An innovative approach to thermo-fluid-structure interaction based on an immersed interface method and a monolithic thermo-structure interaction algorithm

We present a loosely-coupled approach for the solution of the thermo-fluid-structure interaction problem, based on Dirichlet-Neumann partitioning. A cartesian grid finite volume scheme, with conservative interface method is used for the fluid and a finite-element scheme for the thermo-structure problem. Special attention is given to the transfer of forces, temperatures and to the structural positions. The structural surface is represented by a level set function in the fluid code. The velocity and temperature field required for the coupling are interpolated from structural values on the zero-contour level set surface. Data transfer between the two codes is performed via message passing interface. The proposed method is tested for a cooling-process of a heated metal bar by mean of an external laminar boundary layer flow. Results show that the presented approach is able to handle the complexity of the three-field problem.