An immersed boundary method for smoothed particle hydrodynamics of self-propelled swimmers

We present a novel particle method, combining remeshed Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics with Immersed Boundary and Level Set techniques for the simulation of flows past complex deforming geometries. The present method retains the Lagrangian adaptivity of particle methods and relies on the remeshing of particle locations in order to ensure the accuracy of the method. In fact this remeshing step enables the introduction of Immersed Boundary Techniques used in grid based methods. The method is applied to simulations of flows of isothermal and compressible fluids past steady and unsteady solid boundaries that are described using a particle Level Set formulation. The method is validated with two and three-dimensional benchmark problems of flows past cylinders and spheres and it is shown to be well suited to simulations of large scale simulations using tens of millions of particles, on flow-structure interaction problems as they pertain to self-propelled anguilliform swimmers. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.