An Improved Direct-Forcing Immersed Boundary Method for Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulations1

In the present work, we present an improved version of the direct-forcing immersed boundary (IB) method proposed in Wang and Zhang (2011, "An Immersed Boundary Method Based on Discrete Stream Function Formulation for Two- and Three-Dimensional Incompressible Flows," J. Comput. Phys., 230(9), pp. 3479-3499). In order to obtain an accurate prediction of local surface force, measures have been taken to suppress the unphysical spatial oscillations in the Lagrangian forcing. A fluid-structure interaction (FSI) solver has been developed by using the improved IB method for the fluid and the finite difference method for the structure. Several flow problems are simulated to validate our method. The testing cases include flows over a stationary cylinder and a stationary flat plate, two-dimensional flow past an inextensible flexible filament, and three-dimensional flow past a flapping flag. The results obtained in the present work agree well with those from the literature.