An Eulerian shell formulation for fluid—structure interaction Original Research Article

Coupled Eulerian—Lagrangian formulations are currently used to analyze fluid—structure interactions. Extending these formulations to handle large structureal deformations, structural failure, and perforation is challenging. An Eulerian structural formulation is attractive because it permits arbitrarily large deformations and permits the new surfaces associated with perforation to evolve without specialized algorithms. The theoretical basis for an Eulerian formulation for shells is developed and, in particular, the choice of a formulation for the rotations is discussed. Example calculations with large deformations, shell thinning, and weld failure are presented.