Sergio R. Idelsohn

Validation of the particle finite element method (PFEM) for simulation of free surface flows

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possibilities of the particle finite element method for simulation of free surface flows.Design/methodology/approach – A numerical simulation of a number of examples for which experimental data are available is performed. The simulations are run using the same scale as the experiment in order to minimize errors due to scale effects. Some examples are chosen from the civil engineering field: a study of the flow over a flip bucket is analyzed for both 2D and 3D models, and the flow under a planar sluice gate is studied in 2D. Other examples, such as a 2D and 3D “dam break” with an obstacle are taken from the smooth particle hydrodynamics literature.Findings – Different scenarios are simulated by changing the boundary conditions for reproducing flows with the desired characteristics. Different mesh sizes are considered for evaluating their influence on the final solution.Originality/value – Details of the input data for all the examples studied are given...

Advances in the Particle Finite Element Method for Fluid-Structure Interaction Problems

There is an increasing interest in the development of robust and efficient numerical methods for analysis of engineering problems involving the interaction of fluids and structures accounting for large motions of the fluid free surface and the existence of fully or partially submerged bodies. Examples of this kind are common in ship hydrodynamics, off-shore structures, spillways in dams, free surface channel flows, liquid containers, stirring reactors, mould filling processes, etc.

Possibilities of the particle finite element method for fluid-structure interaction problems with free surface waves

We present a general formulation for analysis of fluid-structure interaction problems using the particle finite element method (PFEM). The key feature of the PFEM is the use of a Lagrangian description to model the motion of nodes (particles) in both the fluid and the structure domains. Nodes are thus viewed as particles which can freely move and even separate from the main analysis domain representing, for instance, the effect of water drops. A mesh connects the nodes defining the discretized domain where the governing equations, expressed in an integral from, are solved as in the standard FEM. The necessary stabilization for dealing with the incompressibility condition in the fluid is introduced via the finite calculus (FIC) method. A fractional step scheme for the transient coupled fluid-structure solution is described. Examples of application of the PFEM method to solve a number of fluid-structure interaction problems involving large motions of the free surface and splashing of waves are presented.