Reduced-Order CFD-FEM for Fluid Flow Study

This paper presents an integrated numerical framework for analyzing fluid–structure interaction (FSI) in flexible engineering components using coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations enhanced by Reduced-Order Modeling (ROM) techniques. The study focuses on accurately capturing the two-way interaction between fluid flow and structural deformation while significantly reducing computational cost. The research was conducted to address the high computational expense associated with fully coupled CFD–FEM simulations, particularly in applications involving lightweight and flexible structures such as aerospace components, marine systems, biomedical devices, and energy structures. Traditional high-fidelity simulations, while accurate, are often too expensive for optimization and real-time analysis. The paper includes governing equations for fluid and structural domains, a partitioned coupling strategy, mesh deformation techniques, time-stepping schemes, and a POD-based Reduced-Order Model. A case study of a flexible plate in crossflow demonstrates that the ROM-enhanced framework achieves up to 80–90% reduction in computational time while maintaining strong agreement with full-order simulations. The results include deformation patterns, vortex-induced vibrations, stress evolution, energy transfer mechanisms, and comparative performance analysis between full-order and reduced-order models.