An Overview of Computational Fluid Structure Interaction: Methods and Applications

Over the past few decades, there has been a rapid improvement in computational power as well as techniques to simulate the real world phenomenon which has enabled us to understand the physics and develop new systems which outperform the existing ones. In the domain of multi-physics problems, fluid and structure interactions have been studied and various numerical methods are introduced to solve them. An extensive review of most commonly employed numerical techniques to solve fluid structure interaction(FSI) problems has been done in this article. It also becomes utmost important to understand the applicability of each method and hence a critical reasoning for usage of different methods has been provided. Application domains are presented which range from energy harvesting processes to simulation of human vocal cords and movement of bolus(food) inside esophagus. Suitable numerical methods applied for each application have also been discussed. Numerical methods developed so far are classified in particular groups based on the discretization, the manner in which coupling is performed and on the basis of meshing(division of entire domain into small blocks inside which variation of a variable is approximated). Challenges and instabilities posed by presently available numerical methods are discussed and potential applications where there is a possibility of errors due to these methods have been listed. A brief set of application areas which have not been explored through the lens of fluid structure interaction also have been discussed at the end of this article.