Computational Methodology for Integrated CFD-CSD Simulations of Fluid-Structure Interaction Problems

Abstract

A newly developed computational methodology for high-fidelity prediction of fluid and structure dynamics and their unsteady interaction is presented. The present methodology combines an immersed-boundary method, which is capable of simulating flow over non-grid-conforming complex moving bodies and a structural dynamics solver, which is based on a finite-element method and is capable of predicting time-accurate dynamics of deforming solid structures. The pressure and velocity of fluid and geometric information of submerged structures are time-accurately coupled through an integration algorithm. The capability of the present computational fluid dynamics (CFD)–computational structure dynamics (CSD) coupling technique is assessed in a number of validation simulations.