A flexible multi‐physics coupling interface for partitioned solution approaches

A common way of solving multi‐physics problems is the use of a partitioned approach. To this end specialized solvers are utilized for the different subproblems and linked via a common communication interface. In this paper a communication interface is presented, which is capable of dealing with different kind of coupled problems. The subproblems may be discretized separately and linked either through a common boundary or by a common volume region. In order to stabilize and to accelerate the implicit coupling iteration different relaxation techniques and predictor methods are implemented. Finally, the coupling interface is applied to a well‐known fluid‐structure interaction (FSI) benchmark. (© 2012 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)