An unconditionally stable semi-implicit cutfem for an interaction problem between an elastic membrane and an incompressible fluid

Abstract

In this paper we introduce a finite element method for the Stokes equations with a massless immersed membrane. This membrane applies normal and tangential forces affecting the velocity and pressure of the fluid. Additionally, the points representing this membrane move with the local fluid velocity. We design and implement a high-accuracy cut finite element method (CutFEM) which enables the use of a structured mesh that is not aligned with the immersed membrane, and we formulate a time discretization that yields an unconditionally energy stable scheme. We prove that the stability is not restricted by the parameter choices that constrained previous finite element immersed boundary methods and illustrate the theoretical results with numerical simulations.