A fluid–structure interaction method for highly deformable solids

The immersed element-free Galerkin method (IEFG) is presented for modeling fluid–structure interaction problems involving large deformation of a slender solid body. The fluid flow and energy equations are solved with an Eulerian adaptive finite element method while the solid domain is modeled with an updated-Lagrangian IEFG formulation. The fluid–structure interaction is represented as a volumetric force in the momentum equations. The continuity between the solid and fluid domains is satisfied by means of a local moving least squares approximation of the fluid velocity field and the fluid–structure interaction force. To illustrate the potential of the IEFG method, a model problem which is closely related to computations of the dynamics of oxide bifilms in molten metal alloys during a solidification process is presented.