Fluid-Structure Interaction

Fluid-Structure interaction is a topic that covers many important and complex problems in engineering where the interaction between the mechanical behaviour of a solid structure is significantly influenced by surrounding fluids (water, air, etc ) and where, in turn, the aero/hydro-dynamic forces are modified by the deformation of the structure. Although it was pioneered by aeronautics engineers to study the static and dynamic deformation of wings under aerodynamic forces (aeroelasticity), fluid-structure interaction analysis involves also the description of interaction phenomenon in constructions (e.g. wind induced vibrations), vibro-acoutics, blood flow in elastic arteries or ink flow in an actuated printer head.

In the past, many semi-analytical approaches were developed to describe fluid-structure interaction. Today, complex problems interaction problems are investigated using engineering codes that couple structural models to fluid models.

In this course, we will recall the basics of fluid and solid mechanics and discuss some important numerical issues appearing when coupling fluid-structure models. In particular we will shortly introduce the Finite Volume Discretization of the fluid, discuss the expression of the fluid equation on moving meshes (Arbitrary Eulerian Lagragian formulation) and discuss time integration issues of the coupled problem.

We will go in more details in discussion the issues of time-integration of the coupled problem. Also the issue on sharing forces/displacements across the interface between the fluid and the structural mesh will be handled in more details.