'' (MD), even when the particles are not molecules. Two prominent members of the DEM family are the [[distinct element method]] proposed by [[Peter A. Cundall | Cundall]] in [[1971]], and the [[discontinuous deformation analysis]] (DDA) proposed by [[Gen-hua Shi | Shi]] in [[1988]].
Discrete element methods are processor intensive and this limits either the length of a simulation or the number of particles. Advances in the software are beginning to take advantage of parallel processing capabilities (shared or distributed systems) to scale up the number of particles or length of the simulation. An alternative to treating all particles separately is to treat the material as a continuum and use [[computational fluid dynamics]].
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