Review of coupling methods for non-matching meshes

Abstract

Domain decomposition is nowadays a common way to speed up complex computations. However, the discrete meshes used in the different domains do not have to match at their common interface, especially when different physical fields are involved such as in fluid–structure interaction computations. Exchange of information over this interface is therefore no longer trivial. In this paper six methods that can deal with the information transfer between non-matching meshes in fluid–structure interaction computations are compared for different criteria. This is done for analytical test cases as well as a quasi-1D fluid–structure interaction problem. Two methods based on radial basis functions, one with compact support and one using thin plate splines, are favoured over the other methods because of their high accuracy and efficiency.