A finite element solution of an added mass formulation for coupled fluid-solid vibrations

Summary. A finite element method to approximate the vibration modes of a structure in contact with an incompressible fluid is analyzed in this paper. The effect of the fluid is taken into account by means of an added mass formulation, which is one of the most usual procedures in engineering practice. Gravity waves on the free surface of the liquid are also considered in the model. Piecewise linear continuous elements are used to discretize the solid displacements, the variables to compute the added mass terms and the vertical displacement of the free surface, yielding a non conforming method for the spectral coupled problem. Error estimates are settled for approximate eigenfunctions and eigenfrequencies. Implementation issues are discussed and numerical experiments are reported. In particular the method is compared with other numerical scheme, based on a pure displacement formulation, which has been recently analyzed. Received August 31, 1998 / Published online July 12, 2000     

Divergence-free finite elements for the numerical solution of a hydroelastic vibration problem

In this paper, we analyze a divergence-free finite element method to solve a fluid–structure interaction spectral problem in the three-dimensional case. The unknowns of the resulting formulation are the fluid and solid displacements and the fluid pressure on the interface separating both media. The resulting mixed eigenvalue problem is approximated by using appropriate basis of the divergence-free lowest order Raviart–Thomas elements for the fluid, piecewise linear elements for the solid and piecewise constant elements for the interface pressure. It is proved that eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are correctly approximated and some numerical results are reported in order to assess the performance of the method.     

Fluid-particle flow: a symmetric formulation

In this Note, we present a numerical method to simulate the motion of solid particles in a moving viscous fluid. The fluid is supposed to be Newtonian and incompressible. The Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations is discretized at the first order in time, as are the equations for the solid bodies. The advection term is taken into account by a method of characteristics. The variational formulation of the coupled problem is then established, and the boundary integrals expressing the hydrodynamical forces are eliminated. By introduction of an appropriate Finite Element approximation, a symmetric linear system is obtained. This system is solved by an inexact Uzawa algorithm, preconditionned by a Laplace operator with Neumann boundary conditions on the pressure. Numerical results are presented, for 2 and 100 particles: The Reynolds number in both cases is of the order of 100.     

Eigenvalue and eigenfunction error estimates for finite element formulations of linear hydroelasticity

Convergence of an approximate method for determining vibrational eigenpairs of an elastic solid containing an incompressible fluid is examined. The field variables are solid displacement and fluid pressure. We show that in suitable Sobolev spaces a variational formulation exists whose solution eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are identified with those of a compact operator. A nonconforming finite element approximation of this variational problem is described and optimal a priori error estimates are obtained for both the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.

     

A finite element method for heat transfer of power‐law flow in channels with a transverse magnetic field

Heat transfer of a power‐law non‐Newtonian incompressible fluid in channels with porous walls has not been carefully studied using a proper numerical method despite a few constructions of approximate analytic solutions through the similarity transformation and perturbation method for Newtonian fluids (i.e. power‐law index being one). In this paper, we propose a finite element method for the thermal incompressible flow equations. The incompressible condition is treated by a penalty formulation. Numerical solutions are validated by comparing them with an approximate analytic solution of the Navier–Stokes equation in the Newtonian fluid case. Then, the method is used to simulate the heat transfer of various power‐law fluids. Additionally, unlike previous studies, we allow the thermal diffusivity to be a function of temperature gradient. The effect of different values of the parameters on the temperature and velocity is also discussed in this paper. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ALE-FEM For Two-Phase Flows With Insoluble Surfactants

We present a finite element method for the flow of two immiscible incompressible fluids in two and three dimensions. Thereby the presence of surface active agents (surfactants) on the interface is allowed, which alter the surface tension. The model consists of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for velocity and pressure and a convection-diffusion equation on the interface for the distribution of the surfactant. A moving grid technique is applied to track the interface, on that account a Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation of the Navier-Stokes equation is used. The surface tension force is incorporated directly by making use of the Laplace-Beltrami operator technique [1]. Furthermore, we use a finite element method for the convection-diffusion equation on the moving hypersurface. In order to get a high accurate method the interface, velocity, pressure, and the surfactant concentration are approximated by isoparametric finite elements. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Modeling of two-phase flows with surface tension by finite pointset method (FPM)

A meshfree method for two-phase immiscible incompressible flows including surface tension is presented. The continuum surface force (CSF) model is used to include the surface tension force. The incompressible Navier–Stokes equation is considered as the mathematical model. Application of implicit projection method results in linear second-order partial differential equations for velocities and pressure. These equations are then solved by the finite pointset method (FPM), which is a meshfree and Lagrangian method. The fluid is represented as finite number of particles and the immiscible fluids are distinguished by the color of each particle. The interface is tracked automatically by advecting the color functions for each particle. Two test cases, Laplace's law and the Rayleigh–Taylor instability in 2D have been presented. The results are found to be consistent with the theoretical results.     

An Energy Stable Monolithic Eulerian Fluid-Structure Numerical Scheme

The conservation laws of continuum mechanics, written in an Eulerian frame, do not distinguish fluids and solids, except in the expression of the stress tensors, usually with Newton’s hypothesis for the fluids and Helmholtz potentials of energy for hyperelastic solids. By taking the velocities as unknown monolithic methods for fluid structure interactions (FSI for short) are built. In this paper such a formulation is analysed when the solid is compressible and the fluid is incompressible. The idea is not new but the progress of mesh generators and numerical schemes like the Characteristics-Galerkin method render this approach feasible and reasonably robust. In this paper the method and its discretisation are presented, stability is discussed through an energy estimate. A numerical section discusses implementation issues and presents a few simple tests.     

Numerical investigation of blood flow. Part I: In microvessel bifurcations

In some diseases there is a focal pattern of velocity in regions of bifurcation, and thus the dynamics of bifurcation has been investigated in this work. A computational model of blood flow through branching geometries has been used to investigate the influence of bifurcation on blood flow distribution. The flow analysis applies the time-dependent, three-dimensional, incompressible Navier–Stokes equations for Newtonian fluids. The governing equations of mass and momentum conservation were solved to calculate the pressure and velocity fields. Movement of blood flow from an arteriole to a venule via a capillary has been simulated using the volume of fluid (VOF) method. The proposed simulation method would be a useful tool in understanding the hydrodynamics of blood flow where the interaction between the RBC deformation and blood flow movement is important. Discrete particle simulation has been used to simulate the blood flow in a bifurcation with solid and fluid particles. The fluid particle method allows for modeling the plasma as a particle ensemble, where each particle represents a collective unit of fluid, which is defined by its mass, moment of inertia, and translational and angular momenta. These kinds of simulations open a new way for modeling the dynamics of complex, viscoelastic fluids at the micro-scale, where both liquid and solid phases are treated with discrete particles.     

Analysis of a finite element method for pressure/potential formulation of elastoacoustic spectral problems

A finite element method to approximate the vibration modes of a structure enclosing an acoustic fluid is analyzed. The fluid is described by using simultaneously pressure and displacement potential variables, whereas displacement variables are used for the solid. A mathematical analysis of the continuous spectral problem is given. The problem is discretized on a simplicial mesh by using piecewise constant elements for the pressure and continuous piecewise linear finite elements for the other fields. Error estimates are settled for approximate eigenvalues and eigenfrequencies. Finally, implementation issues are discussed.

     

A coupled NMM-SPH method for fluid-structure interaction problems

The main challenges in the numerical simulation of fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problems include the solid fracture, the free surface fluid flow, and the interactions between the solid and the fluid. Aiming to improve the treatment of these issues, a new coupled scheme is developed in this paper. For the solid structure, the Numerical Manifold Method (NMM) is adopted, in which the solid is allowed to change from continuum to discontinuum. The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, which is suitable for free interface flow problem, is used to model the motion of fluids. A contact algorithm is then developed to handle the interaction between NMM elements and SPH particles. Three numerical examples are tested to validate the coupled NMM-SPH method, including the hydrostatic pressure test, dam-break simulation and crack propagation of a gravity dam under hydraulic pressure. Numerical modeling results indicate that the coupled NMM-SPH method can not only simulate the interaction of the solid structure and the fluid as in conventional methods, but also can predict the failure of the solid structure.     

Accurate pressure post-process of a finite element method for elastoacoustics

Summary. This paper deals with a post-process to obtain a more accurate approximation of the fluid pressure from a finite element computation of the vibration modes of a fluid-structure coupled system. The underlying finite element method, based on a displacement formulation for both media, consists of using Raviart-Thomas elements for the fluid combined with standard continuous elements for the solid. An easy to compute post-process of the pressure is derived. The relation between this post-process and an alternative finite element approximation of the problem based on discretizing the fluid pressure by enriched Crouzeix-Raviart elements is studied. Higher order estimates for the L² norm of the post-processed pressure are proved by exploiting this relation. As a by-product, higher order L² estimates for the solid displacements obtained with the original method are also proved.Member of CIC, Provincia de Buenos Aires, ArgentinaMember of CONICET, Argentina. Partially supported by FONDECYT 7.990.075 and FONDAP in Applied Mathematics, ChilePartially supported by FONDECYT 1.990.346 and FONDAP in Applied Mathematics, Chile     

Numerical model for tsunami generation by subaerial landslides

A discretization method based on stabilized space–time finite elements is presented for the numerical analysis of three–fluid flows of immiscible and incompressible fluids. Signed distance functions are used to assign the material properties to each spatial point in the domain. The motion and the change in topology of fluid–fluid interfaces are implicitly described by the level–set method. Strong and weak discontinuities in the fields of the physical state variables are captured by locally enriched approximations based on the partition–of–unity concept. An interior penalty method enforces interfacial conservation of mass and momentum. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A multi-mesh finite element method for Lagrange elements of arbitrary degree

We consider within a finite element approach the usage of different adaptively refined meshes for different variables in systems of nonlinear, time-depended PDEs. To resolve different solution behaviors of these variables, the meshes can be independently adapted. The resulting linear systems are usually much smaller, when compared to the usage of a single mesh, and the overall computational runtime can be more than halved in such cases. Our multi-mesh method works for Lagrange finite elements of arbitrary degree and is independent of the spatial dimension. The approach is well defined, and can be implemented in existing adaptive finite element codes with minimal effort. We show computational examples in 2D and 3D ranging from dendritic growth to solid–solid phase-transitions. A further application comes from fluid dynamics where we demonstrate the applicability of the approach for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with Lagrange finite elements of the same order for velocity and pressure. The approach thus provides an easy way to implement alternative to stabilized finite element schemes, if Lagrange finite elements of the same order are required.     

Strongly coupling of partitioned fluid–solid interaction solvers using reduced-order models

In this work a powerful technique is described which allows the implicit coupling of partitioned solvers in fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problems. The flow under consideration is governed by the Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible viscous fluids and modeled with the finite volume method. The structure is represented by a finite element formulation. The method allows the use of a black box fluid and structural solver because it builds up a reduced order model of the fluid and structural problem during the coupling process. Each solution of the fluid/structural solver in the coupling process can be seen as a sensitivity response of an applied displacement/pressure mode. The applied modes and their responses are used to build up a reduced-order model. The proposed model is used to predict the unsteady flow fields of a particular flow-induced vibrational phenomenon – a fixed cubic rigid body is submerged in an incompressible fluid flow (water), an elastic plate is attached to the rigid body in the centre of the downstream face, and the vortices, which separate from the corners of the rigid body upstream, generate lift forces which excite continuous oscillations of the elastic plate downstream. The computational results show that a fairly good convergence solution is achieved by using the reduced-order model that is based on only a few displacement and stress modes, which largely reduces the computational cost, compared with traditional approaches. At the same time, comparison of the numerical results of the model with available experimental data validates the methodology and assesses its accuracy.     

Numerical simulation of fluid-structure interaction problems by a coupled SPH-FEM approach

In scientific computing there is a great interest in numerical simulation of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems. Within this work a numerical approach to simulate fluid-structure interactions between elastic structures and weakly incompressible fluids is developed. For the fluid part and the solid part the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method (SPH) and the Finite Element Method (FEM) are used, respectively. To transfer the resulting reaction forces from the fluid particles onto the structure's surface two methods are implemented, investigated and compared. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

ALE-FEM for Two-Phase Flows

We present a finite element method for the flow of two immiscible incompressible fluids in two and three dimensions. Thereby the presence of surface active agents (surfactants) on the interface is allowed, which alter the surface tension. The model consists of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for velocity and pressure and a convection-diffusion equation on the interface for the distribution of the surfactant. A moving grid technique is applied to track the interface, on that account a Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation of the Navier-Stokes equation is used. The surface tension force is incorporated directly by making use of the Laplace-Beltrami operator technique [5]. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

On the Description of Partially Saturated Soils by the Theory of Porous Media

In this contribution, a multi‐phase soil model based on the Theory of Porous Media (TPM) is presented. The model is fully coupled in the following constitutive phases: An elasto‐plastic or elasto‐viscoplastic solid skeleton, a materially incompressible pore‐liquid (water) and a materially compressible pore‐gas (air). The interaction of the solid skeleton and the pore‐fluids is specified by a capillary pressure‐saturation relation, whereas the mobilities of the fluid phases in the pore‐space of the solid skeleton are described by the so‐called relative permeabilities. Finally, a gravity governed initial‐boundary‐value problem solved by the FE method is presented.