Anisotropic mesh adaptation: towards user‐independent,mesh‐independent and solver‐independent CFD. Part III. Unstructured meshes

The present paper is the third article in a three‐part series on anisotropic mesh adaptation and its application to two‐ and three‐dimensional, structured and unstructured meshes. This third paper concerns the application of the full adaptation methodology to 2‐D unstructured meshes, including all four mesh modification strategies presented in Part I, i.e. refinement/coarsening, edge swapping and node movement. The mesh adaptation procedure is validated through a careful monitoring of a single adaptation step and of the solution–adaptation loop. Independence from the initial mesh and from the flow solver is illustrated. The efficiency of the overall methodology is investigated on relevant laminar and turbulent flow benchmarks. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Three‐dimensional instability of axisymmetric flows: solution of benchmark problems by a low‐order finite volume method

Several problems on three‐dimensional instability of axisymmetric steady flows driven by convection or rotation or both are studied by a second‐order finite volume method combined with the Fourier decomposition in the periodic azimuthal direction. The study is focused on the convergence of the critical parameters with mesh refinement. The calculations are done on the uniform and stretched grids with variation of the stretching. Converged results are reported for all the problems considered and are compared with the previously published data. Some of the calculated critical parameters are reported for the first time. The convergence studies show that the three‐dimensional instability of axisymmetric flows can be computed with a good accuracy only on fine enough grids having about 100 nodes in the shortest spatial direction. It is argued that a combination of fine uniform grids with the Richardson extrapolation can be a good replacement for a grid stretching. It is shown once more that the sparseness of the Jacobian matrices produced by the finite volume method allows one to enhance performance of the Newton and Arnoldi iteration procedures by combining them with a direct sparse linear solver instead of using the Krylov‐subspace‐based iteration methods. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A grid deformation technique for unsteady flow computations

A grid deformation technique is presented here based on a transfinite interpolation algorithm applied to the grid displacements. The method, tested using a two‐dimensional flow solver that uses an implicit dual‐time method for the solution of the unsteady Euler equations on deforming grids, is applicable to problems with time varying geometries arising from aeroelasticity and free surface marine problems. The present work is placed into a multi‐block framework and fits into the development of a generally applicable parallel multi‐block flow solver. The effect of grid deformation is examined and comparison with rigidly rotated grids is made for a series of pitching aerofoil test cases selected from the AGARD aeroelastic configurations for the NACA0012 aerofoil. The effect of using a geometric conservation law is also examined. Finally, a demonstration test case for the Williams aerofoil with an oscillating flap is presented, showing the capability of the grid deformation technique. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive mesh refinement and load balancing based on multi-level block-structured Cartesian mesh

We developed a framework for a distributed-memory parallel computer that enables dynamic data management for adaptive mesh refinement and load balancing. We employed simple data structure of the building cube method (BCM) where a computational domain is divided into multi-level cubic domains and each cube has the same number of grid points inside, realising a multi-level block-structured Cartesian mesh. Solution adaptive mesh refinement, which works efficiently with the help of the dynamic load balancing, was implemented by dividing cubes based on mesh refinement criteria. The framework was investigated with the Laplace equation in terms of adaptive mesh refinement, load balancing and the parallel efficiency. It was then applied to the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations to simulate a turbulent flow around a sphere. We considered wall-adaptive cube refinement where a non-dimensional wall distance y⁺ near the sphere is used for a criterion of mesh refinement. The result showed the load imbalance due to y⁺ adaptive mesh refinement was corrected by the present approach. To utilise the BCM framework more effectively, we also tested a cube-wise algorithm switching where an explicit and implicit time integration schemes are switched depending on the local Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition in each cube.     

High‐order stable interpolations for immersed boundary methods

The analysis and improvement of an immersed boundary method (IBM) for simulating turbulent flows over complex geometries are presented. Direct forcing is employed. It consists in interpolating boundary conditions from the solid body to the Cartesian mesh on which the computation is performed. Lagrange and least squares high‐order interpolations are considered. The direct forcing IBM is implemented in an incompressible finite volume Navier–Stokes solver for direct numerical simulations (DNS) and large eddy simulations (LES) on staggered grids. An algorithm to identify the body and construct the interpolation schemes for arbitrarily complex geometries consisting of triangular elements is presented. A matrix stability analysis of both interpolation schemes demonstrates the superiority of least squares interpolation over Lagrange interpolation in terms of stability. Preservation of time and space accuracy of the original solver is proven with the laminar two‐dimensional Taylor–Couette flow. Finally, practicability of the method for simulating complex flows is demonstrated with the computation of the fully turbulent three‐dimensional flow in an air‐conditioning exhaust pipe. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

THE PARALLEL BLOCK ADAPTIVE MULTIGRID METHOD FOR THE IMPLICIT SOLUTION OF THE EULER EQUATIONS

A method capable of solving very fast and robust complex non-linear systems of equations is presented. The block adaptive multigrid (BAM) method combines mesh adaptive techniques with multigrid and domain decomposition methods. The overall method is based on the FAS multigrid, but instead of using global grids, locally enriched subgrids are also employed in regions where excessive solution errors are encountered. The final mesh is a composite grid with uniform rectangular subgrids of various mesh densities. The regions where finer grid resolution is necessary are detected using an estimation of the solution error by comparing solutions between grid levels. Furthermore, an alternative domain decomposition strategy has been developed to take advantage of parallel computing machines. The proposed method has been applied to an implicit upwind Euler code (EuFlex) for the solution of complex transonic flows around aerofoils. The efficiency and robustness of the BAM method are demonstrated for two popular inviscid test cases. Up to 19-fold acceleration with respect to the single-grid solution has been achieved, but a further twofold speed-up is possible on four-processor parallel computers.     

A METHOD OF ASSESSING THE EFFECTS OF ARTIFICIAL DISSIPATION IN NAVIER–STOKES CODES

A new method of estimating the extent of the artificial dissipation effects in any solution obtained with a Navier–Stokes flow solver is described. Rather than recalculating the flow on a more refined grid, the solver may be used on the same grid to calculate the flow of an ‘artificially dissipative fluid’, which is a fluid having dissipate properties which arise entirely from the solution method itself. This is done by setting the viscosity and heat conduction coefficients in the Navier–Stokes solver to zero everywhere in the flow, while at the same time applying the usual boundary conditions at solid boundaries. An ‘artificially dissipative flow’ solution will be found where the dissipation effects depend entirely on the solver itself. By comparing this solution with that obtained on the same grid with the solver working in its normal mode, one can estimate whether further grid refinement is required, without necessarily producing an extensive series of solutions on different grids.     

Adaptive large eddy simulation with moving grids

The paper presents adaptive mesh moving methods for large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent flows. With this approach, a given number of grid points is redistributed with respect to an appropriately selected criterion. The Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation is applied to solve the governing equation on moving grids employing a collocated finite volume formulation. A dynamic moving mesh partial differential equation based on a variational principle is solved for the corner points of the grid by means of a dedicated solver. Adaptation is performed in a statistical sense so that statistical quantities of interest are employed. Various LES-specific design criteria and combination of them are proposed, such as the time-averaged gradient of streamwise velocity, turbulent kinetic energy and production rate. These are investigated in the framework of elementary and balanced monitor functions. These are tested for the three-dimensional flow in a channel with periodic constrictions. The numerical results are compared to a highly resolved LES reference solution. The independence of the moving mesh method from the initial LES is shown, and its potential to improve the efficient resolution of turbulent flow features is demonstrated.     

A high‐order element based adaptive mesh refinement strategy for three‐dimensional unstructured grid

Adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) shows attractive properties in automatically refining the flow region of interest, and with AMR, better prediction can be obtained with much less labor work and cost compared to manually remeshing or the global mesh refinement. Cartesian AMR is well established; however, AMR on hybrid unstructured mesh, which is heavily used in the high‐Reynolds number flow simulation, is less matured and existing methods may result in degraded mesh quality, which mostly happens in the boundary layer or near the sharp geometric features. User intervention or additional constraints, such as freezing all boundary layer elements or refining the whole boundary layer, are required to assist the refinement process. In this work, a novel AMR strategy is developed to handle existing difficulties. In the new method, high‐order unstructured elements are first generated based on the baseline mesh; then the refinement is conducted in the parametric space; at last, the mesh suitable for the solver is output. Generating refined elements in the parametric space with high‐order elements is the key of this method and this helps to guarantee both the accuracy and robustness. With the current method, 3‐dimensional hybrid unstructured mesh of huge size and complex geometry can be automatically refined, without user intervention nor additional constraints. With test cases including the 2‐dimensional airfoil and 3‐dimensional full aircraft, the current AMR method proves to be accurate, simple, and robust.     

Patched grid and adaptive mesh refinement strategies for the calculation of the transport of vortices

This paper presents two techniques allowing local grid refinement to calculate the transport of vortices. one is the patched grid (PG) method which allows non‐coincident interfaces between blocks. Treatment of the non‐coincident interfaces is given in detail. The second one is the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) method which has been developed in order to create embedded sub‐grids. The efficiency of these two methods is demonstrated by some validating tests. Then the PG and AMR strategies are applied in the computation of the transport of vortices. We start with a simple vortex flow in a cubic box. Then, the flowfield around a complex aircraft configuration is calculated using the two refinement techniques. Results are compared with a fine, referenced grid calculation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anisotropic mesh adaptation: towards user‐independent,mesh‐independent and solver‐independent CFD. Part I: general principles

The present paper is the lead article in a three‐part series on anisotropic mesh adaptation and its applications to structured and unstructured meshes. A flexible approach is proposed and tested on two‐dimensional, inviscid and viscous, finite volume and finite element flow solvers, over a wide range of speeds. The directional properties of an interpolation‐based error estimate, extracted from the Hessian of the solution, are used to control the size and orientation of mesh edges. The approach is encapsulated into an edge‐based anisotropic mesh optimization methodology (MOM), which uses a judicious sequence of four local operations: refinement, coarsening, edge swapping and point movement, to equi‐distribute the error estimate along all edges, without any recourse to remeshing. The mesh adaptation convergence of the MOM loop is carefully studied for a wide variety of test cases. The mesh optimization generic coupling of MOM with finite volume and finite element flow solvers is shown to yield the same final mesh no matter what the starting point is. It is also shown that on such optimized meshes, the need for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) stabilization artifices, such as upwinding or artificial viscosity, are drastically reduced, if not altogether eliminated, in most well‐posed formulations. These two conclusions can be considered significant steps towards mesh‐independent and solver‐independent CFD. The structure of the three‐part series is thus, 1, general principles; 2, methodology and applications to structured and unstructured grids; 3, applications to three‐dimensional flows. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aerodynamic shape optimization on overset grids using the adjoint method

This paper deals with the use of the continuous adjoint equation for aerodynamic shape optimization of complex configurations with overset grids methods. While the use of overset grid eases the grid generation process, the non‐trivial task of ensuring communication between overlapping grids needs careful attention. This need is effectively addressed by using a practically useful technique known as the implicit hole cutting (IHC) method. The method depends on a simple cell selection process based on the criterion of cell size, and all grid points including interior points and fringe points are treated indiscriminately in the computation of the flow field. This paper demonstrates the simplicity of the IHC method for the adjoint equation. Similar to the flow solver, the adjoint equations are solved on conventional point‐matched and overlapped grids within a multi‐block framework. Parallel computing with message passing interface is also used to improve the overall efficiency of the optimization process. The method is successfully demonstrated in several two‐ and a three‐dimensional shape optimization cases for both external and internal flow problems. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flow simulation on moving boundary‐fitted grids and application to fluid–structure interaction problems

We present a method for the parallel numerical simulation of transient three‐dimensional fluid–structure interaction problems. Here, we consider the interaction of incompressible flow in the fluid domain and linear elastic deformation in the solid domain. The coupled problem is tackled by an approach based on the classical alternating Schwarz method with non‐overlapping subdomains, the subproblems are solved alternatingly and the coupling conditions are realized via the exchange of boundary conditions. The elasticity problem is solved by a standard linear finite element method. A main issue is that the flow solver has to be able to handle time‐dependent domains. To this end, we present a technique to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equation in three‐dimensional domains with moving boundaries. This numerical method is a generalization of a finite volume discretization using curvilinear coordinates to time‐dependent coordinate transformations. It corresponds to a discretization of the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations. Here the grid velocity is treated in such a way that the so‐called Geometric Conservation Law is implicitly satisfied. Altogether, our approach results in a scheme which is an extension of the well‐known MAC‐method to a staggered mesh in moving boundary‐fitted coordinates which uses grid‐dependent velocity components as the primary variables. To validate our method, we present some numerical results which show that second‐order convergence in space is obtained on moving grids. Finally, we give the results of a fully coupled fluid–structure interaction problem. It turns out that already a simple explicit coupling with one iteration of the Schwarz method, i.e. one solution of the fluid problem and one solution of the elasticity problem per time step, yields a convergent, simple, yet efficient overall method for fluid–structure interaction problems. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computation of free‐surface flows with local mesh adaptation

This paper describes a modern free‐surface capturing strategy implemented in an unstructured finite‐volume viscous flow solver that can handle moving grids composed of arbitrary‐shaped control volumes. An adaptive mesh strategy is fully integrated in the code making it a single tool for dynamically maintaining a prescribed density of grid points around the steady or unsteady interface between air and water. The whole adaptive procedure is described in detail. The efficiency of the overall approach is examined on two‐ and three‐dimensional hydrodynamic applications. The adaptive strategy achieves interesting gains in terms of computational and human efforts compared to single‐mesh computations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

4D variational data assimilation for locally nested models: Complementary theoretical aspects and application to a 2D shallow water model

We consider the application of a four‐dimensional variational data assimilation method to a numerical model, which employs local mesh refinement to improve its solution. We focus on structured meshes where a high‐resolution grid is embedded in a coarser resolution one, which covers the entire domain. The formulation of the nested variational data assimilation algorithm was derived in a preliminary work (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2008; under review). We are interested here in complementary theoretical aspects. We present first a model for the multi‐grid background error covariance matrix. Then, we propose a variant of our algorithms based on the addition of control variables in the inter‐grid transfers in order to allow for a reduction of the errors linked to the interactions between the grids. These formulations are illustrated and discussed in the test case experiment of a 2D shallow water model. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fast nested multi‐grid viscous flow solver for adaptive Cartesian/Quad grids

A nested multi‐grid solution algorithm has been developed for an adaptive Cartesian/Quad grid viscous flow solver. Body‐fitted adaptive Quad (quadrilateral) grids are generated around solid bodies through ‘surface extrusion’. The Quad grids are then overlapped with an adaptive Cartesian grid. Quadtree data structures are employed to record both the Quad and Cartesian grids. The Cartesian grid is generated through recursive sub‐division of a single root, whereas the Quad grids start from multiple roots—a forest of Quadtrees, representing the coarsest possible Quad grids. Cell‐cutting is performed at the Cartesian/Quad grid interface to merge the Cartesian and Quad grids into a single unstructured grid with arbitrary cell topologies (i.e., arbitrary polygons). Because of the hierarchical nature of the data structure, many levels of coarse grids have already been built in. The coarsening of the unstructured grid is based on the Quadtree data structure through reverse tree traversal. Issues arising from grid coarsening are discussed and solutions are developed. The flow solver is based on a cell‐centered finite volume discretization, Roe's flux splitting, a least‐squares linear reconstruction, and a differentiable limiter developed by Venkatakrishnan in a modified form. A local time stepping scheme is used to handle very small cut cells produced in cell‐cutting. Several cycling strategies, such as the saw‐tooth, W‐ and V‐cycles, have been studies. The V‐cycle has been found to be the most efficient. In general, the multi‐grid solution algorithm has been shown to greatly speed up convergence to steady state—by one to two orders. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sequential feature‐based mesh movement and adjoint error‐based mesh refinement

Nowadays, aerodynamic computational modeling is carried out on a daily basis in an industrial setting. This is done with the aim of predicting the performance and flow characteristics of new components. However, limited resources in terms of time and hardware force the engineer to employ relatively coarse computational grids, thus achieving results with variable degree of inaccuracy. In this article, a novel combination of feature and adjoint‐based mesh adaptation methods is investigated and applied to typical three‐dimensional turbomachinery cases, such as compressor and fan blades. The proposed process starts by employing feature‐based mesh movement to improve the global flow solution and then adjoint refinement to tune the mesh for each quantity of interest. Comparison of this process with one utilizing only the adjoint refinement procedure shows significant benefits in terms of accuracy of the performance quantity.     

非结构动网格在三维可动边界问题中的应用

研究用于非结构动网格的弹簧近似方法，采用顶点弹簧描述，导出并讨论了弹簧倔强系数的取值。通过引入边界修正和扭转效应修正，对标准弹簧近似方法进行了改进，转动翼型算例的结果表明，改进后的方法大大提高了网格变形能力和网格质量，应用该动网格方法耦合求解基于（Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian,ALE）描述的三维Euler方程，模拟了作俯抑振动的矩形机翼绕流，计算结果与实验数据及文献计算结果十分一致，作为多个自由刚与流体耦合运动问题的简单例证，耦合刚体动力学方程，模拟了激波与双立方体的相互作用，得到了非定常流场结构，研究表明，基于弹簧近似的非结构动网格与有限体积流式流场解算器相结合，是模拟包含运动边界的非定常流动问题的有效方法。     

A novel Cartesian cut cell solver for incompressible viscous flow in irregular domains

A Cartesian cut cell solver with solution‐based adaptive mesh refinement is developed for simulating viscous, incompressible flows with arbitrary complex geometries. The cut cells are automatically generated using Volume CAD (VCAD), a framework for storing geometric and material attribute data. Unlike earlier cut cell methods, this solver organizes the cutting patterns into only six categories and further subdivides the resulting pentagon into two quadrilaterals, such that mesh data can be stored by uniform data structure and the post‐processing of flow data can be handled conveniently. A novel method is proposed to treat minuscule cut cells without the process of cell merging. A collocated finite volume method, which can be used even when multiple cell shapes and orthogonal and non‐orthogonal grids exist in the decomposition, is employed to discretize the Navier–Stokes equations. A modified SIMPLE‐based smoothing pressure correction scheme is applied in this cut cell method to suppress checkerboard pressure oscillations caused by collocated arrangement. The solver is first used to simulate a channel flow to demonstrate its calculation accuracy expressed with L₁ and L_∞ norm errors and then the method is utilized to solve three benchmark problems of flow and heat transfer within irregular domains to verify its feasibility, efficiency, accuracy and potential in engineering applications. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A pressure‐based unstructured grid method for all‐speed flows

An all‐speed algorithm based on the SIMPLE pressure‐correction scheme and the ‘retarded‐density’ approach has been formulated and implemented within an unstructured grid, finite volume (FV) scheme for both incompressible and compressible flows, the latter involving interaction of shock waves. The collocated storage arrangement for all variables is adopted, and the checkerboard oscillations are eliminated by using a pressure‐weighted interpolation method, similar to that of Rhie and Chow [Numerical study of the turbulent flow past an airfoil with trailing edge separation. AIAA Journal 1983; 21 : 1525]. The solution accuracy is greatly enhanced when a higher‐order convection scheme combined with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) are used. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.