  The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a particle-based, Lagrangian
method for fluid-flow simulations. In this work, fundamental concepts of this
method are first briefly recalled. Then, the ability to accurately model
granular materials using an introduced visco-plastic constitutive rheological
model is studied. For this purpose sets of numerical calculations (2D and 3D)
of the fundamental problem of the collapse of initially vertical cylinders of
granular materials are performed. The results of modeling of columns with
different aspect ratios and different angles of internal friction are
presented. The numerical outcomes are assessed not only with respect to the
reference experimental data but also with respect to other numerical methods,
namely the Distinct Element Method and the Finite Element Method. In order to
improve the numerical efficiency of the method, the Graphics Processing Units
implementation is presented and some related issues are discussed. It is
believed that this study corresponds to a new application of SPH approaches for
simulations of granular media and results reveal the interest of this method to
capture fine details of processes of such complex problems as waves-seabed
interactions.
