Application of material point method in wind-membrane structure interaction

Due to the disadvantages of mesh distortion and large computer time consuming in commonly used numerical methods, material point method (MPM) was proposed to deal with the wind-membrane structure interaction. The solid was described by MPM, whereas the fluid was described using immersed boundary method. The effect of the solid on fluid was taken into account through imposing boundary conditions on the immediate vicinity mesh nodes. The effect of the fluid on solid was taken into account by imposing pressure and shear stress on the solid surface. And the procedures for solving the solid equations, fluid equations and the fluid-structure interaction were presented respectively. The algorithm was applied to a 2D membrane structure interacting with wind. The results of structural responses and fluid pressure field were obtained, which are in good agreement with those obtained using finite element method (FEM). The computing efficiency was compared between MPM and FEM, where MPM shows better efficiency. It is shown that ideal results can be obtained in wind-structure interaction analysis by employing MPM, with great improvement in computing efficiency. ©, 2015, Chinese Vibration Engineering Society. All right reserved.