Partitioned solution to fluid–structure interaction problem in application to free-surface flows

In this work we discuss a way to compute the impact of free-surface flow on nonlinear structures. The approach chosen relies on a partitioned strategy that allows us to solve the strongly coupled fluid–structure interaction problem. It is then possible to re-use the existing and validated strategy for each sub-problem. The structure is formulated in a Lagrangian way and solved by the finite element method. The free-surface flow approach considers a Volume-Of-Fluid (VOF) strategy formulated in an Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) framework, and the finite volume is used to discrete and solve this problem. The software coupling is ensured in an efficient way using the Communication Template Library (CTL). Numerical examples presented herein concern the 2D validation case but also 3D problems with a large number of equations to be solved.