The Application of Fast Multipole Boundary Element Method to the Calculation of Slamming Load of Three-Dimensional Elastic Sphere

Abstract

An efficient fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method is established to quickly and accurately calculate the fluid load of three-dimensional (3D) elastic structure in the process of water slamming. In this method, the boundary element method (BEM) and computational structural dynamics (CSD) are coupled by thin plate spline (TPS) interpolation method and flow field reconstruction. In order to improve the calculation efficiency, the fast multipole algorithm is introduced into the BEM, the finite element mesh of the wetted part of the structure is directly used as the flow field boundary, and the structural dynamic response is analyzed by the direct integration method of state equation based on modal superposition. The numerical results are compared with the results of Nisewanger’s sphere water entry test and the existing literature, which proves the accuracy of the numerical calculation method established in this paper. The effects of time-domain iteration step size, mesh size, slamming velocity, fluid density and structural elastic effect on water slamming load are studied. The results show that the slamming velocity and fluid density have a great influence on the simulation results; the iteration step size has little influence on the accuracy of simulation calculation, and the mesh size has a certain influence on the accuracy of simulation calculation; elastic effect reduces the peak value of slamming load, considering elastic effect is necessary for accurate calculation of slamming load.