Free-surface flow interactions with deformable structures using an SPH–FEM model

A two-dimensional SPH–FEM model is proposed to investigate its application in the fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problem. The fluid model is based on the theory of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and the structural dynamics employ a large-deformation Finite Element Method (FEM). This paper describes the basics of both SPH and FEM models and presents the development of a loosely coupled SPH–FEM model. Validation results of two benchmark FSI problems are illustrated. The first test case is flow in a sloshing tank interacting with an elastic body (Souto-Iglesias et al., 2008) and the second one is dam-break flow through an elastic gate (Antoci et al., 2007). The results obtained with the SPH–FEM model show good agreement with published experimental results and suggest that the SPH–FEM model is a viable and effective numerical tool for FSI problems.

► We present the development of a loosely coupled SPH–FEM model.
► We investigate applications of the SPH–FEM model in the fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problem.
► We provide validation results of two benchmark FSIs and show good agreement with published experimental data.