Fluid-Structure Interaction: Coupling Schemes

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Numerical simulation of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) phenomena is an essential aspect for many applications in civil, mechanical, aerospace and biomechanical engineering. Of particular interest is the interaction of incompressible flow with flexible structures undergoing finite deformations. We have developed robust and stable coupling schemes to solve the problem.

Strongly coupled Dirichlet-Neumann schemes allow for the use of established and highly efficient field solvers. The coupling procedure at the interface is effectively solved with a fixed-point method with dynamic relaxation. For some numerical very challenging FSI problems we could show that monolithic coupling schemes outperform partitioned approaches. The efficiency of the monolithic scheme is based on newly developed iterative solvers for the coupled linear system of equations.

The coupling strategies we have implemented are applicable for fixed as well as for moving grid formulations.