COUPLED SHELL FLUID INTERACTION PROBLEMS WITH DEGENERATE SHELL AND 3-DIMENSIONAL FLUID ELEMENTS

Discrete methods for practical coupled three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction problems are developed. A C0 explicity integrated two-dimensional degenerate shell element and a three-dimensional fluid element are coupled to study shell dynamics, fluid transient and coupled shell-fluid interaction problems. The method of partitioning is used to integrate the fluid and shell meshes in a staggered fashion in an optimum manner. Effective explicit-implicit partitioning is shown to achieve high computational efficiency for this type of problem.