Effect of internal mass in the simulation of a moving body by the immersed boundary method

We investigate the effect of internal mass in the simulation of a moving body by the immersed boundary method. In general, the force and the torque acting on the body are influenced by the internal mass, if they are obtained by the negative of the sum of body forces which are applied near the boundary in order to enforce the no-slip condition on the boundary. In this study, the following schemes for approximating the internal mass effect are introduced; no internal mass effect, rigid body approximation, and Lagrangian points approximation. By comparing these schemes through the simulations of a moving body, we examine the internal mass effect. The simulations of the flow around an oscillating circular cylinder and of the sedimentations of an elliptical cylinder and a sphere are performed by using an immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method, and it is found that the internal mass effect is significant to unsteady body motions for the Reynolds numbers over 10 and grows as the Reynolds number increases. We also find that for the angular motions of the body, the rigid body approximation causes errors for the rotational Reynolds numbers over 10. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.