A consistent and comprehensive computational approach for general Fluid-Structure-Contact Interaction problems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified computational framework for complex fluid-structure-contact interactions, integrating no-slip and frictionless contact conditions with a consistent discretization approach, validated through diverse numerical examples.

Contribution

It develops a continuous formulation and a discretization method that handle topological changes and contact conditions in FSCI problems, ensuring convergence and consistency.

Findings

The approach successfully models complex FSCI scenarios.

The use of CutFEM enables handling of topological changes.

Numerical examples demonstrate robustness and accuracy.

Abstract

We present a consistent approach that allows to solve challenging general nonlinear fluid-structure-contact interaction (FSCI) problems. The underlying continuous formulation includes both "no-slip" fluid-structure interaction as well as frictionless contact between multiple elastic bodies. The respective interface conditions in normal and tangential orientation and especially the role of the fluid stress within the region of closed contact are discussed for the general problem of FSCI. To ensure continuity of the tangential constraints from no-slip to frictionless contact, a transition is enabled by using the general Navier condition with varying slip length. Moreover, the fluid stress in the contact zone is obtained by an extension approach as it plays a crucial role for the lift-off behavior of contacting bodies. With the given continuity of the spatially continuous formulation, continuity of the discrete problem (which is essential for the convergence of Newton's method) is reached naturally. As topological changes of the fluid domain are an inherent challenge in FSCI configurations, a non-interface fitted Cut Finite Element Method (CutFEM) is applied to discretize the fluid domain. All interface conditions, that is the `no-slip' FSI, the general Navier condition, and frictionless contact are incorporated using Nitsche based methods, thus retaining the continuity and consistency of the model. To account for the strong interaction between the fluid and solid discretization, the overall coupled discrete system is solved monolithically. Numerical examples of varying complexity are presented to corroborate the developments.