Numerical Simulation of Coupled Uid Solid Problems: Michael SCH Afer, Ilka Teschauer

Numerical simulation of coupled uidsolid problems
Michael Schafer
*
, Ilka Teschauer
Department of Numerical Methods in Mechanical Engineering, Darmstadt University of Technology, FB 16 Maschinenbau,
Petersenstrasse 30, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany
Received 11 October 1999; received in revised form 30 November 1999
Abstract
A multi-grid nite-volume method is presented for the prediction of coupled uidsolid problems in complex geometries. Whereby a
unied nite-volume approach, based on the concept of block-structured grids is employed for the handling of the complexity of the
geometry and the uidsolid coupling. A high numerical eciency is obtained with a non-linear multi-grid method using a pressure-
correction-based scheme as a smoother. A number of numerical experiments were used to verify the accuracy and numerical eciency
of the method. Additionally to illustrate the capabilities of the approach results for two practical applications are presented. 2001
Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The investigation and optimisation of products or processes in engineering practice by numerical sim-
ulation is in many cases related to the solution of problems arising in structural mechanics, uid mechanics
or heat transfer in a continuum mechanical framework. In many applications one is faced with a coupling
of phenomena from two, or all three, of these elds. Examples of such (thermally) coupled uidsolid
problems can be found, for instance, in machine and plant building, engine manufacture, turbomachinery,
heat exchangers, oshore structures, chemical engineering processes, microsystem techniques, biology or
medicine; to mention but a few areas.
A schematic overview of the possible physical coupling mechanisms in such problems is given in Fig. 1.
These can be the impact of ow-induced forces on solids, the impact of moving or deforming solids on
uids as well as the global interaction of thermal eects with uids and solids through thermal stresses,
mechanical dissipation, material properties and heat transfer. In applications, four important levels of
coupling can be distinguished:
deformations and stresses of solids induced by pressure and/or friction uid forces (e.g., wind load on
buildings or water penetration of oshore structures);
uid ow induced by change of ow geometry by prescribed deformation (e.g., close passing of two ve-
hicles, or ow processes in piston engines);
deformations of solids induced by uid forces interacting with induced uid ow causing deformation of
solids and hence change of geometries (e.g., injection systems, valves, pumps or airbags);
thermal coupling by temperature-dependent material properties, buoyancy, convective heat transfer,
thermal stresses and mechanical dissipation (e.g., cooling of electronic devices or thermal processes in
rocket engines).
www.elsevier.com/locate/cma
Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 190 (2001) 36453667
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-61/51-16-28-77; fax: +49-61-51/16-44-79.
E-mail address: schaefer@fnb.tu-darmstadt.de (M. Schafer).
0045-7825/01/$ - see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 4 5 - 7 8 2 5 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 2 9 0 - 5
In this work, we shall consider the last class of problems in which, for simplication, we have treated the
problem domain as xed (i.e., no reaction between the solid and the uid). Usually the numerical solution
of individual uid and structural problems is a non-trivial task. This is due either to complex physical and
chemical phenomena or complex geometries requiring the use of complex (non-linear) models and ne
grids, in order to achieve the necessary modelling quality and numerical accuracy. Thus, a realistic simu-
lation of coupled processes is highly demanding to the underlying numerical methods and computational
resources. To allow for a reliable and ecient simulation of such applications, it is particularly important to
consider advanced numerical techniques to resolve the underlying problems. Eective resolution of the uid
and solid subtasks, which recent intensive research in this eld has produced, has to be combined with an
appropriate coupled procedure showing a similar performance. Ecient solvers for the uid and solid
subtasks, which due to recent intensive research in this direction are available, have to be combined to an
overall coupled solution procedure showing a similar performance.
In this paper, we present a general methodology for a unied numerical treatment of coupled problems,
based on a nite-volume approach for both the uid and solid parts of the problem, including thermal
eects. While nite-volume methods are well established and have proven their eciency in resolving uid
ow problems (see e.g., [9] and the references therein), their application to structural mechanics problems,
where nite-element approaches dominate, is so far very limited (see e.g., [3,4,8,10]).
One of the crucial issues within any procedural solution for coupled problems are the coupling mech-
anisms between the uid and solid parts. These mechanisms can be invoked at dierent levels within the
numerical scheme resulting either in a weaker or a more strongly coupled procedure. One extreme is a fully
explicit coupling involving an alternating solution of solid and uid problems with simple interchange of
boundary conditions. This approach is very exible concerning the choice of the solvers for the individual
uid and solid subtasks, but it often suers from poor convergence properties. The other extreme consists in
a fully implicit approach involving the simultaneous solution for all unknowns. Usually in this case the
convergence rate with respect to the coupling is optimal, but the full system is hard to solve and it is
necessary to make many modications to the individual uid and solid solvers.
In our combined nite-volume approach, which appears to constitute a particularly well-suited base for
designing ecient coupling algorithms, some compromise between weak and strong coupling is employed,
where the coupling strategy is distributed on dierent levels. The thermal coupling is done within the linear
system solver by exchange of interfacial boundary data, whereas deformations and uid ow forces are
coupled within a pressure-correction method acting as a smoother and coarse grid solver in a global non-
linear multi-grid method.
Concerning the underlying continuum-mechanical models we consider the uid part to be described by
the incompressible NavierStokes equations, together with the energy equation, and the solid part to be
described by the equations of linear thermoelasticity. The concept of blockstructured grids is used for the
treatment of complex geometries, as well as a base for the coupling of the method by means of a grid
Fig. 1. Schematic view of coupled uidsolid problems.
3646 M. Schafer, I. Teschauer / Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 190 (2001) 36453667
partitioning technique. Within the blockstructuring approach dierent uid and solid parts can be handled
in a straightforward way. The discretisation scheme employed is based on a procedure described by Peric
[18], consisting of a fully conservative second-order nite-volume approximation with colocated arrange-
ment of variables on non-orthogonal grids.
The capabilities of the approach with respect to accuracy, eciency and applicability are illustrated by
considering some representative examples. While we formulate the method for the general case, in our
examples we restrict ourselves to two-dimensional cases.
2. Governing equations
We consider a problem domain X consisting of a uid part X
f
and a solid part X
s
. The shape as well as
the location of uid and solid parts of the domain can be quite arbitrary, i.e., X
f
and X
s
need not necessarily
be connected or dierent; individual uid and solid areas (also with holes) are possible (see Fig. 2). As
already noted, as a major simplication we assume that the problem domain can be treated as xed and is
not part of the solution. This is justied if the deformations to the solid part are small and the uid part has
no moving surfaces.
2.1. Fluid domain
For the uid domain X
f
we assume a steady ow of an incompressible Newtonian uid. In this case the
basic conservation equations governing transport of mass, momentum and energy are given by (here, and
throughout the paper, Einsteins' summation convention is adopted):
ov
j
ox
j
= 0; (1)
o
ox
j
(q
f
v
j
v
i
T
ij
) = q
f
f
fi
; (2)
o
ox
j
q
f
c
pf
v
j
h
_
j
f
oh
ox
j
_
= q
f
q
f
; (3)
where v
i
is the velocity vector with respect to Cartesian coordinates x
i
, h the temperature, q
f
the uid
density, j
f
the thermal conductivity, c
pf
the specic heat at constant pressure, f
fi
the external body forces
(e.g., buoyancy forces) and q
f
are the external heat sources. The stress tensor T
ij
for incompressible
Newtonian uids is dened by
T
ij
= l
f
ov
j
ox
i
_

ov
i
ox
j
_
pd
ij
(4)
with the pressure p and the dynamic viscosity l
f
.
Note that, in general, all uid properties as well as external forces and sources may depend on
the temperature h. If, as commonly practiced, thermal eects may be approximated by employing the
f
i
s
f
s
f

i
f
s
Fig. 2. Example of physical problem domain.

M. Schafer, I. Teschauer / Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 190 (2001) 36453667 3647
Boussinesq approximation (see e.g., [11] for details and validity aspects), all uid properties are assumed
to be independent of the temperature, and gravity eects are approximated by a linear variation of the
density with temperature, i.e., the force term on the right-hand side of Eq. (2) (if there are no other external
forces) is given by
q
f
f
fi
= q
f
b
f
(h

h)g
i
; (5)
where g
i
is the gravitational acceleration vector, b
f
the coecient of thermal expansion and

h and q
f
are the
reference values for the temperature and the density, respectively. In all our computational examples the
Boussinesq approximation is employed.
After substitution of Eq. (4), Eqs. (1)(3) constitute the basis for the determination of the unknowns in
the uid domain X
f
, then the velocity vector eld v
i
, the pressure eld p and the temperature eld h.
2.2. Solid domain
The balance equations for momentum and energy for the solid domain X
s
read:
or
ij
ox
j
= q
s
f
si
; (6)
o
ox
i
j
s
oh
ox
i
_ _
= q
s
q
s
; (7)
where r
ij
denotes the Cauchy stress tensor, q
s
the density of the solid and j
s
is its heat conductivity. f
si
are
external volume forces acting on the solid (e.g., gravitational forces) and q
s
are external heat sources.
According to our assumption of small deformations the strain tensor e
ij
is related to the displacement
vector u
i
by the kinematic relation
e
ij
=
1
2
ou
i
ox
j
_

ou
j
ox
i
_
: (8)
A linear thermoelastic isotropic material is assumed for which the stressstrain relation is given by the
DuhamelNeumann equation:
r
ij
= [k
s
e
kk
b
s
(h h
r
)[d
ij
2l
s
e
ij
(9)
with the Lame coecients k
s
and l
s
, the thermal expansion coecient b
s
and the reference temperature h
r
.
As for the uid domain, in general, all material properties, forces and sources may depend on the tem-
perature h.
After substitution of Eqs. (8) and (9), Eqs. (6) and (7) yield the balance equations for the solid domain X
s
with the displacement vector eld u
i
and the temperature h as unknowns.
2.3. Boundary and interface conditions
In order to complete the problem formulation the balance equations stated in the previous sections have
to be supplemented by suitable boundary and interface conditions. Dierent kinds of boundaries have to be
distinguished: a solid boundary C
s
, a uid boundary C
f
and a uidsolid interface C
i
(compare Fig. 2).
On solid boundaries C
s
either displacements ~ u
i
or stresses
~
t
i
can be prescribed:
u
i
= ~ u
i
or r
ij
n
j
=
~
t
i
on C
s
: (10)
At a solid symmetry boundary we have zero normal displacements and vanishing tangential stresses:
u
i
n
i
= 0 and r
ij
n
j
n
k
e
ikn
= 0 on C
s
; (11)
where e
ikn
is the Levi-Civita symbol.
For uid boundaries C
f
representing a wall or an inow a velocity ~ v
i
is prescribed:
v
i
= ~ v
i
on C
f
; (12)
where for a xed wall we have ~ v
i
= 0. At an outow boundary we impose the condition
ov
i
ox
j
n
j
= 0 on C
f
; (13)
where, in addition, outow velocities are corrected in order to match the global mass balance within the
uid domain part (see e.g., [9]). At a uid symmetry boundary the normal velocity vanishes and the tan-
gential velocity has a zero derivative in normal direction:
v
i
n
i
= 0 and
ov
i
ox
j
n
j
n
k
e
ikn
= 0 on C
f
: (14)
Boundary conditions for the temperature h for both solid and uid boundaries C
s
and C
f
can either be a
prescribed value
~
h or a prescribed heat ux
~
h:
h =
~
h or
oh
ox
i
n
i
=
~
h on C
s
or C
f
: (15)
At an outow or symmetry boundary we have
~
h = 0.
On a uidsolid interface C
i
we have for the velocities and the stresses the conditions
v
i
= 0 and r
ij
n
j
= T
ij
n
j
on C
i
: (16)
In addition, the temperatures as well as the heat uxes have to be identical on C
i
, but these thermal interface
conditions will not be needed explicitly in the numerical scheme, since the temperature will be treated
globally over the full domain X.
3. Finite-volume discretisation
For the discretisation of the problem domain we follow the concept of block-structured grids, which, in
particular, appears to be well suited for treating the type of coupled problems considered: domains with
dierent uid or solid parts can be handled in a straightforward way by assigning the dierent parts to
dierent blocks. To give an example, the physical domain given in Fig. 2 can be represented by the blocks
indicated in Fig. 3. The logical block structure is indicated in Fig. 4. The individual blocks are discretised
into general boundary-tted non-orthogonal structured grids dening the control volumes (quadrilaterals
in two-dimensions, hexahedrals in three-dimensions). Thus, a regular data structure can be used for the
f B3
f
B4
f
B5
B6
f
B7
f
B8
f
f
s
B3
s
s
B5
s
B6
s
B7
s
B8
s
B2
B4
B9
s
B2
f
s
B1
B1
Fig. 3. Block structure of physical problem domain.
representation of the eld variables within the blocks and (ecient) structured solvers can be employed
blockwise.
At all block interfaces (including soliduid interfaces) the control volume faces are assumed to be
organised so that they coincide (no hanging nodes). A methodology on how to avoid this limitation is
indicated in [16] and will not be outlined here. The coupling of the blocks along the block interfaces, i.e., the
transfer of information among neighbouring blocks, requires special attention, especially with respect to an
ecient coupled solution procedure. For this, along the block interfaces auxiliary control volumes con-
taining the corresponding boundary values of the neighbouring block are introduced (see Fig. 5). Possible
block connectivity situations are discussed in [6]. The coupling of the subdomains is done by updating the
boundary data in these auxiliary control volumes at dened stages during the iterative algorithm (see
Section 4). Note that, in particular, such an approach is important for an ecient parallelisation of the
method, an issue, however, which we will not discuss here (see [6]). For the discretisation of all balance
equations a nite-volume method with a colocated arrangement of variables is employed. The method
starts from integral forms of the balance equations, which are obtained from Eqs. (1)(3) and (6) and (7) by
integration over the corresponding control volumes, followed by the application of the Gau theorem. Let
us denote by V
f
and V
s
a uid and solid control volume with the corresponding surfaces S
f
and S
s
, re-
spectively. The integral form of Eqs. (1) and (2) for a uid control volume become
_
S
f
v
j
n
j
dS = 0; (17)
Fig. 5. Block interface treatment.
blocks with boundary fluid/solid block block connections
B6 B7
B1 B8 B9
B5
B2 B3
B1
B4 B2
B7 B8
B6 B5
B4
s
s s f
s s s
s s s f
f f
f f
f
f
B3
Fig. 4. Logical block structure.
_
S
f
qv
j
v
i
n
j
_
l
ov
j
ox
i
_

ov
i
ox
j
_
n
j
pn
i
_
dS =
_
V
f
q
f
f
fi
dV : (18)
The integral form of Eq. (6) for a solid control volume can be written as
_
S
s
b
s
(h
_ _
h
r
) k
s
ou
k
ox
k
_
n
i
l
s
ou
i
ox
j
_

ou
j
ox
i
_
n
j
_
dS =
_
V
s
q
s
f
si
dV : (19)
The energy equations (3) and (7) in the uid and solid domain will be treated together. Physical
quantities like the density, thermal conductivity, specic heat and heat source are dened globally corre-
sponding to their values in the uid or solid part, i.e., for the density we set
q(x
i
) =
q
f
(x
i
) if x
i
X
f
;
q
s
(x
i
) if x
i
X
s
_
(20)
and the other quantities are treated in a similar way. The velocity v
i
in a solid control volume is simply set to
zero. In general, discontinuities in the material properties may appear along soliduid interfaces. With
these assumptions the energy balance for a solid or uid control volume, commonly denoted by V with
surface S, can be written as
_
S
qc
p
v
i
h
_
j
oh
ox
i
_
n
i
dS =
_
V
qq dV : (21)
Eqs. (17)(19) and (21) form the basis for the nite-volume approximation of the coupled problem. The
basic underlying procedure is described in detail by Demirdzic and Peric [5], so only a brief summary is
given here. The approximation of the integrals is performed by the (second-order) midpoint rule. The
resulting uxes (from the surface integrals) are interpolated by a standard central dierencing scheme,
which for the convective part in the uid domain is implemented using the deferred correction approach
proposed by Khosla and Rubin [15]. For control volumes located at a boundary standard techniques, as for
instance described in [9], are applied.
Using the discretisation procedure as indicated above the approximations v
ih
, p
h
, u
ih
and h
h
, which
represent the corresponding vector of unknown cell-center values, to the solution v
i
, p, u
i
and h are dened
as solutions of a non-linear algebraic system of the form:
L
h
v
h
= 0; (22)
A
h
(v
h
; h
h
)v
h
G
h
p
h
= F
fh
(h
h
); (23)
B
h
(h
h
)u
h
D
h
(h
h
)h
h
= F
sh
(v
h
; p
h
; h
h
); (24)
C
h
(v
h
; h
h
)h
h
= Q
h
(h
h
): (25)
The parameter h is a measure for the spatial resolution (e.g., the maximum CV diameter). The discrete
operators A
h
, B
h
, C
h
, D
h
, G
h
, L
h
, F
fh
, F
sh
and Q
h
are dened according to the spatial discretisation including
the corresponding discretisation of the boundary conditions. The operators relate the values of the nodal
variables to their neighbouring points involved in the local discretisation. For instance, the equations
represented by Eq. (25) are of the form
c
P
(v
h
; h
h
)h
P

n
c
n
(v
h
; h
h
)h
n
= q
P
(h
h
) (26)
for each control volume, where the summation is done over the neighbouring points of P involved in the
discretisation. In the two-dimensional case with the second-order discretisation employed, for instance,
these are the eight points E, W, S, N, NE, NW, SE and SW as indicated in Fig. 6.
4. Solution techniques
For the solution of system (22)(25) for v
ih
, p
h
, u
ih
and h
h
several nested iteration techniques are em-
ployed: an outer multi-grid procedure, a pressure-correction smoother and a sparse linear system solver.
These components and their interaction will be described in Sections 4.14.3.
4.1. Global multi-grid method
The key to the proposed method from the numerical eciency point of view is a non-linear multi-grid
technique acting globally directly on the system (22)(25). The method ensures a rapid convergence (with a
computational eort roughly proportional to the grid spacing; see [12]), it gives rise to a close uidsolid
coupling and it leads to fairly good robustness properties.
The multi-grid technique employed is the standard full approximation storage (FAS) scheme proposed
by Brand [2]. For completeness we briey outline the basic steps of the method within the present context.
For this, let us denote the system (22)(25) shortly by
K
h
(x
h
) = b
h
; (27)
where the unknowns are condensed in x
h
= (v
ih
; p
h
; u
ih
; h
h
) and in b
h
all terms not depending on x
h
are
summarised. We consider a smoothing operation S
h
producing on the grid with grid spacing h the iterate x
k
h
out of x
0
h
after k smoothing steps
x
k
h
= S
k
h
K
h
; x
0
h
; b
h
_ _
: (28)
The concrete denition of S
h
will be discussed in Section 4.2.
Starting with some initial estimate x
0
h
, after k
1
(pre-)smoothing steps with S
h
an approximate solution x
k
1
h
is obtained, which introduced in Eq. (27) gives
K
h
x
k
1
h
_ _
= b
h
r
h
(29)
with the residual r
h
. Substracting Eq. (29) from Eq. (27) and dening the error e
h
= x
h
x
k
1
h
we obtain
K
h
x
k
1
h
_
e
h
_
K
h
x
k
1
h
_ _
= r
h
: (30)
Eq. (30) is the basis for the coarse grid equation, which is dened by
K
2h
I
2h
h
x
k
1
h
_
e
2h
_
K
2h
I
2h
h
x
k
1
h
_ _
= I
2h
h
r
h
(31)
with a suitable restriction operator I
2h
h
. Thus, for the assembling of the coarse grid equation, K
h
, x
k
1
h
, and r
h
have to be restricted to the coarse grid. Using x
2h
= I
2h
h
x
k
1
h
e
2h
as the coarse grid variable, the coarse grid
problem can be written in the same form as the corresponding equation on the ne grid:
Fig. 6. Neighbouring points of P involved in the local discretisation in the two-dimensional case with central dierencing.
K
2h
(x
2h
) = b
2h
with b
2h
= K
2h
I
2h
h
~x
h
_ _
I
2h
h
r
h
: (32)
For the iterative solution of the coarse grid equation the smoothing procedure S
2h
is employed, where
I
2h
h
x
k
1
h
is used as starting value. After having obtained an approximate solution
x
k
2
2h
= S
k
2
2h
K
2h
; I
2h
h
x
k
1
h
; b
2h
_ _
(33)
after k
2
iterations, the error x
k
2
2h
I
2h
h
x
k
1
h
(only the error is smooth) is transferred to the ne grid by means of
an interpolation operator I
h
2h
and the ne grid solution is corrected:
x
+
h
= x
k
1
h
I
h
2h
x
k
2
2h
_
I
2h
h
x
k
1
h
_
: (34)
Additional k
3
(post-)smoothing steps with S
h
are carried out to reduce high frequency errors, which may
be caused by the interpolation:
x
k
3
h
= S
k
3
h
K
h
; x
+
h
; b
h
_ _
: (35)
The extension of the described two-grid procedure to the multi-grid procedure is straightforward. One
applies the concept recursively to Eq. (32). For the movement through the grid levels the well known V-
cycle strategy is employed (denoted as (k
1
; k
2
; k
3
)-cycle). This is additionally combined with the nested it-
eration technique (full multi-grid) to improve the initial estimates on the ner grids (see e.g., [12]). The
problem on the coarsest grid is not solved exactly, but approximated by carrying out some smoothing
iterations with S. Since the employed pressure-correction algorithm (see Section 4.2) is not only a good
smoother, but also a good solver, this does not signicantly deteriorate the rate of convergence of the multi-
grid procedure. For prolongation and restriction standard bilinear interpolation is used. Some more details
about the employed multi-grid procedure can be found in the paper by Hortmann et al. [13]. Let us now
turn to the concrete denition of the smoothing procedure applied on the dierent grid levels.
4.2. Pressure-correction smoother
The employed smoothing procedure for the coupled set of non-linear equations (22)(25) is based on the
well-known SIMPLE algorithm proposed by Patankar and Spalding [17]. Because various extensions and
modications of the original method are introduced, we describe the approach employed here in a bit more
detail. A similar procedure for steady incompressible ow problems is described by Peric et al. [20].
In the following, one iteration step (k 1) k on the grid level h is described, assuming that v
k1
h
, p
k1
h
,
u
k1
h
and h
k1
h
are already computed. Thus, in the terminology of the previous section, we dene the
smoothing operator S
h
for the operation
x
k
h
= S
1
h
K
h
; x
k1
h
; b
h
_ _
: (36)
The determination of v
k
h
, p
k
h
, u
k
h
and h
k
h
is performed in several steps, leading, in particular, to a decoupling
with respect to the dierent unknown variables. We rst introduce additive splittings of the operators A
h
,
B
h
and C
h
(let us commonly denote it by P
h
) of the form
P
h
v
k1
h
; h
k1
h
_ _
= P
k1
Dh
P
k1
Oh
P
k1
Nh
(37)
into a diagonal part P
k1
Dh
, and o-diagonal parts P
k1
Oh
and P
k1
Nh
corresponding to, respectively, the or-
thogonal and cross-derivative contributions of the space discretisation. The latter results from grid non-
orthogonality and (also for Cartesian grids) from the discretisation of the normal stresses. The splitting is
illustrated in Fig. 7 showing the assignment for a two-dimensional control volume with its eight neighbours
involved in the local discretisation (note that, since there are no convective terms, B
h
and the corresponding
splittings actually do not depend on v
h
).
In a rst step an intermediate approximation v
k1=2
h
to v
k
h
is obtained by solving the momentum equation
(23) with the pressure term, the temperature, and the matrix coecients formed with values of the preceding
iteration k 1, treating the term with A
k1
Nh
explicitly, and introducing an under-relaxation. The corre-
sponding equation reads:
A
k1
Dh
_
a
v
A
k1
Oh
_
v
k1=2
h
= (1 a
v
)A
k1
Dh
v
k1
h
a
v
A
k1
Nh
v
k1
h
G
h
p
k1
h
F
fh
h
k1
h
_ _ _
......................................................................................................
b
k1
h
(38)
with the under-relaxation factor a
v
from the interval (0; 1[. The corresponding linear system for the three
components of v
k1=2
h
is of the form
A
k1
11
A
k1
12
A
k1
13
A
k1
21
A
k1
22
A
k1
23
A
k1
31
A
k1
32
A
k1
33
_
_
_
_
........................................
A
k1
Dh
a
v
A
k1
Oh
v
k1=2
h1
v
k1=2
h2
v
k1=2
h3
_
_
_
_
..............
v
k1=2
h
=
b
k1
h1
b
k1
h2
b
k1
h3
_
_
_
_
..........
b
k1
h
: (39)
Following our decoupling strategy the system is not solved simultaneously, but subsequently by the
dierent components of the (intermediate) velocity vector:
A
k1
11
v
k1=2
h1
= b
k1
h1
A
k1
12
v
k1
h2
A
k1
13
v
k1
h3
; (40)
A
k1
22
v
k1=2
h2
= b
k1
h2
A
k1
21
v
k1=2
h1
A
k1
23
v
k1
h3
; (41)
A
k1
33
v
k1=2
h3
= b
k1
h2
A
k1
31
v
k1=2
h1
A
k1
32
v
k1=2
h2
: (42)
Next, following the spirit of a pressure-correction approach, in a second step we look for corrections Dp
k
h
and Dv
k
h
to obtain the new pressure p
k
h
= p
k1
h
Dp
k
h
and the new velocity v
k
h
= v
k1=2
h
Dv
k
h
exactly fullling
the discrete continuity equation (22). For this a momentum equation for v
k
h
of the form
A
k1
Dh
v
k
h
= (1 a
v
)A
k1
Dh
v
k1
h
a
v
A
k1
Oh
v
k1=2
h
_
A
k1
Nh
v
k1
h
G
h
p
k
h
F
fh
h
k1
h
_ _
_
(43)
is considered, which diers from the one for v
k1=2
h
, i.e., Eq. (38), by the treatment of the term with A
k1
Oh
and
by taking the pressure term at the new iteration level k. Substracting Eq. (38) from Eq. (43) yields
A
k1
Dh
Dv
k
h
= a
v
G
h
Dp
k
h
; (44)
where the overbar on the operators indicates the selective interpolation technique (following Rhie and
Chow [21]) used for making the cell face velocities dependent on the nodal pressures, which is necessary to
avoid oscillatory solutions that may occur due to the non-staggered grid arrangement. Eq. (44) represents
an explicit expression for the new velocity in terms of the pressure-correction. By applying the operator L
h
Fig. 7. Splitting of the operator P
h
into orthogonal and non-orthogonal o-diagonal parts and a diagonal part.
to both sides of Eq. (44) and taking into account the validity of the continuity equation (22) for v
k
h
an
equation for Dp
k
h
is obtained:
L
h
G
h
Dp
k
h
=
1
a
v
A
k1
Dh
L
h
v
k1=2
h
: (45)
Eq. (45) corresponds to a discrete Poisson equation with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions
for Dp
k
h
. To keep the structure of the pressure-correction equation the same as for the discrete momentum
equations (40)(42) and to improve its diagonal dominance the non-orthogonal part of Q
h
:= L
h
G
h
is
neglected (see e.g., [19]), and Dp
k
h
is computed from (45) with Q
h
replaced by Q
Dh
Q
Oh
using a splitting
analogous to the one dened by Eq. (37):
(Q
Dh
Q
Oh
)Dp
k
h
=
1
a
v
A
k1
Dh
L
h
v
k1=2
h
: (46)
If the grid is highly non-orthogonal, the inuence of the neglected pressure cross-derivatives can be
accounted for by the solution of a second pressure-correction equation similar to that used in the PISO
algorithm to account for the inuence of neglected velocity corrections (see [14]).
Once Dp
k
h
is computed, Dv
k
h
can easily be obtained from Eq. (44) giving v
k
h
. The validity of the continuity
equation for v
k
h
directly follows from Eqs. (44) and (45). For the new pressure p
k
h
also an under relaxation
with 0 < a
p
< 1 is employed:
p
k
h
= p
k1
h
a
p
Dp
k
h
: (47)
In the next step the boundary conditions at uidsolid interfaces for the solid blocks are updated via the
discrete analog of
r
ij
n
j
= l
f
ov
j
ox
i
_

ov
i
ox
j
_
pd
ij
(48)
with the new velocity v
k
h
and pressure p
k
h
. This condition is entered to the right-hand side of Eq. (24) dening
F
sh
(v
k
h
; p
k
h
). Thus, the coupling between the uid forces and the response of the structure is incorporated at
the level of the smoothing iteration.
All necessary boundary values for the solid problem at level k are dened and the corresponding system
(also with an under relaxation) reads
B
k
Dh
_
a
u
B
k
Oh
_
u
k
h
= 1 a
u
( )B
k
Dh
u
k1
h
a
u
B
k
Nh
u
k1
h
F
sh
v
k
h
; p
k
h
; h
k1
h
_ _ _
............................................. ...............................................
c
k1
h
; (49)
where 0 < a
u
61 is the under relaxation factor for the displacements. As with system (38), system (49) has
the structure as given by Eq. (39) and it is treated with the same sequential solution approach, i.e., we
successively compute u
k
1h
, u
k
2h
and u
k
3h
similar as for v
k1=2
h
by Eqs. (40)(42) via the systems:
B
k1
11
u
k1=2
1h
= c
k1
1h
B
k1
12
u
k1
2h
B
k1
13
u
k1
3h
; (50)
B
k1
22
u
k1=2
2h
= c
k1
2h
B
k1
21
u
k1=2
1h
B
k1
23
u
k1
3h
; (51)
B
k1
33
u
k1=2
3h
= c
k1
3h
B
k1
31
u
k1=2
1h
B
k1
32
u
k1=2
2h
; (52)
where the submatrices B
ij
for i; j = 1; 2; 3 are dened like A
ij
in Eq. (39) and c
k1
h
is given according to Eq.
(49). It should be noted, that the decoupled solution of the solid part of the problem as described above
might not be the best choice when regarding this part solely on its own, since the problem is linear and,
therefore, can be solved more eciently directly by a suitable linear system solver (e.g., a multi-grid
method). However, for coupled problems this approach appears to be naturally embedded within the
overall iterative procedure and no signicant disadvantages compared with a direct solution are expected.
Finally, the iteration step is completed by solving the energy equation (25) for h
k
h
:
C
k
Dh
_
a
h
C
k
Oh
_
h
k
h
= (1 a
u
)C
k1
Dh
h
k1
h
a
h
C
k
Nh
h
k1
h
_
q
h
h
k1
h
_ _
; (53)
where 0 < a
h
61 is the under-relaxation factor for the temperature. Note that by applying the solution of
Eq. (53) over the full domain the thermal coupling is invoked on the level of the linear system solver (see
also Section 4.3).
Fig. 8 shows a schematic view of the smoothing iteration process. Theoretical results concerning the
convergence and smoothing properties of pressure-correction techniques are discussed by Wittum [24] in
the more general setting of transforming smoothers.
4.3. Sparse linear system solver
For the discussion of the thermal coupling as well as the coupling of adjacent individual uid or solid
blocks it is important to take a closer look on the structure and the solution of the linear systems arising for
the dierent unknown variables during the iterative smoothing process described in the previous section,
i.e., Eqs. (40)(42), (46) and (50)(53).
Due to the special treatment employed all of the systems have a similar structure. Numbering the un-
knowns in a natural way according to the block structure, i.e., lexicographically within each block and then
employing a block-by-block subsequential numbering, the coecient matrices of all systems (here generally
denoted by My = b) gets a block structure of the general form
M =
M
11
M
12
M
1M
M
21
M
22

M
M1
M
MM
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
; (54)
Fig. 8. Flow chart of the pressure-correction smoother.
where M is the number of blocks involved in the discretisation. If M
f
and M
s
denote the number of uid and
solid blocks, respectively, we have M = M
f
for systems (40)(42) and (46) for the velocity components and
the pressure correction; M = M
s
for systems (50)(52) for the displacement components and M = M
f
M
s
for system (53) for the temperature.
The matrices M
ii
; i = 1; . . . ; M, on the diagonal have the usual diagonal structure which would also
result from a simple nite-dierence approximation on a Cartesian grid (5 diagonals in the two-dimensional
case and 7 diagonals in the three-dimensional case), since, as outlined in the previous section, the non-
orthogonal contributions are either neglected (in the pressure-correction equation) or treated explicitly and
contained in the right-hand sides. The matrices M
ij
, i; j = 1; . . . ; M, i ,= j, represent the coupling between
the blocks. If block i is adjacent to block j, these matrices have non-zero entries in the main diagonal,
otherwise all entries vanish. According to this structure M can be split into a (block) local part
M
L
=
M
11
M
22
0
0
M
MM
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
(55)
and a (block) coupling part
M
C
= MM
L
: (56)
In the present approach, as for the linear system solver, a block variant of the strongly implicit method
of Stone [23] is employed. It is based on an incomplete LU decomposition and has been proven to work
eciently in combination with multi-grid techniques (e.g., [22]). The pointwise version of the method is
dened by an iteration process of the form
y
n1
= y
n
H
1
My
n
( b) (57)
with an incomplete decomposition H = LU of M into lower and upper triangular matrices L and U, re-
spectively. For the block version of the method employed here an incomplete decomposition of M
L
instead
of M is used:
H =
L
1
U
1
L
2
U
2
0
0
L
M
U
M
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
: (58)
Thus, an iteration step is dened by
y
n1
i
= y
n
i
(L
i
U
i
)
1

M
j=1
M
ij
y
n
j
_
b
i
_
(59)
for i = 1; . . . ; M. For the local decompositions L
i
U
i
, i = 1; . . . ; M, in each block the usual version of the
strongly implicit method is applied.
Proceeding in the way described above has an additional advantage in that it leads to the parallelisation
of the method by a block-structured grid partitioning technique. For each i, the computations can be
carried out concurrently if y
n
is available in the auxiliary CVs (for computing M
ij
y
n
j
for i ,= j). This can be
achieved by one exchange of the block boundary values belonging to the different processors required in
each iteration. (For further details refer to [6].)
5. Numerical results
In this section, the basic numerical properties of the proposed method are checked using various test
computations. Since the usage of nite-volume methods for solid problems is so far rather limited, we rst
consider a pure solid problem. Later, we investigate the performance of the method for a simple thermally
coupled problem, primarily related to corresponding pure solid and uid problems. Finally, two applica-
tion examples are given illustrating the capabilities of the coupled solver.
Note that for all the following problems the given material properties and geometrical dimensions are
considered to be in SI units and, therefore, are not explicitly indicated. The under-relaxation factors (see
Section 4.2) are chosen to be
a
v
= 0:7; a
p
= 0:3; a
u
= 0:99; a
h
= 0:8 (60)
for all examples. All computations have a reduction of the initial value of the sum of the absolute residuals
of all equations by a factor of 10
4
as the convergence criterion. All reported computing times correspond
to a SUN ULTRA1/170 workstation.
5.1. Pure solid problem
For validating and investigating the solid part of the method we chose as a pure solid problem, a circular
annular disc under plane stress conditions (i.e., fairly thin), which is loaded with a high inner and a lower
outer pressure p
i
and p
a
, respectively. For reasons of symmetry the simulation domain can be reduced to a
quarter of the disc. The conguration (with all parameters) is shown in Fig. 9. The problem has an ana-
lytical solution, which in cylindrical coordinates (r; u) for the radial and azimuthal displacement u
r
and u
u
reads (e.g., [7]):
u
r
= C
1
r
C
2
r
and u
u
= 0; (61)
where the constants C
1
and C
2
are given by
C
1
=
(1 m) p
i
b
2
p
a
a
2
( )
E a
2
b
2
( )
and C
2
=
a
2
b
2
(1 m)(p
i
p
a
)
E a
2
b
2
( )
(62)
with the Poisson number m and the elasticity modulus E (related to the Lame coefcients k
s
and l
s
given in
Section 2.2 by k
s
= Em=(1 m)(1 2m) and l
s
= E=(2 2m)). The non-zero stresses, i.e., the radial stress r
rr
and the azimuthal stress r
uu
are given by
r
rr
=
EC
1
1 m
EC
2
(1 m)r
2
and r
uu
=
EC
1
1 m
EC
2
(1 m)r
2
: (63)
Fig. 9. Conguration and parameters for circular annular disc problem.
The problem is solved (in Cartesian coordinates) with our nite-volume solver on ve gradually rened
grids with 5 4 control volumes on the coarsest grid (see Fig. 9) and up to 80 64 control volumes on the
nest grid. For comparison computations with the nite-element code ANSYS (see [1]) are carried out on
the same grids with 4-node quadrilateral elements. To assess the accuracy of the solutions we dene a global
relative error e
/
N
by
e
/
N
=
1
N
N
i=1
/
i
/
a
i
/
a
i
; (64)
where N is the number of nodal values and /
i
denotes a numerical solution value at node i and /
a
i
the
corresponding analytical value. In Fig. 10, the errors e
u
r
N
and e
r
rr
N
for the radial stress and the radial dis-
placements obtained with both solvers are given for the different grids in a double logarithmic scale. The
results clearly show the second order of our method. The errors are similar to that achieved with the
corresponding nite-element computation.
5.2. Eciency aspects
In the following example we want to study the convergence properties and numerical eciency of the
presented method when solving a thermally coupled problem, in particular, in comparison to similar un-
coupled solid and uid problems. Special emphasis is hereby given to the performance of the multi-grid
technique.
As test cases we consider dierentially heated square uid and solid domains as indicated in Fig. 11. In
both domains corresponding boundary conditions for the temperature (zero heat ux at the upper and
lower sides, high temperature h
h
on the right and low temperature h
l
on the left side) and for the velocities
and the displacements (all zero) are assumed. A dierence in temperature of h
h
h
l
= 10 between the outer
region walls is applied, resulting in a Rayleigh number of Ra ~ 936 for the uid cavity. The Prandtl number
is chosen to be Pr = 7:7. The chosen solid material parameters given in Fig. 16 are those of steel. The
solutions of the two problems are indicated in Fig. 12. Inside the uid region a natural convection ow is
induced by the temperature gradient, which due to the moderate Rayleigh number is characterised by only
5x4 10x8 20x16 40x32 80x64
Control Volumes/Nodes
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
10
0
A
v
e
r
a
g
e

R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

E
r
r
o
r
u
r
(present code)
u
r
(ANSYS)
r
(present code)
r
(ANSYS)
lin
e
w
ith
s
lo
p
e
2
Fig. 10. Average relative errors e
ur
N
and e
rrr
N
for the radial displacement u
r
and the radial stress r
rr
with ANSYS and the present code for
varying grid size.
one large vortex spread over the whole uid domain. While the ow in the uid problem the ow inuences
the temperature distribution by convection, the solid problem has a constant temperature gradient resulting
in displacements in negative x
1
-direction.The corresponding coupled problem considered is obtained by
simply attaching the two blocks along one edge as illustrated in Fig. 13. The boundary conditions corre-
spond to those for the uncoupled problems, where the temperature gradient now has an impact on both
domains (note that no temperature boundary condition is needed along the interface). The solution of the
coupled problem is depicted in Fig. 14. In contrast to the uncoupled case, the convective heat transfer inside
the uid domain inuences the heat conduction in the solid block leading to an asymmetrical temperature
distribution in the solid domain. This also results in slightly dierent velocity and displacement elds
compared to the uncoupled case. However, the characteristics of the velocity and displacements elds re-
main unchanged. We compare the performance of the nite-volume solver for the three problems on ve
successively rened (equidistant Cartesian) grids with 10 10 up to 160 160 control volumes in each
Fig. 13. Computational domain with boundary conditions for coupled uidsolid test problem.
292.375
291.75
291.125
290.5
289.875
289.25
288.625
288
287.375
286.75
286.125
285.5
284.875
284.25
283.625
292.375
291.75
291.125
290.5
289.875
289.25
288.625
288
287.375
286.75
286.125
285.5
284.875
284.25
283.625
Fig. 12. Temperature distributions, velocity vectors (left) and displacement vectors (right) for uncoupled uid and solid test problems.
Fig. 11. Computational domains with boundary conditions for uncoupled uid and solid test problems.
block. The corresponding computing times obtained with the single-grid and multi-grid methods are given
in Fig. 15. Several conclusions can be drawn from the results. In all cases the multi-grid method turns out to
be very much faster than the to single-grid method for larger grid sizes. The increase of computing time for
the multi-grid method is related to the number of control volumes in a linear manner (slope ~ 1), whereas
the single-grid computations show a quadratic correlation (slope ~ 2). Thus, using the presented method
this well-known behaviour for uncoupled problems is preserved for the coupled problem. When comparing
the computing times for the solid and the uid problem the results also show, that the latter takes more
computational eort. This one could expect due to the non-linearity in the uid momentum equations and
the larger number of unknowns and equations in the uid domain (pressure and continuity equation). With
the multi-grid method the solution of the coupled problem is only slightly more time consuming than the
solution of the uncoupled problems. Surprisingly, with the single-grid method the coupled solution is
achieved even faster.
Fig. 14. Temperature distribution, velocity vectors (left) and displacement vectors (right) for coupled uidsolid test problem.
10x10 20x20 40x40 80x80 160x160
Control Volumes
10
0
10
2
10
4
10
6
C
o
m
p
u
t
i
n
g

T
i
m
e

[
s
]
solid: single grid
solid: multigrid
fluid: single grid
fluid: multigrid
coupled: single grid
coupled: multigrid
l
i
n
e

w
i
t
h

s
l
o
p
e

2
lin
e
w
ith
s
lo
p
e
1
Fig. 15. Comparison of single-grid and multi-grid performances with varying grid size for uncoupled and coupled uidsolid test
problem.
5.3. Applications
Finally, in order to illustrate the capabilities of the developed coupled code, two thermally coupled uid
solid example computations from dierent areas of applications are presented.
5.3.1. Coaxial pipes
We consider a hollow thick-walled massive pipe coaxially surrounded by another pipe conveying a uid.
The pipes are assumed to be innitely long in the x
3
-direction, and that plane strain conditions for the solid
part (i.e., the wall of the inner pipe) can be assumed and the ow through the pipe (in z-direction) can be
neglected. This yields a two-dimensional problem conguration, which is sketched in Fig. 16 with the
corresponding parameters. The inner boundary of the steel pipe is xed and imposed with a constant
temperature of h = 5. At the outer boundary of the uid pipe a constant temperature of h = 0 is assumed.
The characteristics of the problem solution can be seen in Fig. 17; showing streamlines and pressure in the
uid part, displacements and radial stresses in the solid part, as well as the global temperature distribution.
The temperature gradient between the inner and outer wall induces radial displacements in the inner pipe
1.0556E-05
7.609E-06
4.66E-06
6.135E
-06
9
.0
8
3
E
-0
6
1
.2
0
9
6
3
E
-0
5
1
.4
9
8
E
-0
5
1.645E-05
3
.
1
8
8
E
-
0
6
1
.3
5
E
-0
5
1
.0
5
5
6
E
-0
5
7.609E
-06
4.66E-06
3
.1
8
8
E
-
0
6
6.135E-06
9.083E-06
1.35E-05
1.645E-05
1.9399E-05
Fig. 17. Streamlines (left) and pressures (right) in the uid part, displacements (left) and radial stresses (right) in the solid part and
global temperature distribution (left) for the coaxial pipe problem.
Fig. 16. Conguration and parameters for coaxial pipe problem.
and a buoyancy driven ow in the uid ring cavity. Due to the temperature difference between the inner
and outer wall two symmetrical vortices in the left and right half of the region occur. The buoyancy-driven
ow causes a non-concentric temperature distribution, resulting in a higher temperature above and a lower
temperature below the inner pipe. According to regions of low and high uid velocity the uid ow imposes
a pressure distribution, where regions of high pressure occur at the top and the bottom of the ring cavity
while regions of low pressure can be found above the inner pipe. The radial stresses in the inner pipe wall
radially decrease from the inner to the outer part. The displacements show the opposite behaviour. The
numerical solution is computed on a sequence of four rened grids with 8 16 to 64 128 control volumes.
As a convenient reference quantity for evaluating the asymptotic numerical accuracy of the computed
solution, the total heat ux _ q
w
through the uid side of the interfacial inner wall is considered:
_ q
w
=
_
C
i
j
oh
ox
i
C
i
n
i
dC
i
; (65)
where the normal derivative of the temperature is either the left- or right-handed one. To evaluate _ q
w
numerically the temperature gradient at the wall is approximated by a second-order central dierencing
scheme using the uid and solid temperature adjacent to the interface, where a thermal conductivity j
i
at
the interfacial wall is obtained from a harmonic interpolation between the adjacent control volumes.
In Table 1 the heat ux values for all grids are indicated together with the computing times required
using the multi-grid method compared to the single-grid computation. The corresponding acceleration
factor is also given. Using the heat ux values for the three nest grids a convergence order of approxi-
mately 2.0 is found. Comparing the computing times with the number of grid points for the single-grid and
the multi-grid method the typical convergence behaviours are again found (see Fig. 18 for a graphical
representation). The signicant advantage of the multi-grid technique when accurate solutions (i.e., larger
number of grid points) are required becomes clearly apparent.
5.3.2. Cooling of electronic devices
As a second application example we consider the convection cooling of an electronic device. The cor-
responding (two-dimensional) problem conguration is sketched in Fig. 19. An aluminium carrier is as-
sembled with two steel parts of the same size. For cooling, a water-conveying channel is located above this
arrangement giving rise to a cavity between the two steel blocks. The material parameters for aluminium
are q
s
= 2700, j
s
= 220, c
ps
= 896, E = 7:1 10
10
and m = 0:34. The parameters for steel and water are as
given in Fig. 16. While the solid sides of the assembly are insulated, the temperature dierence between the
upper channel wall and the lower side of the aluminium block amounts to h
l
h
r
= 1. The lower solid face
is xed; the side walls have horizontal constraints. The interfaces between uid and solid parts are con-
sidered free surfaces without any constraints. Note that this example additionally contains the interaction
of two dierent combined materials with diering thermal properties. The properties of the problem so-
lution can be seen in Figs. 20 and 21 indicating streamlines and pressures in the uid part, displacements
and vertical stresses in the solid part and the global temperature distribution. On its way through the
channel the cool uid heats up at the solid contact faces. The temperature gradient induces a buoyancy ow
Table 1
Heat ux _ q
w
at the inner wall of the uid domain and computing times for single-grid and multi-grid method with varying grid size for
coaxial pipe problem
Grid _ q
w
Computing time
SG MG SG/MG
8 16 37.983 1 1 1
16 32 34.750 8 2 4
32 64 33.809 118 10 12
64 128 33.576 2108 53 40
10
2
10
3
10
4
CV
10
1
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
C
o
m
p
u
t
i
n
g

T
i
m
e
single grid
multigrid
lin
e
w
ith
s
lo
p
e
1
lin
e
w
it
h
s
lo
p
e
2
Fig. 18. Comparison of single-grid and multi-grid performance with varying grid size for coaxial pipe problem.
Fig. 19. Problem conguration for convection cooling of an electronic device.
Fig. 20. Displacements in the solid part and the global temperature distribution for the electronic device cooling problem.
characterised by a single vortex in the cavity. The highest stresses occur at the inner cavity corner. Due to
the dierent material properties of steel and aluminium, dierent stress levels in the corresponding parts are
obtained. Aluminium with the higher thermal coecient of expansion shows larger displacements at the
interfacial wall.
Table 2
Heat ux _ q
w
at the lower wall of the uid domain and computing times for single-grid and multi-grid method for dierent grid sizes for
the electronic device cooling problem
Grid _ q
w
Computing time
SG MG SG/MG
220 2.7809 3 3 1
880 2.7727 26 12 2
3520 2.7909 413 48 9
14 080 2.8026 6829 193 35
56 320 2.8089 113 090 801 141
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
CV
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
10
6
C
o
m
p
u
t
i
n
g

T
i
m
e
single grid
multigrid
lin
e
w
ith
s
lo
p
e
1
l
i
n
e

w
i
t
h

s
l
o
p
e

2
Fig. 22. Comparison of single-grid and multi-grid performances with varying grid size for electronic device cooling problem.
Fig. 21. Streamlines and pressure in the uid part and vertical stresses in the solid part for the electronic device cooling problem.
We solve the problem with our coupled nite-volume solver on ve successively rened grids from 220
up to 56 320 control volumes. In order to assess the asymptotic accuracy of the numerical results the total
heat ux _ q
w
(see Eq. (65)) through the uid side of the interfacial inner walls (three solid walls of the cavity
and the two northern walls of the steel blocks touching the channel) is again considered. Table 2 gives the
reference quantities obtained on the dierent grids together with performance results when using both the
single-grid and the multi-grid methods. For this particular example the typical multi-grid performance with
a linear dependence of the computational eort on the grid size can be seen in Fig. 22, where the computing
times versus the grid size are presented as a graph. In this case the heat ux values for the three nest grids
yield again a satisfactorily convergence order of approximately 1.9.
6. Conclusions
We have presented a nite-volume multi-grid algorithm for the numerical prediction of coupled uid
solid problems in complex geometries. The results have shown that the applied blockstructuring technique
is suitable for handling both complex geometries and coupling. The coupling strategy is distributed on the
level of the smoothing operation (of pressure-correction type) and the linear system solver.
It has turned out that the approach employed results in a robust and ecient coupling which retains the
performance that can be observed for individual uid and solid problems. In particular, the high numerical
eciency of multi-grid techniques can fully be preserved in the coupled solver. When solving large problems
its use leads to a signicant reduction of computational eort, with the result that a high numerical ac-
curacy can be achieved at low computing cost.
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