Numerical Simulation of Interaction Between Laminar Flow and Elastic Sheet

A numerical simulation of the interaction between laminar flow with low Reynolds number and a highly flexible elastic sheet is presented.The mathematical model for the simulation includes a three-dimensional finitevolume based fluid solver for incompressible viscous flow and a combined finite-discrete element method for the three-dimensional deformation of solid.An immersed boundary method is used to couple the simulation of fluid and solid.It is implemented through a set of immersed boundary points scattered on the solid surface.These points provide a deformable solid wall boundary for the fluid by adding body force to Navier-Stokes equations.The force from the fluid is also obtained for each point and then applied on the boundary nodes of the solid.The vortex-induced vibration of the highly flexible elastic sheet is simulated with the established mathematical model.The simulated results for both swing pattern and oscillation frequency of the elastic sheet in low Reynolds number flow agree well with experimental.