A finite element immersed boundary method for fluid flow around moving objects

This paper presents the extension of a recently proposed immersed boundary method to the solution of the flow around moving objects. Solving the flow around objects with complex shapes may involve extensive meshing work that has to be repeated each time a change in the geometry is needed. Mesh generation and solution interpolation between successive grids may be costly and introduce errors if the geometry changes significantly during the course of the computation. These drawbacks are avoided when the solution algorithm can tackle grids that do not fit the shape of immersed objects. This work presents an extension of our recently developed finite element Immersed Boundary (IB) method to transient applications involving the movement of immersed fluid/solid interfaces. As for the fixed solid boundary case, the method produces solutions of the flow satisfying accurately boundary conditions imposed on the surface of immersed bodies. The proposed algorithm enriches the finite element discretization of interface elements with additional degrees of freedom, the latter being eliminated at element level. The boundary of immersed objects is defined using a time dependent level-set function. Solutions are shown for various flow problems and the accuracy of the present approach is measured with respect to solutions on body-conforming meshes.