DYNAMIC SIMULATION OF FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION PROBLEMS INVOLVING LARGE-AMPLITUDE SLOSHING

An effective computational method is developed for dynamic analysis of fluid-structure interaction problems involving large-amplitude sloshing of the fluid and large-displacement motion of the structure. The structure is modeled as a rigid container supported by a system consisting of springs and dashpots. The motion of the fluid is decomposed into two parts: the large-displacement motion with the container and the large-amplitude sloshing relative to the container. The former is conveniently dealt with by defining a container-fixed noninertial local frame, while the latter is easily handled by adopting an ALE kinematical description. This leads to an easy and accurate treatment of both the fluid-structure interface and the fluid free surface without producing excessive distortion of the computational mesh. The coupling between the fluid and the structure is accomplished through the coupling matrices that can be easily established. Two numerical examples, including a TLD-structure system and a simplifie