An open-source finite volume toolbox for solid mechanics and fluid-solid interaction simulations

TL;DR

This paper introduces an open-source finite volume toolbox built on OpenFOAM for simulating solid mechanics and fluid-solid interactions, emphasizing usability, extendability, and validation against finite element solutions.

Contribution

It presents a novel, user-friendly, open-source toolbox for solid mechanics and fluid-solid interaction simulations based on the finite volume method.

Findings

The toolbox effectively simulates various test problems.

Comparisons show good agreement with finite element solutions.

The design facilitates code understanding and extension.

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, the cell-centred finite volume method has developed to become a viable alternative to the finite element method in the field of computational solid mechanics. The current article presents an open-source toolbox for solid mechanics and fluid-solid interaction simulations based on the finite volume library OpenFOAM. The object-oriented toolbox design is outlined, where emphasis has been given to code use, comprehension, maintenance and extension. The toolbox capabilities are demonstrated on a number of representative test problems, where comparisons are given with finite element solutions.