Professor F.-K. Benra
University of Duisburg-Essen
Faculty of Engineering Sciences
Institute of Energy and Environmental Engineering
University of Duisburg-Essen
Chair for Turbomachinery
Lotharstr. 1
47057 Duisburg, Germany
E-mail: friedrich.benra@uni-due.de
Abstract: Many processes in nature
and technology can be described only by using laws and equations from
different physical disciplines. Such examples, for which the arising
sub-problems cannot be solved independently, are called multi-physics
applications. A very important class of these multi-physics problems are the
fluid-structure-interactions (FSI), which are characterized by the fact,
that the flow around a body has a strong impact on the structure and/or on
the movement of the body and the modification of the structure or the
position of the body or a component of the body due to the flow has an
influence on the flow which is not negligible. The two disciplines which are
involved in this kind of multi-physics problems are the fluid dynamics and
the structure dynamics which both can be described by the relations of
continuum mechanics.
Examples of FSI exist in many fields of the natural sciences and the
technology. Solutions for the mathematical description of fluid structure
interactions can be obtained only by numerical simulations, which still
today are a big challenge of scientific computation.
In this contribution initially the fundamental relations for the calculation
of the flow behavior and of the structure dynamics will be presented and
approaches for numerical solutions of coupled FSI-systems will be pointed
out. Afterwards different kinds of coupling methods for the two disciplines
and possible methods of partitioning of the numerical simulations are
described in detail and evaluated regarding the dependence of the two
disciplines from each other. A detailed discussion of solutions for several
FSI-examples together with a comparison to experimental results brings this
contribution to conclusion.
Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Benra graduated with a diploma degree in Mechanical
Engineering at University of Duisburg in 1979. Afterwards he was working as
a research assistant at the University of Duisburg and he obtained his
doctor degree in Mechanical Engineering in the field of Turbomachinery in
1986. From 1986 to 1989 he was chief of the department for design and
development of radial compressors at Mannesmann Demag Company and from 1989
to 1993 he was chief of department for research and development of
centrifugal pumps at company Pleiger. Since 1993 he is full Professor for
Mechanical Engineering at University of Duisburg-Essen in the field of
Turbomachinery and since 2002 he is the head of the Chair for Turbomachinery
at University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. His area of expertise in teaching
are: Thermofluid Engineering and Energy Conversion in all kinds of
Turbomachines. His current research topics are: Numerical and experimental
investigation of time-variant flow in Turbomachines (rotor/stator
interaction, fluid/structure interaction, unsteady flow in all kinds of
cavities, flow along rough or structured surfaces).
