Two-dimensional numerical simulation of an elastic wedge water entry by a coupled FDM-FEM method

Hydroelastic behavior of an elastic wedge impacting on calm water surface was investigated. A partitioned approach by coupling finite difference method (FDM) and finite element method (FEM) was developed to analyze the fluid structure interaction (FSI) problem. The FDM, in which the Constraint Interpolation Profile (CIP) method was applied, was used for solving the flow field in a fixed regular Cartesian grid system. Free surface was captured by the Tangent of Hyperbola for Interface Capturing with Slope Weighting (THINC/SW) scheme. The FEM was applied for calculating the structural deformation. A volume weighted method, which was based on the immersed boundary (IB) method, was adopted for coupling the FDM and the FEM together. An elastic wedge water entry problem was calculated by the coupled FDM-FEM method. Also a comparison between the current numerical results and the published results indicate that the coupled FDM-FEM method has reasonably good accuracy in predicting the impact force.