A numerical study on air squeeze-film damping based on structure-fluid co-simulation technique

CAE applications in dealing with multiphysics problems have been drawing much attention in product development in recent years. In particular, structure-fluid interaction (FSI) problems are of major concern. In this article, a numerical simulation on air squeeze-film damping which is important in MEMS design is presented. The study employs Abaqus and STAR-CD to perform a structure-fluid co-simulation. The squeeze-film damping phenomenon of a simple plate structure is demonstrated and its mechanism investigated. An equivalent modeling method to approximately represent the squeeze-film effects is also examined. It is considered that this coupling analysis method based on Abaqus Co-simulation could be an effective approach to deal with a broad range of FSI problems.