Fluid-Structure Interaction Using Unstructured Meshes

The objective of the proposed work is to develop a unified and optimum numerical method for solving fluid-structure interaction problems. We propose to use an unstructured solution-adaptive topology for both fluid and structure, and to discretize the governing equations for both using a common numerical basis. We also propose to use MIMD parallel processing with domain decomposition to allow the solution of these large three- dimensional unsteady problems. Phase I of the proposed work will concentrate on the fluid side, and develop a numerical basis for computing fluid flow on a moving and deforming mesh. Algorithms for the transmittal of a prescribed boundary deformation to the interior unstructured mesh will be developed. The methodology will be validated against the literature. Phase II will concentrate on the discretization of the structure equations, and the computation fluid-structure interaction. Procedures for parallel processing of the code on MIMD architectures will be also implemented. The resulting software will address a wide variety of practical fluid-structure interaction problems.