Review of Mechanical Systems: Fluid Structure Interaction by Francois Axisa and Jose Antunes: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007; ISBN-13: 9780750668477; 759 pp.

This book presents a comprehensive treatment of the fundamental physical mechanisms and the mathematical treatments of oscillatory fluid-structure coupled problems of practical relevance, including mechanical systems found in naval and ocean engineering applications.

The first chapter is an introductory chapter that outlines the basic problem of fluid-structure dynamical coupling in an intuitive fashion. The chapter synthesizes the governing equations for fluid dynamics, forming the background for the rest of the book and including topics such as:

The discussion on the linearized fluid equations and the linearized boundary conditions is illuminating. This is an excellent introduction that concisely reviews problems of fluid-structure coupling in an intuitive fashion and synthesizes the governing equations for fluid dynamics that form the background for the rest of the book. Numerous examples are used to demonstrate effectively the use of physics and mathematics in addressing the modeling of complex fluid-structure coupled systems in interactions of structures with surface waves and acoustical waves.

The second chapter addresses the inertial effects of a fluid on the frequencies and mode shapes of structural vibrations in the presence of a dense fluid. This chapter is clear and to the point. Added mass matrix to the structure is used to model such effects without introducing additional degrees of freedom related to the fluid motion. Topics covered include:

Chapter 3 deals with surface waves and addresses the basics of small-amplitude or linear surface waves and their effects on floating and grounded structures. This chapter includes topics such as:

Chapter 4 addresses one-dimensional acoustic waves, while Chapter 5 extends the discussion to two- and three-dimensional problems. The acoustical waves are then coupled to structures in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 focuses on energy dissipation in fluids, including the mechanisms of radiation damping and fluid viscosity.

Overall, this book offers a comprehensive review of research topics of the coupling of structural vibrations with small-amplitude oscillatory motions in a fluid. It also offers discussions of acoustical waves and structural responses in a variety of mechanical systems. However, the fundamentals of gravity-wave and structure coupling as well as the energy dissipation in fluids are only briefly covered in Chapters 3 and 7, respectively. It will be useful to researchers interested in these topics, as well as to graduate students looking for concrete topics of application of general thermodynamic principles. The authors should consider in the future devoting a chapter or more to computer simulation.