Fully integrated mesh generation in fluid-structure interaction

Summary

In fluid-structure interaction (FSI), the fluid and solid domains are permantently changing, coupled along a time-dependent, moving fluid-structure interface. The update of the fluid domain, i.e., in the numerical context, the mesh update is critical for robust and efficient simulations. Herein, we propose to inherently embed the mesh generation into the simulation.The FSI domain is defined based on structured building blocks that imply all the relevant information needed for the automatic mesh generation: Topology, geometry, and grading information. Transfinite maps play a crucial role for the definition of sub-meshes with any desired order and resolution in each building block. In every time step, a new mesh is generated, taking into account the deforming FSI interface. This generation is fast compared to the overall work load in each time step which is still dominated by the (iterative) solutions of the systems of equations. It is also very robust and removes any mesh entanglement by construction provided that suitable building blocks are selected once initially. Numerical results confirm the success of the proposed FSI strategy with integrated mesh generation.

Abstract

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