Partitioned Fluid Structure Interaction: Coupling FEniCS and OpenFOAM via preCICE
Richard Hertrich · mediaTUM – the media and publications repository of the Technical University Munich (Technical University Munich) · 2019
In partitioned fluid structure interaction, a structure solver and a fluid solver are coupled via boundary conditions at the interface. This thesis presents partitioned FSI simulations using OpenFOAM for the fluid, preCICE as a coupling tool, and a structure solver I developed with the FEM library FEniCS. I extended the preCICE-FEniCS adapter to match the requirements for FSI, such that users can couple FEniCS simulations with vector functions and read conservatively mapped quantities from preCICE to a FEniCS solver. Plus, the adapter now features a mapping between pseudo-3D OpenFOAM and 2D FEniCS. The setup is tested with two FSI scenarios: An elastic flap in a channel and the FSI3 benchmark. I compare the results to validated partitioned FSI methods and reference results in literature to validate the preCICE-FEniCS adapter and the structure solver.