Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation with Skeleton-based Structural Models (ALE-SSM) framework for water-structure interaction with large structural deformations

Abstract

This paper presents a method for water-structure, two-phase, interaction computations with geometrically nonlinear structural deformations. The method builds on the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian Formulation with Skeleton-Based Structural Models (ALE-SSM) framework to model the structural domain with force-based line elements (FBEs). The air-to-water flow is simulated with a coupled level-set/volume-of-fluid (CLS-VOF) approach with fluid mass correction applied in both the LS and VOF domains. Using FBEs, numerical tests show that the method effectively simulates physical experiments involving low- and high-compliant, flexible, cantilever structures subjected to multi-phase flows. The proposed method is used to evaluate the sensitivity of two-phase mass balancing to structural compliance and perform a parametric study to investigate compliance effects on water-structure interaction and hydrodynamic loads.