An efficient time-domain BEM/FEM coupling for acoustic-elastodynamic interaction problems

A coupling procedure is described to perform time-domain numerical analyses of dynamic fluid-structure interaction. The fluid sub-domains, where acoustic waves propagate, are modeled by the Boundary Element Method (BEM), which is quite suitable to deal with linear homogeneous unbounded domain problems. The Finite Element Method (FEM), on the other hand, models the structure sub-domains, adopting a time marching scheme based on implicit Green's functions. The BEM/FEM coupling algorithm here developed is very efficient, eliminating the drawbacks of standard and iterative coupling procedures. Stability and accuracy features are improved by the adoption of different time steps in each sub-domain of the coupled analysis.