Coupling of SPH and Voronoi-cell lattice models for simulating fluid-structure interaction

In this study, a new methodology for coupling smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and the Voronoi-cell lattice model (VCLM) is proposed for simulating fluid-structure interaction (FSI). Free-surface flow of the fluid is modeled using SPH; the structural components are modeled by the VCLM, which accounts for both geometric and material nonlinear behaviors. The FSI algorithm is effective regardless of the mesh irregularity, which is validated through numerical simulations of the elastic opening of a dam gate. The simulation results are compared with other numerical and experimental results, which demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed method for FSI problems.