Implementation of Immersed Finite Element Method for Fluid-Structure Interaction Applications

N. Nama [1], T. J. Huang [1], F. Costanzo [1],
[1] Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA
Publié en 2016

Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) refers to a class of problems in which the motions of fluid and solid are coupled. FSI is of great significance in many applications such as aero-elasticity, biomechanics, and design of various engineering systems. Typically, the multiphysics involved in the FSI problems render them too complex to solve analytically, necessitating the use of numerical simulations to analyze such problems. Since the fluid and structure motion are generally analyzed in different frameworks (Eulerian and Lagrangian respectively), the typical method to analyze FSI problems is the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method. However, the success of ALE method frequently depends on the choice of the mesh motion technique adopted, making it practically untenable for cases where the structure has very large displacements. In this work, we present the implementation of an immersed finite element method (IFEM) [1], which is based on the use of two independent discretizations for the fluid and the structure, in COMSOL Multiphysics® software. In IFEM, the equations of the motion of the fluid are extended to cover the union of the fluid and the solid domains, such that a body force field informs the fluid of the presence of the immersed solid, thereby circumventing the need for any re-meshing.

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