TITLE:
Methodology for Comparing Coupling Algorithms for Fluid-Structure Interaction Problems
AUTHORS:
Jason P. Sheldon, Scott T. Miller, Jonathan S. Pitt
KEYWORDS:
Fluid-Structure Interaction; FSI; Finite Element Method; Monolithic Coupling; Partitioned Coupling; Dirichlet-Neumann Coupling; Multi-Physics
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Mechanics,
Vol.4 No.2,
February
18,
2014
ABSTRACT: The multi-physics simulation of coupled fluid-structure
interaction problems, with disjoint fluid and solid domains, requires one to
choose a method for enforcing the fluid-structure coupling at the interface
between solid and fluid. While it is common knowledge that the choice of
coupling technique can be very problem dependent, there exists no
satisfactory coupling comparison methodology that allows for conclusions to be
drawn with respect to the comparison of computational cost and solution
accuracy for a given scenario. In this work, we develop a computational
framework where all aspects of the computation can be held constant, save for
the method in which the coupled nature of the fluid-structure equations is
enforced. To enable a fair comparison of coupling methods, all simulations
presented in this work are implemented within a single numerical framework
within the deal.ii [1] finite element library. We have chosen the two-dimensional
benchmark test problem of Turek and Hron [2] as an example to
examine the relative accuracy of the coupling methods studied; however, the
comparison technique is equally applicable to more complex problems. We show
that for the specific case considered herein the monolithic approach
outperforms partitioned and quasi-direct methods; however, this result is problem
dependent and we discuss computational and modeling aspects which may affect
other comparison studies.