Abstract The interaction of slender bodies with fluid flow plays an important role in many industrial processes and biomedical applications. The numerical modeling of problems involving such rod-like structures with classical continuum-based finite elements poses a challenge because it promptly leads to locking effects as well as very large system sizes. An alternative approach leading to rather well-posed problems is the use of 1-dimensional beam theory. Applications of so-called geometrically exact beam theories have proven to be a computationally efficient way to model the behavior of such slender structures. This work addresses research questions arising from the application of geometrically-exact beam theory in the context of fluid-structure interaction (FSI). In particular, we describe an embedded approach coupling geometrically exact beam finite elements to a background fluid mesh. Furthermore, we elaborate on the conversion between the beam's stress resultants and the 3-dimensional formulation of the fluid field. A preliminary numerical example will demonstrate the general applicability of the proposed approach for a one-way coupled problem.    «

Abstract The interaction of slender bodies with fluid flow plays an important role in many industrial processes and biomedical applications. The numerical modeling of problems involving such rod-like structures with classical continuum-based finite elements poses a challenge because it promptly leads to locking effects as well as very large system sizes. An alternative approach leading to rather well-posed problems is the use of 1-dimensional beam theory. Applications of so-called geometrically...    »