An immersed boundary method with subgrid resolution and improved numerical stability applied to slender bodies in Stokes flow

Abstract: The immersed boundary method is a numerical and mathematical formulation for solving fluid-structure interaction problems. It relies on solving fluid equations on an Eulerian fluid grid and interpolating the resulting velocity back onto immersed structures. To resolve slender fibers, the grid spacing must be on the order of the fiber radius, and thus the number of required grid points along the filament must be of the same order as the aspect ratio. Simulations of slender bodies using the IB method can therefore be intractable. A technique is presented to address this problem in the context of Stokes flow. The velocity of the structure is split into a component coming from the underlying fluid grid, which is coarser than normally required, and a component proportional to the force (a drag term). The drag coefficient is set so that a single sphere is represented exactly on a grid of arbitrary meshwidth. Implicit treatment of the drag term removes some of the stability restrictions normally associated with the IB method. This comes at a loss of accuracy, although tests are conducted that show 1-2 digits of relative accuracy can be obtained on coarser grids. After its accuracy and stability are tested, the method is applied to two real world examples: fibers in shear flow and a suspension of fibers. These examples show that the method can reproduce existing results and make reasonable predictions about the viscosity of an aligned fiber suspension.