A Fully Coupled Particle Method For Quasi Incompressible Fluid-Hypoelastic Structure Interactions

Abstract

We present a general formulation for the simulation of fluid flows in interation with hypoelastic materials using the particle finite element method (PFEM). The fluid is fully coupled with the structures which can undergo large structural displacements, rotations and deformations. The key feature of the PFEM is the use of an updated Lagrangian description to model the motion of nodes (particles) in both the fluid and the structure domains. A mesh connects the nodes defining the discretized domains where the governing equations, expresed in an integral form, are solved as in the standard FEM. The implemented code is used to solve a number of fluid-structure interaction problems including free-fluid surfaces and breaking waves impacting over hypoelastic structures.