A finite element model for active fluid structure interaction

A numerical procedure for the simulation of multi-physics phenomena is described. The focus is on fluid-structure interaction problems in which part of the structural sub-domain exhibits an active behaviour. A brief description of the algorithm is provided: the whole domain is discretized in space by the finite element method, and a semi-implicit time integration scheme is used. The solution of the coupled system is performed by partitioned treatment, and the explicit form of the coupling terms, as well as the non-linear ones allows the independent solution of each sub-domain, and avoids the equilibrium iterations, at the expense of conditional stability. The resulting scheme exhibits good accuracy and stability, and requires comparatively small computation. A number of active FSI cases are reported.