4.20 Mapping Data for Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) Applications

ANSYS FLUENT allows you to map variables (e.g., temperature, pressure) from the cell or face zones of an ANSYS FLUENT simulation onto locations associated with a finite element analysis (FEA) mesh. The results are written to a file for inclusion into an FEA simulation. During this process, both the original and the new mesh can be viewed simultaneously. ANSYS FLUENT maps the data using zeroth-order interpolation, and can write the output file in a variety of formats.

This capability is useful when solving fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems, and allows you to perform further analysis on the solid portion of your model using FEA software. Mapping the data may be preferable to simply exporting the ANSYS FLUENT data file (as described in Section  4.13), since the meshes used in CFD analysis are typically finer than those used in finite element analysis.