A coupled ES-FEM/BEM method for fluid–structure interaction problems

The edge-based smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM) developed recently shows some excellent features in solving solid mechanics problems using triangular mesh. In this paper, a coupled ES-FEM/BEM method is proposed to analyze acoustic fluid–structure interaction problems, where the ES-FEM is used to model the structure, while the acoustic fluid is represented by boundary element method (BEM). Three-node triangular elements are used to discretize the structural and acoustic fluid domains for the important adaptability to complicated geometries. The smoothed Galerkin weak form is adopted to formulate the discretized equations for the structure, and the gradient smoothing operation is applied over the edge-based smoothing domains. The global equations of acoustic fluid–structure interaction problems are then established by coupling the ES-FEM for the structure and the BEM for the fluid. The gradient smoothing technique applied in the structural domain can provide the important and right amount of softening effects to the “overly-stiff” FEM model and thus improve the accuracy of the solutions of coupled system. Numerical examples of acoustic fluid–structure interaction problems have been used to assess the present formulation, and the results show that the accuracy of present method is very good and even higher than those obtained using the coupled FEM/BEM with quadrilateral mesh.