Eulerian formulation and level set models for incompressible fluid-structure interaction

This paper is devoted to Eulerian models for incompressible fluid-structure systems. These models are primarily derived for computational purposes as they allow to simulate in a rather straightforward way complex 3D systems. We first analyze the level set model of immersed membranes proposed in [Cottet and Maitre, Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci. 16 (2006) 415–438]. We in particular show that this model can be interpreted as a generalization of so-called Korteweg fluids. We then extend this model to more generic fluid-structure systems. In this framework, assuming anisotropy, the membrane model appears as a formal limit system when the elastic body width vanishes. We finally provide some numerical experiments which illustrate this claim.