• Dr. Kevin Guanyuan Wang
  • California Institute of Technology
  • 1060 Torgersen Hall
  • 5:00 p.m.
  • Faculty Host: Dr. Christopher Roy

The dynamic interaction of a movable or deformable structure with the internal or surrounding fluid flow characterizes many important engineering problems. Examples include flexible marine propeller, marine current turbine, implosion of underwater structure, flapping wing micro aerial vehicle (MAV), and pipeline explosion, just to name a few. Currently, most fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems with nonlinear dynamics (shock, turbulence, large structural deformation, etc.) and nonlinear material behaviors (plasticity, fracture, etc.) have not been thoroughly analyzed, which greatly hinders the advance of related engineering fields.

This lecture will first provide an overview of popular computational approaches for solving coupled fluid-structure systems: monolithic and partitioned procedures; deforming, immersed, and overset grids; synchronous and staggered time integrators. Emphasis will be placed on the development, validation, and application of a high-fidelity computational framework for FSI problems involving strong shocks, multi-material fluid flows, plastic structural deformations, and fluid-induced fracture. Key components of this framework include: (1) a localized, physically-based FSI model employed at fluidstructure interface; (2) conservative methods for transferring fluid-induced loads onto the wetted surface of the structure; (3) robust and efficient interface tracking and capturing methods; and (4) an extended finite element method (XFEM) for structures with dynamic
fracture.

The salient features of this computational framework will be highlighted in the full-scale, predictive simulations of several FSI problems in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, including underwater explosion and implosion, flapping wing MAV, flexible aircrafts for high altitude long endurance (HALE) flight, and fighter jet maneuvers. Possible future research directions will be discussed at the end of this lecture.