THE REALIZATION AND APPLICATION OF LOOSELY COUPLED ALGORITHM

This paper presents a loosely coupled algorithm to solve fluid-structure interaction problems more effectively. The proposed algorithm combines Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Computational Structural Dynamics (CSD) codes. The CSD is used to define the fluid region via the computed displacements of structures, while the CFD is used to define the loads on the CSD. For the purpose of illustration, the transfer of loads and displacements is carried out via conservative and non-conservative interpolation respectively. The fluid-structure algorithm can be interpreted as an iterative solution to the fully-coupled, complex problem that results from the discretization of the complete problem. Results from coupling problems of a light membrane structure subjected to wind load indicate that the proposed approach offers a convenient and cost-effective method to solve the FSI problems by coupling CFD and CSD codes.