Simulations of interaction between flow and a thin elastic beam using CIP-based model with adaptive mesh

The simulation of interaction between flow and the elastic structure is a complicated fluid-solid interaction problem, involving the structure's large deformation and fluid interface variation. In this paper, an adaptive CIP (constrained interpolation profile)-based numerical model has been presented to simulate this problem. In this CIP-based model, the constrained interpolation profile method, a high-order finite difference method, is employed as the base flow solver and THINC/SW (Tangent of Hyperbola for Interface Capturing with Slope Weighting) method, a volume of fluid method, is applied to capture the flow interface. IBM (immersed boundary method) method is used to treat the fluid-solid interface. The body deformation is calculated by coupled FDM-FEM (finite difference method and finite element method) method. Adaptive mesh is generated by Afivo (Adaptive Finite Volume quadtree/Octree mesh) framework. The cases of flow past a square and water entry of a symmetric solid wedge are carried out to validate the reliability of the flow solver in this present model. Cantilever beam deformation case is used to validate the accuracy of the solid solver in the present model. Then cases of a thin elastic beam in sloshing tank and dam-break flow are carried out by using this model. After that, the case of regular wave past a membrane breakwater is studied. Our numerical results are compared with previous experimental and numerical studies, and good agreements are obtained. It is demonstrated that this present numerical model has good applicability to simulate the interaction between flow and a thin elastic beam. •A coupled fluid-solid numerical model is proposed to simulate the interactions between the fluid and a thin elastic beam.•CIP numerical method can solve free surface flow problems dominated by convection term with high accuracy.•Afivo adaptive mesh framework can track the boundary of the moving body and calculate the flow field in parallel.•Immersed boundary method is modified and can increase the accuracy of velocity at the interface.•Results shows that this numerical model with adaptive mesh is proved to be an effective tool for numerical simulations.