The reference map technique for incompressible fluid--structure interaction problems

This talk will introduce the reference map technique, a fully Eulerian approach to simulate soft structures immersed in an incompressible fluid. The flow is simulated on a fixed grid using a second-order projection method to solve the incompressible Navier--Stokes equations. By introducing a reference map variable to model finite-deformation constitutive relations in the structure on the same grid as the fluid, the interfacial coupling problem is highly simplified. The technique is a computationally efficient alternative to moving mesh approaches, and example simulations featuring many-body contacts and flexible swimmers will be presented.