We study a nonlinear, unsteady, moving boundary, fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problem arising in modeling blood flow through elastic and viscoelastic arteries. The fluid flow, which is driven by the time-dependent pressure data, is governed by 2D incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, while the elastodynamics of the cylindrical wall is modeled by the 1D cylindrical Koiter shell model. Two cases are considered: the linearly viscoelastic and the linearly elastic Koiter shell. The fluid and structure are fully coupled (2-way coupling) via the kinematic and dynamic lateral boundary conditions describing continuity of velocity (the no-slip condition), and balance of contact forces at the fluid-structure interface. We prove existence of weak solutions to the two FSI problems (the viscoelastic and the elastic case) as long as the cylinder radius is greater than zero.The proof is based on a novel semi-discrete, operator splitting numerical scheme, known as the kinematically coupled scheme, introduced in [32] to numerically solve the underlying FSI problems.The backbone of the kinematically coupled scheme is the well-known Marchuk-Yanenko scheme, also known as the Lie splitting scheme. We effectively prove convergence of that numerical scheme to a solution of the corresponding FSI problem.

We study a nonlinear, unsteady, moving boundary, fluid-structure (FSI) problem in which the structure is composed of two layers: a thin layer which is in contact with the fluid, and a thick layer which sits on top of the thin structural layer. The fluid flow, which is driven by the time-dependent dynamic pressure data, is governed by the 2D Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible, viscous fluid, defined on a 2D cylinder. The elastodynamics of the cylinder wall is governed by the 1D linear wave equation modeling the thin structural layer, and by the 2D equations of linear elasticity modeling the thick structural layer. The fluid and the structure, as well as the two structural layers, are fully coupled via the kinematic and dynamic coupling conditions describing continuity of velocity and balance of contact forces. The thin structural layer acts as a fluid-structure interface with mass. The resulting FSI problem is a nonlinear moving boundary problem of parabolic-hyperbolic type. This problem is motivated by the flow of blood in elastic arteries whose walls are composed of several layers, each with different mechanical characteristics and thickness. We prove existence of a weak solution to this nonlinear FSI problem as long as the cylinder radius is greater than zero. The proof is based on a novel semi-discrete, operator splitting numerical scheme, known as the kinematically coupled scheme. We effectively prove convergence of that numerical scheme to a solution of the nonlinear fluid-multi-layered-structure interaction problem. The spaces of weak solutions presented in this manuscript reveal a striking new feature: the presence of a thin fluid-structure interface with mass regularizes solutions of the coupled problem. 1 arXiv:1305.5310v1 [math.AP] 23 May 20133)

We study a nonlinear, moving boundary fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problem between an incompressible, viscous Newtonian fluid, modeled by the 2D Navier-Stokes equations, and an elastic structure modeled by the shell or plate equations. The fluid and structure are coupled via the Navier slip boundary condition and balance of contact forces at the fluid-structure interface. The slip boundary condition might be more realistic than the classical no-slip boundary condition in situations, e.g., when the structure is "rough", and in modeling FSI dynamics near, or at a contact. Cardiovascular tissue and cell-seeded tissue constructs, which consist of grooves in tissue scaffolds that are lined with cells, are examples of "rough" elastic interfaces interacting with an incompressible, viscous fluid. The problem of heart valve closure is an example of a FSI problem with a contact involving elastic interfaces. We prove the existence of a weak solution to this class of problems by designing a constructive proof based on the time discretization via operator splitting. This is the first existence result for fluid-structure interaction problems involving elastic structures satisfying the Navier slip boundary condition.

In this work we analyze the stability and convergence properties of a loosely-coupled scheme, called the kinematically coupled scheme, and its extensions for the interaction between an incompressible, viscous fluid and a thin, elastic structure. We consider a benchmark problem where the structure is modeled using a general thin structure model, and the coupling between the fluid and structure is linear. We derive the energy estimates associated with the unconditional stability of an extension of the kinematically coupled scheme, called the β -scheme. Furthermore, for the first time we present a priori estimates showing optimal, first-order in time convergence in the case when β = 1. We further discuss the extensions of our results to other fluid-structure interaction problems, in particular the fluid-thick structure interaction problem. The theoretical stability and convergence results are supported with numerical examples.1. Introduction. The interaction between an incompressible viscous fluid and an elastic structure has been of great interest due to various applications in different areas (see e.g. [8]). This problem is characterized by highly nonlinear coupling between two different physical phenomena. As a result, a comprehensive study of such problems remains a challenge [34]. The solution strategies for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems can be roughly classified as monolithic schemes and loosely or strongly coupled partitioned schemes. Monolithic algorithms, see for example [7,29,41,27,43,35], consist of solving the entire coupled problem as one system of algebraic equations. They, however, require well-designed preconditioners [27,3,33] and are generally quite expensive in terms of computational time and memory requirements. Hence, to obtain smaller and better conditioned sub-problems, reduce the computational cost and treat each physical phenomenon separately, partitioned numerical schemes that solve the fluid problem separately from the structure problem have been a popular choice. The development of partitioned numerical methods for FSI problems has been extensively studied [21,20,22,13,2,39,23,42,32,37,6,5,24], but the design of efficient schemes to produce stable, accurate results remains a challenge. Moreover, despite the recent developments, there are just a few works where the convergence is proved rigorously [40,39,23,24].A classical partitioned scheme, particularly popular in aerodynamics, is known as the Dirichlet-Neumann (DN) partitioned scheme [17,42,26]. The DN scheme consists of solving the fluid problem with a Dirichlet boundary condition (structure velocity) at the fluid-structure interface, and the structure problem with a Neumann boundary condition (fluid stress) at the interface. While the DN scheme features appealing properties such as modularity, simple implementation and fast computational time, it has been shown to be stable only if the structure density is much larger than the fluid density. This requirement is easily achieved in some applications like aerodynamics, but n...

The long-time existence of a weak solution is proved for a nonlinear, fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problem between an incompressible, viscous fluid and a semilinear cylindrical Koiter membrane shell with inertia. No axial symmetry is assumed in the problem. The fluid flow is driven by the timedependent dynamic pressure data prescribed at the inlet and outlet boundaries of the 3D cylindrical fluid domain. The fluid and the elastic structure are fully coupled via continuity of velocity and continuity of normal stresses. Global existence of a weak solution is proved as long as the lateral walls of the cylinder do not touch each other. The main novelty of the work is the nonlinearity in the structure model: the model accounts for the fully nonlinear Koiter membrane energy, supplemented with a small linear fourth-order derivative term modeling the bending rigidity of shells. The existence proof is constructive, and it is based on an operator splitting scheme. A version of this scheme can be implemented for the numerical simulation of the underlying FSI problem by extending the FSI solver, developed by the authors in [5], to include the nonlinearity in the structure model discussed in this manuscript.

We study a 3D fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problem between an incompressible, viscous fluid modeled by the Navier-Stokes equations, and the motion of an elastic structure, modeled by the linearly elastic cylindrical Koiter shell equations, allowing structure displacements that are not necessarily radially symmetric. The problem is set on a cylindrical domain in 3D, and is driven by the time-dependent inlet and outlet dynamic pressure data. The coupling between the fluid and the structure is fully nonlinear (2-way coupling), giving rise to a nonlinear, moving-boundary problem in 3D. We prove the existence of a weak solution to this 3D FSI problem by using an operator splitting approach in combination with the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian mapping, which satisfies a geometric conservation law property. We effectively prove that the resulting computational scheme converges to a weak solution of the full, nonlinear 3D FSI problem.

SUMMARY We present an operator‐splitting scheme for fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problems in hemodynamics, where the thickness of the structural wall is comparable to the radius of the cylindrical fluid domain. The equations of linear elasticity are used to model the structure, while the Navier–Stokes equations for an incompressible viscous fluid are used to model the fluid. The operator‐splitting scheme, based on the Lie splitting, separates the elastodynamics structure problem from a fluid problem in which structure inertia is included to achieve unconditional stability. We prove energy estimates associated with unconditional stability of this modular scheme for the full nonlinear FSI problem defined on a moving domain, without requiring any sub‐iterations within time steps. Two numerical examples are presented, showing excellent agreement with the results of monolithic schemes. First‐order convergence in time is shown numerically. Modularity, unconditional stability without temporal sub‐iterations, and simple implementation are the features that make this operator‐splitting scheme particularly appealing for multi‐physics problems involving FSI. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We present a benchmark problem and a loosely-coupled partitioned scheme for fluidstructure interaction with composite structures. The benchmark problem consists of an incompressible, viscous fluid interacting with a structure composed of two layers: a thin elastic layer with mass which is in contact with the fluid and modeled by the Koiter membrane/shell equations, and a thick elastic layer with mass modeled by the equations of linear elasticity. An efficient, modular, partitioned operator-splitting scheme is proposed to simulate solutions to the coupled, nonlinear FSI problem, without the need for subiterations at every time-step. An energy estimate associated with unconditional stability is derived for the fully nonlinear FSI problem defined on moving domains. Two instructive numerical benchmark problems are presented to test the performance of numerical FSI schemes involving composite structures. It is shown numerically that the proposed scheme is at least first-order accurate both in time and space. This work reveals a new physical property of FSI problems involving thin interfaces with mass: the inertia of the thin fluidstructure interface regularizes solutions to the full FSI problem.