MPM3D: A 3D Explicit Material Point Method Code
List of our publications in Material Point Method
MPM3D is a 3D explicit and parallel MPM code developed since 2004 in the Computational Dynamics Laboratory led by Professor Xiong Zhang at Tsinghua University in China. The MPM3D can be used to simulate the transient responses of structures to extreme loadings such as impact and blast. For the sake of easy update and maintenance, the development of MPM3D was shifted from FORTRAN to C++ in 2007.
The C++ version of MPM3D is still under development, which has implemented the USL, USF and MUSL versions of the MPM, GIMP, contact algorithm, adaptive scheme (both with the particle and grid), explicit finite element method (with bar element, hexahedron element, membrane element, shell element and beam element), hybrid finite element material point (HFEMP) method, coupled finite element material point (CFEMP) method, adaptive finite element material point (AFEMP) method, incompressible MPM, and implicit MPM. The material model library consists of elasticity, elastic-perfect plasticity, elasto-plasticity with isotropic hardening, Johnson-Cook plasticity, high explosive, Newtonian fluid, Holmquist-Johnson-Cook concrete, RHT concrete, Taylor-Chen-Kuszmau concrete, Holmquist-Johnson ceramic, Drucker-Prager model, Deshpande-Fleck model and Mooney-Rivlin hyperelasticity, together with several equations of state (EOS) such as polynomial, JWL, Gruneisen and P-α. To predict the evolution of failure, several types of failure models have been implemented based on the maximum equivalent plastic strain, maximum hydrostatic pressure, maximum principal stress/shear stress, maximum principal strain/shear strain, and instantaneous geometric strain. The MPM3D has been parallelized using both OpenMP and MPI so that it can be run in both SMP (symmetric multi-processing) and MPP (massively parallel processing) architectures. The graphical user interface (GUI) of MPM3D was developed using the cross-platform application and UI development framework Qt, the visualization toolkit VTK, and the cross-platform, open-source build system CMake. The MPM3D can be run in Windows, Linux or Mac OS X. The open-source, multi-platform data analysis and visualization application ParaView is used as its post processor.
Free Trial Version
The free trial version of MPM3D, PeneBlast (previously called MaPoSS) can be downloaded here (updated on Aug 18, 2023). This version includes MPM solver and Multigrid MPM solver, Moving Tied-Interface Grid MPM Solver, Multi-level MPM Solver, FEM, HFEMP, CFEMP and AFEMP solver, FDM-MPM solve, incompressible MPM solver, implicit MPM solver, FlowMPM solver, SGMPM solver, XMPM solver, Hybrid SGFEMP solver, UPMPM solver, FEUPMP solver, IBMPM solver, Hybrid FEIBMPM solver, ALE solver, and Hybrid FEIBMPM solver. The stand-lone MPM3D solver with OpenMP parallelization activated is also available after installation. However, the documents provided with the trial version are in Chinese (Zachary Burell from Auburn University provided an English translation of MaPoSS User's Manual. His great effort is highly appreciated). Please refer to http://comdyn.hy.tsinghua.edu.cn/show/software/603-mpm3d-3-0 for the detailed information.
To apply for a free trial license, please fill out the license application form, and send to
Please refer to our books (X Zhang, Z Chen, Y Liu. The Material Point Method - A Continuum-Based Particle Method for Extreme Loading Cases. Academic Press, 2016; X Zhang et al., Material Point Method (in Chinese), Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2013.) for further information. More detailed theory can be found in our List of our publications in Material Point Method. Please cite our related publications in your publication if MPM3D is used in your work.
Open Source Code
MPM3D-F90 is the simplified FORTRAN 90 version of MPM3D, and servers as the companion open source code for our MPM books: (1). X Zhang, Z Chen, Y Liu. The Material Point Method - A Continuum-Based Particle Method for Extreme Loading Cases. Academic Press, 2016; (2). X Zhang et al., Material Point Method (in Chinese), Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2013. Please refer to these two books for detailed explanation about its source codes and usage.
The MPM3D-F90 can be obtained from GitHub at https://github.com/xzhang66/MPM3D-F90. You are welcome to share your improvements and enhancements to MPM3D-F90, or share your input data files and simulation results. Please send you feedback to me at
Please cite our related publications in your publication if MPM3D-F90 is used in your work. Here is the List of our publications in Material Point Method.
EFEP90 is a 3D explicit finite element code developed in the Computational Dynamics Laboratory at Tsinghua University. It servers as the companion open source code of the Chinese book entitled "Computational Dynamics" and the Section 5.1 of the English book "Material Point Method". The structure of source code of EFEP90 is very similar to that of MPM3D-F90. Two versions are available, the EFEM3D using IMSL and EFEM3D without using IMSL.
Lecture notes:
- Numerical Simulation with Finite Element Material Point Methods for Problems of Extreme Deformation. Plenary talk in the Chinese Conference on Computational Mechanics in conjunction with International Symposium on Computational Mechanics, October 16-20, 2016. Hangzhou, China
- Recent Developments on MPM and Its Application in Impact & Explosion Simulation. Keynote Plenary Lecture of IRF2013 - 4th International Conference on INTEGRITY, RELIABILITY AND FAILURE, Funchal, 23-27 June 2013.
- Adaptive Finite Element Material Point Method. The second Swansea-Tsinghua Joint Workshop in Computational Mechanics and Engineering Computation, Swansea, July 22-24, 2013.