Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics: Things I Wish My Mother Taught Me

I discuss the key features of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) as a numerical method — in particular

the key differences between SPH and more standard grid based approaches — that are important to the practitioner.

These include the exact treatment of advection, the absence of intrinsic dissipation, exact conservation and more subtle

properties that arise from its Hamiltonian formulation such as the existence of a minimum energy state for the particles.

The implications of each of these are discussed, showing how they can be both advantages and disadvantages.