FLUID STRUCTURE INTERACTION - LSTC is the developer and the leading international supplier of LS-DYNA, a finite element analysis (FEA) software used by aerospace, automotive, and industrial analysts and designers. LS-DYNA is a robust, state-of-the-art fully integrated finite element analysis and design optimization software package that speeds up your product development process.

Fluid-Structure Interaction occurs in a physics simulation whenever the problem involves the flow of fluid causing the deformation of a solid structure.

This deformation of a solid structure, in turn, changes the boundary condition of the fluid problem. For example, the flow of air around an airplane wing causes the wing to deform. As the wing deforms it causes the air pattern around it to change.

Software involved in the analysis of fluid-structure interaction should provide a "strong" coupling between the dynamics of fluids and the dynamics of structures. During every computational step, the fluid flow field and the structures evolve as a coupled system. The interaction forces are immediately accounted for and their resultant motions enforced in each step. "Weak" coupling approaches refer to methods where computational structural and fluid analyses are run alternately and the effects from the one incorporated into the other after the fact. The "weak" coupling is done "after" the dynamic evolution, whereas the "strong" interaction method provides for coupling "during" the dynamic step.

Analysis of fluid structure interaction is used in many engineering applications among them the following::

Metal forming processes - such as forging, extrusion and cutting. The fluid molten metal is shaped during forging and this molten metal exerts pressure on the surrounding structures.
Aerospace industry - uses fluid-structure interaction in the analysis of the fatigue of airplane wings. The analysis must be able to handle the constant bending and flexing of the airplane wings due to the changing air patterns.
Automobile tires - the effect of hydroplaning is reduced by understanding the fluid-structure interaction between the tire, water, and the ground surface.
Underwater Explosions - fluid-structure interaction analysis is used to predict the damaging effects of shock waves induced by such explosions on the hulls of ships and submarines.
Welding analysis - involves several simultaneous effects: flow with heat transfer, phase change, thermal contraction during cooling which may result in residual stresses in the structures.
Other uses - Fluid-Structure Interaction analysis is useful for a wide range of applications such as fuel tank sloshing, drop testing of liquid filled containers, detonation wave effects on structures, pressure vessel analysis, fluid interaction with valves and elbows, explosively formed projectile (EFP) analysis, airbag deployment, parachute development, injection molding analysis, wind-force analysis on tall buildings, earthquake response of liquid storage tanks (nuclear waste disposal), etc.

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