This work details the development and implementation of a numerical model capable of solving strongly-coupled fluid-structure interaction problems involving long thin structures, which are common multi-physics problems encountered in many applications.

In most fluid-structure interaction problems the deformation of the slender elastic bodies is significant and cannot be described by a purely linear analysis. We present a new formulation to model these larger displacements. By extending the standard modal decomposition technique for linear structural analysis, the governing equations and boundary conditions are updated to account for the leading-order non-linear terms and a new modal formulation with quadratic modes is derived. The quadratic modal approach is tested on standard benchmark problems of increasing complexity and compared with analytical and full non-linear numerical solutions.

Two computational fluid-structure interaction approaches are then implemented in a partitioned manner: a finite volume method for discretisation of both the fluid and solid domains and the quadratic modal formulation for the structure coupled with a finite volume fluid solver. Strong-coupling is achieved by means of a fixed-point solver with dynamic relaxation. The fluid-structure interaction approaches are validated and compared on benchmark problems of increasing complexity and strength of coupling between the fluid and solid domains.

Fluid-structure interaction systems may become unstable due to the interaction between the fluid-induced pressure and structural rigidity. A thorough stability analysis of finite elastic plates in uniform flow is conducted by varying the structural length and flow velocity showing that these are critical parameters. Validation of the results with those from analytical methods is done. An analysis of the dynamic interactions between multiple finite plates in various configurations is also conducted.