Fluid-structure interaction coupling CFD and FEA

Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) is becoming of high importance and influence to examine and understand difficult engineering problems. FSI is defined as the interaction between a moving or deforming structure with an internal or external fluid flow, where the change in boundary conditions in one aspect influences the other. The iteration method between computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for the fluid domain and finite element analysis (FEA) for the structural domain will be examined in further detail. The coupling method between CFD and FEA will be shown to have been verified on the HA145E flutter benchmark by Rodden and Johnson (1994). In this study, a coupling solution between the FEA solver MSC.Nastran and the open source CFD solver OpenFOAM was used to perform a rear spoiler test case. The problem focuses on the airflow over a simple deformable spoiler as air accelerates over it from initial rest.