Finite element method for strongly-coupled systems of fluid-structure interaction with application to granular flow in silos

A monolithic approach to fluid-structure interactions based on the space-time finite element method (STFEM) is presented. The method is applied to the investigation of stress states in silos filled with granular material during discharge. The thin-walled siloshell is modeled in a continuum approach as elastic solid material, whereas the flowing granular material is described by an enhanced viscoplastic non-Newtonian fluid model. The weak forms of the governing equations are discretized by STFEM for both solid and fluid domain. To adapt the matching mesh nodes of the fluid domain to the structural deformations, a mesh-moving scheme using a neo-Hookean pseudo-solid is applied. The finite element approximation of non-smooth solution characteristics is enhanced by the extended finite element method (XFEM). The proposed methodology is applied to the 4D (space-time) investigation of deformation-dependent loading conditions during silo discharge.