Explicit partitioning strategies for the interaction between a fluid and a multilayered poroelastic structure: an operator-splitting approach

Abstract: We study the interaction between an incompressible, viscous, Newtonian fluid and a multilayered structure, which consists of a thin elastic layer and a thick poroelastic material. The thin layer is modeled using the linearly elastic Koiter membrane model, while the thick poroelastic layer is modeled as a Biot system. The objective of this work is to investigate how the poroelastic phenomena affect the characteristic features of blood flow in arteries, such as propagation of pressure waves. We develop a loosely coupled fluid-structure interaction finite element solver based on the Lie operator splitting scheme. We prove a conditional stability of the scheme and derive error estimates. Theoretical results are supported with numerical examples.