An efficient FSI coupling strategy between Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Finite Element methods

An efficient coupling between Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Finite Element (FE) methods dedicated to violent fluid-structure interaction (FSI) modeling is proposed in this study. The use of a Lagrangian meshless method for the fluid reduces the complexity of fluid-structure interface handling, especially in presence of complex free surface flows. The paper details the discrete SPH equations and the FSI coupling strategy adopted. Both convergence and robustness of the SPH-FE coupling are performed and discussed. More particularly, the loss and gain in stability is studied according to various coupling parameters, and different coupling algorithms are considered. Investigations are performed on 2D academic and experimental test cases in the order of increasing complexity.