An ALE finite element method for baffled fuel container in Yawing motion

Abstract

A computational analysis of engineering problems with moving domain or/and boundary according to either Lagrangian or Eulerian approach may encounter inherent numerical difficulties, the extreme mesh distortion in the former and the material boundary indistinctness in the latter. In order to overcome such defects in classical numerical approaches, the ALE (arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) method is widely being adopted in which the finite element mesh moves with arbitrary velocity. This paper is concerned with the ALE finite element formulation, aiming at the dynamic response analysis of baffled fuel-storage container in yawing motion, for which the coupled time integration scheme, the remeshing and smoothing algorithm and the mesh velocity determination are addressed. Numerical simulation illustrating theoretical works is also presented.