A novel approach to modeling plate deformations in fluid–structure interactions

• Published in: Nuclear engineering and design Vol. 293; no. C; pp. 1 - 15
• Main Authors: Howard, T.K., Marcum, W.R., Jones, W.F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier B.V 01.11.2015; Elsevier
• Subjects: computational simulations; fluid-structure interactions (FSI); K. Thermal hydraulics; NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; K. Thermal hydraulics
• ISSN: 0029-5493; 1872-759X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2015.06.010

•A new method for computing fluid structure interactions of flat plates is presented herein.•The method is validated through consideration of a single plate subject to hydraulic loading.•The model is compared against solution forms computed via ABAQUS and experimental data.•The model compares well against experimental data and the commercial computational code. As computational power increases, so does the desire to use computational simulations while designing fuel plates. The downside is multi-physics simulations – or more specifically, fluid–structure interactions (FSI) as addressed herein – require a larger amount of computational resources. Current simulations of a single plate can take weeks on a desktop computer, thus requiring the use of multiple servers or a cluster for FSI simulations. While computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes coupled to computational structural mechanics (CSM) codes can provide a wealth of information regarding flow patterns, there should be some skepticism in whether or not they are the only means of achieving the desired solution. When the parameters of interest are the onset of plate collapse and the associated fluid channel velocities, coupled CFD–CSM simulations provide superfluous information. The paper provides an alternative approach to solving FSI problems using a 1-D, semi-analytical model derived from first principles. The results are compared and contrasted to the numerical and experimental work performed by Kennedy et al. (2014. Experimental Investigation of Deflection of Flat Aluminium Plates Under Variable Velocity Parallel Flow, Columbia: University of Missouri TherMec Research Group).