Assessment of conservative load transfer for fluid–solid interface with non-matching meshes

We present a detailed comparative study of three conservative schemes used to transfer interface loads in fluid–solid interaction simulations involving non-matching meshes. The three load transfer schemes investigated are the node-projection scheme, the quadrature-projection scheme and the common-refinement based scheme. The accuracy associated with these schemes is assessed with the aid of 2-D fluid–solid interaction problems of increasing complexity. This includes a static load transfer and three transient problems, namely, elastic piston, superseismic shock and flexible inhibitor involving large deformations. We show how the load transfer schemes may affect the accuracy of the solutions along the fluid–solid interface and in the fluid and solid domains. We introduce a grid mismatching function which correlates well with the errors of the traditional load transfer schemes. We also compare the computational costs of these load transfer schemes. Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.