Analysis of the coupling of BEM, FEM and mixed-FEM for a two-dimensional fluid–solid interaction problem

In this paper we consider a fluid–solid interaction problem posed in the plane. We employ a mixed variational formulation in the obstacle, in which the Cauchy stress tensor and the rotation are the only unknowns. This new mixed formulation is coupled, through suitable transmission conditions on the wet interface, with a Helmholtz equation satisfied by the pressure of the fluid in the unbounded domain. We use a traditional primal variational formulation in this part of the domain and incorporate the far field information through boundary integral equations. We approximate the resulting weak formulation by a Galerkin scheme based on PEERS in the solid and on a FEM-BEM approach in the fluid part. We show that our scheme is uniquely solvable and convergent, and then provide optimal error estimates. Finally, we illustrate our analysis with some computational experiments.