An operator splitting strategy for fluid–structure interaction problems with thin elastic structures in an incompressible Newtonian flow

We present a computational framework based on the use of the Newton and level set methods to model fluid–structure interaction problems involving elastic membranes freely suspended in an incompressible Newtonian flow. The Mooney–Rivlin constitutive model is used to model the structure. We consider an extension to a more general case of the method described in Laadhari (2017) to model the elasticity of the membrane. We develop a predictor–corrector finite element method where an operator splitting scheme separates different physical phenomena. The method features an affordable computational burden with respect to the fully implicit methods. An exact Newton method is described to solve the problem, and the quadratic convergence is numerically achieved. Sample numerical examples are reported and illustrate the accuracy and robustness of the method.