Fluid-Structure Interaction: TURNS

[2007-?]

An interface between MBDyn and TURNS, a URANS solver based on overset grids developed by Jay Sitaraman, University of Wyoming, has been developed. The interface is based on MBDyn’s libmbc using the Python API. For this purpose, the library has been entirely redesigned and the Python (and C++) API has been developed, thanks to the support of the School of Energy Resources (SER) of the University of Wyoming.

The coupling actually consists in exploiting the features of libmbc Python API and the external structural and external structural mapping variants of the force element to communicate the kinematics and the loads between the two solvers.

Different approaches have been followed. For beam-like structures, like helicopter and wind-turbine blades, the external structural element is used to communicate the motion of MBDyn’s nodes; the motion of the nodes is internally transformed in boundary grid deformation by TURNS itself.

For more complex interfaces, like those resulting when shell elements are used, the external structural mapping element is used to directly communicate the motion of the boundary nodes of the CFD mesh, internally mapped by MBDyn. In this case, TURNS only needs to generate the deformed near-body mesh based on the deformation of the boundary mesh.

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