Arta CFD Laboratory

Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis

Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) is the multiphysics interaction of a fluid flow with a solid structure. FSI occurs when a fluid flow interacts with a solid structure and exerts pressure and/or thermal loads onto the structure. These pressures and/or thermal loads may cause structural deformation significant enough to, in turn, change the fluid flow. FSI problems can span from small deformations in a piping system due to conjugate heat transfer (CHT) all the way to blade flutter in a wind turbine. As the interaction increases, you need a solution that can accurately predict this phenomenon.
Modeling approaches can vary depending on the level of fluid-structure interaction occurring and the level of fidelity needed. For simple FSI analyses, a computational fluid dynamic (CFD)-only approach can be used. These analyses would include rigid body motion and CHT applications. In these applications, the solid being studied usually does not deform and a CFD-only approach is therefore more efficient. When the solid begins to deform and deformations need to be accounted for, the fluid and structural simulations can then be coupled to transfer data between the solvers for either a one-way or two-way coupled simulation.

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