Choice and Limits of a Fluid Model for the Numerical Study in Dynamic Fluid Structure Interaction Problems

This paper is related to the study of a nuclear propulsion reactor prototype for the French Navy. This prototype is built on ground and is to be dimensioned toward seismic loading. The dynamic analysis takes the coupled fluid structure analysis into account. The basic fluid models used by design engineers are inviscid incompressible or compressible. The fluid can be described in a bidimensional by slice or a three-dimensional approach. A numerical study is carried out on a generic problem for the linear FSI dynamic problem. The results of this study are presented and discussed. As a conclusion, the three-dimensional inviscid incompressible fluid appears to be the best compromise between the description of physical phenomena and the cost of modeling. The geometry of the reactor is such that large displacements of the structure in the fluid can occur. Therefore, the linearity hypothesis might not be longer valid. The case of large amplitude imposed oscillating motion of a cylinder in a confined fluid is numerically studied. A CFD code is used to investigate the fluid behavior solving the NAVIER-STOKES equations. The forces induced on the cylinder by the fluid are computed and compared to the linear solution. The limit of the linear model can then be exhibited.