A coupling environment for partitioned multiphysics simulations applied to fluid-structure interaction scenarios

An efficient way to simulate multi-physics scenarios is given by the partitioned coupling approach. It allows to take up established simulation codes for single fields and combine them to one multi-physics simulation tool. The challenges appearing there range from purely technical, such as data communication, via numerical, such as data mapping and transient coupling algorithms, to software engineering challenges, in order to pertain the inherent modularity of the partitioned approach. We present the coupling environment preCICE, which provides black box solutions for surface coupling to the tasks mentioned before and serves as basis for the development of new coupling features. As application example we show fluid-structure interaction scenarios simulated with fixed-grid fluid solvers. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.