A Particle System Approach to Simulating Construction Sprays: Shotcrete, Painting, and Abrasive Blasting

Spraying processes, such as shotcrete, painting, and abrasive blasting, are critical to construction but remain labor-intensive, hazardous, and challenging to automate. Realistic and computationally efficient simulation models are crucial for supporting robotic process planning, training, and control. However, existing approaches are typically process-specific and lack generality across different material systems. This study presents a unified, physics-informed particle system-based simulation that can represent diverse spraying processes within a single computational model. The formulation integrates stochastic adhesion and rebound mechanisms with process-dependent material parameters, enabling the reproduction of characteristic behaviors–from cohesion and detachment in shotcrete to smooth deposition in painting and particle scattering in abrasive blasting.
The framework operates in near real-time and has been quantitatively validated for the shotcrete process using published experimental datasets, while additional spraying processes such as painting and abrasive blasting are demonstrated qualitatively to illustrate the generality of the modeling approach.
The results demonstrate that only a limited set of parameter adjustments is required to emulate distinct process dynamics, establishing a scalable foundation for robotic spraying and trajectory optimization.