Multiphysics / Coupled Problems
The interaction of different physical phenomena plays an essential role in most engineering applications. The modeling of such multiphysics problems is one of our main areas of research. We have developed robust and efficient computational methods for various coupled problems. A brief overview on our approaches and their respective applications is given below.
Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI)
The coupling of incompressible flows and highly flexible structures is still a very challenging task. Many existing approaches are either unstable or very inefficient in such situations. Therefore, our research focuses on new robust coupling algorithms, stable time integration schemes and efficient solvers for FSI problems. To achieve a wide range of applicability, we have also developed different FSI formulations from classical Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) schemes to fixed-grid methods. Recently, we have also extended our fixed-grid fluid-structure interaction framework to FSI with contact.
FSI phenomena are currently addressed in several applications, such as:
Thermo-Structure Interaction (TSI) and Thermo-Fluid-Structure Interaction (TFSI)
We have developed a novel TSI approach enabling the efficient coupling of structural deformations and temperature. One important application of our TSI approach is the design of rocket nozzles. Currently, we are developing a computational approach to thermo-fluid-structure interaction (TFSI) based on the coupling of thermo-mechanics (TSI) and variable-density flows.