A non-intrusive partitioned approach to couple smoothed particle hydrodynamics and finite element methods for transient fluid-structure interaction problems with large interface motion

We propose a non-intrusive numerical coupling method for transient fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems simulated by means of different discretization methods: smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and finite element (FE) methods for the fluid and the solid sub-domains, respectively. As a partitioned coupling method, the present algorithm can ensure a zero interface energy during the whole period of numerical simulation, even in the presence of large interface motion. In other words, the time integrations of the two sub-domains (second order Runge–Kutta scheme for fluid and Newmark integrator for solid) are synchronized. Thanks to this energy-conserving feature, one can preserve the minimal order of accuracy in time and the numerical stability of the FSI simulations, which are validated with a 1D and a 2D trivial numerical test cases. Additionally, some other 2D FSI simulations involving large interface motion have also been carried out with the proposed SPH–FE coupling method. Finally, an example of aquaplaning problem is given in order to show the feasibility of such coupling method in multi-dimensional applications with complicated structural geometries.