ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: A FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION STRATEGY WITH APPLICATION TO LOW

In this work a structured adaptive mesh refinement (S-AMR) strategy for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems in laminar and turbulent incompressible flows is developed. The Eulerian computational grid consists of nested grid blocks at different refinement levels. The grid topology and data-structure is managed by using the Paramesh toolkit. The filtered Navier-Stokes equations are evolved in time by means of an explicit second-order projection scheme, where spatial derivatives are approximated with second order central differences on a staggered grid. The level of accuracy of the required variable interpolation operators is studied, and a novel divergence-preserving prolongation scheme for velocities is evolved. A novel direct-forcing embedded-boundary method is developed to enforce boundary conditions on a complex moving body not aligned with the grid lines. In this method, the imposition of no-slip conditions on immersed bodies is done on the Lagrangian markers that represent their wet surfaces, and the resulting force is transferred to the surrounding Eulerian grid points by a moving least squares formulation. Report Documentation Page Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information