Simulation of fluid-structure interaction in a microchannel using the lattice Boltzmann method and size-dependent beam element on a graphics processing unit

Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems in microchannels play a prominent role in many engineering applications. The present study is an effort toward the simulation of flow in microchannel considering FSI. The bottom boundary of the microchannel is simulated by size-dependent beam elements for the finite element method (FEM) based on a modified couple stress theory. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) using the D2Q13 LB model is coupled to the FEM in order to solve the fluid part of the FSI problem. Because of the fact that the LBM generally needs only nearest neighbor information, the algorithm is an ideal candidate for parallel computing. The simulations are carried out on graphics processing units (GPUs) using computed unified device architecture (CUDA). In the present study, the governing equations are non-dimensionalized and the set of dimensionless groups is exhibited to show their effects on micro-beam displacement. The numerical results show that the displacements of the micro-beam predicted by the size-dependent beam element are smaller than those by the classical beam element.