A mixed time integration method for large scale acoustic fluid-structure interaction

The transient, coupled, interaction of sound with structures is a process in which an acoustic fluid surrounding an elastic body contributes to the effective inertia and elasticity of the body. Conversely, the presence of an elastic body in an acoustic medium influences the behavior of propagating disturbances. This paper details the application of a mixed explicit-implicit time integration algorithm to the fully coupled acoustic fluidstructure interaction problem. Based upon a dispersion analysis of the semi-discrete wave equation a second-order, explicit scheme for solving the wave equation is developed. The combination of a highly vectorized, explicit, acoustic fluid solver with an implicit structural code for linear elastodynamics has resulted in a simulation tool, PING, for acoustic fluid-structure interaction. PING`s execution rates range from 1{mu}s/Element/{delta}t for rigid scattering to 10{mu}s/Element/{delta}t for fully coupled problems. Several examples of PING`s application to 3-D problems serve in part to validate the code, and also to demonstrate the capability to treat complex geometry, acoustic fluid-structure problems which require high resolution meshes.