Rationale for a Linear Perturbation Method for the Flow Field Induced by Fluid-Structure Interactions

A formal justification is developed for a method in which hydrodynamic data for a transient in a rigid-wall system (derived, for example, from a small-scale experimental simulation) is used as input in a linear computation for the perturbation flow field due to actual wall flexibility. The method is useful in problems where the basic flow transient is so complex that it can be quantified only empirically, and where the fluid-structure interaction is too complex for the fluid side to be represented by a priori defined equivalent mass.