A lattice Boltzmann-finite element model for two-dimensional fluid–structure interaction problems involving shallow waters

In this paper, a numerical method for the modeling of shallow waters interacting with slender elastic structures is presented. The fluid domain is modeled through the lattice Boltzmann method, while the solid domain is idealized by corotational beam finite elements undergoing large displacements. Structure dynamics is predicted by using the time discontinuous Galerkin method and the fluid–structure interface conditions are handled by the Immersed Boundary method. An explicit coupling strategy to combine the adopted numerical methods is proposed and its effectiveness is tested by computing the error in terms of the energy that is artificially introduced at the fluid–solid interface.