Recommendation for Aeroelasticity and FSI Modeling

[hconel]

Hi,
I primarily work in CFD and am relatively new to aeroelasticity and FSI modeling. I mostly use OpenFOAM and recently started exploring SU2. First, I’d like to share my understanding of FSI simulations after some brief research and outline the ‘big picture.’ However, I might have misconceptions and would appreciate any corrections:

• DOF only, rigid body motion without elasticity. This involves simple deforming meshes without any structural solver (e.g., FEM) and employs dampers/springs to allow rigid body motion. Examples:
  I believe SU2’s ‘aeroelastic’ capabilities allow this within the standard SU2 standard package.
  preCICE coupling of (MBDyn) + (OpenFOAM/SU2)
• Solid elasticity only, no DOF. This involves a body fixed at a point with zero translation & rotation, but able to deform. A structural solver (e.g., FEM) is necessary. Example:
  preCICE coupling of (Calculix/Fenics/deal.II) + (OpenFOAM/SU2)
• Both DOF and elasticity available

I’m not aware of any model capable of this.
Please feel free to elaborate on this categorization and correct me if I’m mistaken about anything above. Regarding this, what would you suggest for DOF and elastic simulations?
Best regards,
Hüseyin

[Makis]

Hi @hconel,

I think that what you are looking for is elasticity + predescribed motion. Is that correct?

A few people are looking towards this direction. Some examples from a quick search in this forum:

Rotational movements with preCICE and OpenFOAM using solidBody solver instead of displacementLaplacian solver

Hi everyone, in the FSI interface documentation of the OpenFOAM-Adapter, the displacementLaplacian solver is the only mentioned solver. Having a case, where I want to rotate an airfoil, the displacementLaplacian solver does not fit to this case. Furthermore, I would need the solidBody solver to access the solidBodyMotionFunction rotatingMotion. Now I am asking you, if there is a way to couple preCICE with the solidBody solver. To give you an example of my issue: Here you can see a rotationa…

FSI coupling between OpenFOAM and MBDyn of a cycloidal rotor

In this project a FSI coupling was established together with @louisgag to investigate the influence of rotor blade deformation of cycloidal rotors and its effect on the rotor efficiency. The preCICE OpenFOAM adapter uses the pointDisplacement function of OpenFOAM to couple motion data. However, simulating rotating bodies of a cyclorotor is not yet possible with this approach in OpenFOAM. Therefore an additional OpenFOAM class was added to couple the rotation motion directly from the MBDyn adapt…

[hconel]

Hi @Makis,
Yes. Actually, I’m interested in all kinds of FSI simulations, including pre-described motion, zero-DOF, 6-DOF, elasticity/rigidity, and a combination of all. I wanted first to share my understanding of the big picture and get feedback from seasoned users. Thanks for the links, I’ll check them.
Regards