Coupling fluid (CFD) and structural (FE) models using finite interpolation elements

In the field of aeroelasticity, interactions between elastic structures and fluid flow are investigated. Recently, numerical aeroelastic models have been built composing those of the combining fluid dynamics (CFD) and the computational structural dynamics (CSD) domains. Since the fluid and the structural models differ in their formulation and discretization, an interface model has to be introduced that represents the connectivity and physical interaction between the two single domain models. In the following, a scheme for coupling fluid (CFD) and structural models (FE) in space is presented which is based on finite interpolation elements. It is applied to static aeroelastic problems, in order to predict the equilibrium of elastic wing models in transonic fluid flow. The structure is represented by finite elements and the related equations are solved using commercial FE analysis codes. The transonic fluid flow is described by the three-dimensional Euler equations, solved by an upwind scheme procedure. The resulting coupled field problem containing the fluid and the structural state equations, is solved by applying a partitioned solution procedure. In each solution step the interface and boundary conditions are exchanged and updated. Here, a fixed-point iteration scheme is used for the coupled aeroelastic equations.