Modelling of fluid-structure interaction with multiphase viscous flows using an immersed-body method

An immersed-body method is developed here to model fluid-structure interaction for multiphase viscous flows. It does this by coupling a finite element multiphase fluid model and a combined finite-discrete element solid model. A coupling term containing the fluid stresses is introduced within a thin shell mesh surrounding the solid surface. The thin shell mesh acts as a numerical delta function in order to help apply the solid-fluid boundary conditions. When used with an advanced interface capturing method, the immersed-body method has the capability to solve problems with fluid-solid interfaces in the presence of multiphase fluid-fluid interfaces. Importantly, the solid-fluid coupling terms are treated implicitly to enable larger time steps to be used. This two-way coupling method has been validated by three numerical test cases: a free falling cylinder in a fluid at rest, elastic membrane and a collapsing column of water moving an initially stationary solid square. A fourth simulation example is of a water-air interface with a floating solid square being moved around by complex hydrodynamic flows including wave breaking. The results show that the immersed-body method is an effective approach for two-way solid-fluid coupling in multiphase viscous flows.