A unified momentum equation approach for computing flow-induced stresses in structures with arbitrarily-shaped stationary boundaries

Abstract

This article presents a novel monolithic numerical method for computing flow-induced stresses for problems involving arbitrarily-shaped stationary boundaries. A unified momentum equation for a continuum consisting of both fluids and solids is derived in terms of velocity by hybridizing the momentum equations of incompressible fluids and linear elastic solids. Discontinuities at the interface are smeared over a finite thickness around the interface using the signed distance function, and the resulting momentum equation implicitly takes care of the interfacial conditions without using a body-fitted grid. A finite volume approach is employed to discretize the obtained governing equations on a Cartesian grid. For validation purposes, this method has been applied to three examples, lid-driven cavity flow in a square cavity, lid-driven cavity flow in a circular cavity, and flow over a cylinder, where velocity and stress fields are simultaneously obtained for both fluids and structures. The simulation results agree well with the results found in the literature and the results obtained by COMSOL Multiphysics®.