Parametric studies on smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations for accurate estimation of open surface flow force

Abstract

The optimal parameters for the fluid-structure interaction analysis using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) for fluids and finite elements for structures, respectively, are explored, and the effectiveness of the simulations with those parameters is validated by solving several open surface fluid problems. For the optimization of the Equation of State (EOS) and the simulation parameters such as the time step, initial particle spacing, and smoothing length factor, a dam-break problem and deflection of an elastic plate is selected, and the least squares analysis is performed on the simulation results. With the optimal values of the pivotal parameters, the accuracy of the simulation is validated by calculating the exerted force on a moving solid column in the open surface fluid. Overall, the SPH-FEM coupled simulation is very effective to calculate the fluid-structure interaction. However, the relevant parameters should be carefully selected to obtain accurate results.

Keywords

• Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)
• Finite Element Method (FEM)
• Fluid-structure Interaction (FSI)
• Wave force
• Smoothing length effect