Constraint Penalization Method in the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for Fluid-Structure Interaction

Abstract: A constraint penalization method is introduced within the Lattice Boltzmann (LBM) framework to model fluid-structure interactions involving rigid bodies. The proposed approach extends the fictitious domain concept by enforcing the rigid-body motion through a penalization term directly applied to the fluid velocity field, eliminating the need for explicit Lagrange multipliers or interface force computation. This formulation preserves the locality and simplicity of the LBM algorithm while ensuring an implicit coupling between the fluid and solid regions. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the method accurately reproduces rigid-body motion and hydrodynamic interactions with minimal additional computational cost. The method is applied to particle sedimentation, starting with a simple example and progressing to increasingly complex cases.