17 research outputs found
A partition of unity approach to fluid mechanics and fluid-structure interaction
For problems involving large deformations of thin structures, simulating
fluid-structure interaction (FSI) remains challenging largely due to the need
to balance computational feasibility, efficiency, and solution accuracy.
Overlapping domain techniques have been introduced as a way to combine the
fluid-solid mesh conformity, seen in moving-mesh methods, without the need for
mesh smoothing or re-meshing, which is a core characteristic of fixed mesh
approaches. In this work, we introduce a novel overlapping domain method based
on a partition of unity approach. Unified function spaces are defined as a
weighted sum of fields given on two overlapping meshes. The method is shown to
achieve optimal convergence rates and to be stable for steady-state Stokes,
Navier-Stokes, and ALE Navier-Stokes problems. Finally, we present results for
FSI in the case of a 2D mock aortic valve simulation. These initial results
point to the potential applicability of the method to a wide range of FSI
applications, enabling boundary layer refinement and large deformations without
the need for re-meshing or user-defined stabilization.Comment: 34 pages, 15 figur
A Nitsche-based cut finite element method for a fluid--structure interaction problem
We present a new composite mesh finite element method for fluid--structure
interaction problems. The method is based on surrounding the structure by a
boundary-fitted fluid mesh which is embedded into a fixed background fluid
mesh. The embedding allows for an arbitrary overlap of the fluid meshes. The
coupling between the embedded and background fluid meshes is enforced using a
stabilized Nitsche formulation which allows us to establish stability and
optimal order \emph{a priori} error estimates,
see~\cite{MassingLarsonLoggEtAl2013}. We consider here a steady state
fluid--structure interaction problem where a hyperelastic structure interacts
with a viscous fluid modeled by the Stokes equations. We evaluate an iterative
solution procedure based on splitting and present three-dimensional numerical
examples.Comment: Revised version, 18 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in
CAMCo
Cut finite element discretizations of cell-by-cell EMI electrophysiology models
The EMI (Extracellular-Membrane-Intracellular) model describes electrical
activity in excitable tissue, where the extracellular and intracellular spaces
and cellular membrane are explicitly represented. The model couples a system of
partial differential equations in the intracellular and extracellular spaces
with a system of ordinary differential equations on the membrane. A key
challenge for the EMI model is the generation of high-quality meshes conforming
to the complex geometries of brain cells. To overcome this challenge, we
propose a novel cut finite element method (CutFEM) where the membrane geometry
can be represented independently of a structured and easy-to-generated
background mesh for the remaining computational domain.
Starting from a Godunov splitting scheme, the EMI model is split into
separate PDE and ODE parts. The resulting PDE part is a non-standard elliptic
interface problem, for which we devise two different CutFEM formulations: one
single-dimensional formulation with the intra/extracellular electrical
potentials as unknowns, and a multi-dimensional formulation that also
introduces the electrical current over the membrane as an additional unknown
leading to a penalized saddle point problem. Both formulations are augmented by
suitably designed ghost penalties to ensure stability and convergence
properties that are insensitive to how the membrane surface mesh cuts the
background mesh. For the ODE part, we introduce a new unfitted discretization
to solve the membrane bound ODEs on a membrane interface that is not aligned
with the background mesh. Finally, we perform extensive numerical experiments
to demonstrate that CutFEM is a promising approach to efficiently simulate
electrical activity in geometrically resolved brain cells.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure