An Efficient High-Order Method for Fluid-Structure Interactions

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

This project addresses mathematical, algorithmic, and computational issues for coupling the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations and the three-dimensional nonlinear elastodynamic equations to achieve high-order accuracy. The transmission conditions between the fluid and structure will be enforced exactly with the proposed formulation, which allows for the fluid and structure sub-problems to be computed independently and in parallel, greatly facilitating the solution of such systems on massively parallel computers. The elastodynamic equations and the Navier-Stokes equations are solved employing identical set of high-order basis functions, substantially simplifying the implementation of transmission conditions between the fluid and the structure. Scalable algorithms for efficient computations of large-scale fluid-structure problems are proposed and investigated. Fluid-structure interaction is omnipresent in natural and man-made environments, and underlies many engineering, physical and biological applications. Wind rustling leaves and ringing chimes, hurricanes breaching levees and destroying a community or an entire city, circulating blood in normal or diseased arteries inducing favorable conditions for the formation of aneurysms or atherosclerotic plaques, are several immediate examples. The proposed research will enable accurate computations of fluid-structure interactions. This will bring about unprecedented predictive capabilities and profoundly impact many scientific disciplines.