CAD-integrated analysis of lightweight structures with application to fluid-structure interaction and stochastic optimization

Andreas Apostolatos

TU Munich/Mathworks

The prediction of the mechanical behavior of structures it typically made using numerical methods, such as the Finite Element Method (FEM). However, performing classical finite element analysis on curved lightweight structures has the implication that the geometry of such structures becomes compromised, due to the low-order geometric approximation that classical FEMs entail. Therefore a novel approach in the frame of Isogeometric Analysis (IGA) is demonstrated, that numerically predicts the mechanical behavior of lightweight structures accounting for geometries that comprise multiple possibly trimmed patches stemming directly from industrial Computer-Aided Design (CAD) geometric models. The method is applied to Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) problems, while subsequently it is shown how IGA on trimmed multipatches can be used in order to solve stochastic optimization problems in the frame of embedded Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).