Numerical simulation of the sedimentation of an elliptic body in an incompressible viscous fluid

In this note we discuss the application of a methodology combining distributed Lagrange multiplier based fictitious domain techniques, finite element approximations and operator splitting, to the numerical simulation of the motion of an elliptic body falling in a Newtonian incompressible viscous fluid. The motion of the body is driven by the hydrodynamical forces and gravity. As qualitatively expected, the elliptic body rotates so that its broad side tends to be perpendicular to the flow direction.