NEW QUASI-MONOLITHIC METHOD TO SOLVE DYNAMIC FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION PROBLEMS ON MEMBRANES

We present a new algorithm based on a quasi-monolithic approach to solve strongly coupled fluid-structure interaction problems. This approach is an implicit coupling adapted to a partitioned solver while conserving the property of convergence and stability of the monolithic approach(1). The coupling is done between a finite element program ARA developed by K-Epsilon and the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes code, ISIS-CFD, part of the commercial software FINE/Marine (TM). The fluid mesh is deformed using a fast, robust and parallelized method which propagates the deformation state. The mesh deformation is taken into account through the ALE method. Validation of the coupling was performed against the experimental results of a flapping membrane. Application of the coupling is made to compare the unsteady flying stability of two downwind sails using an automatic trimming algorithm. Future application to a respiring tube is discussed.