Massively parallel finite element computation of incompressible flows involving fluid-body interactions (Q1912104)

We describe massively parallel finite element computations of unsteady incompressible flows involving fluid-body interactions. These computations are based on the deforming-spatial-domain/stabilized-space-time finite element formulation. Unsteady flows past a stationary NACA \(0012\) airfoil are computed for Reynolds numbers \(1000\), \(5000\) and \(100 000\). Significantly different flow patterns are observed for these three cases. The method is then applied to computation of the dynamics of an airfoil falling in a viscous fluid under the influence of gravity. All these computations were carried out on the Thinking Machines CM-200 and CM-5 supercomputers. The implicit equation systems arising from the finite element discretizations of these large-scale problems are solved iteratively by using the GMRES update technique with diagonal preconditioners.