Hi folks, I intend to simulate the 6-DOF motion for a flying object with a ribbon attached at its tail. Here the ribbon behaves like a stablizer. In this problem the fluid dynamics is coupled with the 6-DOF motion of the flying object, and the flexible ribbon changes its shape and relative positions to the flying object. If without the ribbon, I can probably use CFD-FASTRAN (from CFDRC, USA) to simulate the problem. (FASTRAN can simulate 6-DOF motion in a flow). But in the current problem the flexible ribbon plays a very important role, without it, the motion would be totally different. Please let me know if anybody has any ideas on how to solve this problem or suggestions on the aproperiate approaches for this problem. Thanks

Since you have FASTRAN, I would recommend contacting CFDRC. I worked on a paper earlier this year with some folks from CFDRC and in addition to the 6-DOF model, some of the simulations in the paper used chimera hole cutting techniques. Depending on the type of movement that you expect the ribbon to experience, you may be able to use chimera techniques to model it.

Why don't you study a case where the flying object is fixed and only the tail moves, and run the simulation for different relative positions of the flying object. Another suggestion (maybe more fun): Why don't you build this object (sounds to me like a kite) and get some test data.