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.     

Solution adaptive grids applied to low Reynolds number flow

A numerical study has been undertaken to investigate the use of a solution adaptive grid for flow around a cylinder in the laminar flow regime. The main purpose of this work is twofold. The first aim is to investigate the suitability of a grid adaptation algorithm and the reduction in mesh size that can be obtained. Secondly, the uniform asymmetric flow structures are ideal to validate the mesh structures due to mesh refinement and consequently the selected refinement criteria. The refinement variable used in this work is a product of the rate of strain and the mesh cell size, and contains two variables C_m and C_str which determine the order of each term. By altering the order of either one of these terms the refinement behaviour can be modified. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive mesh refinement method-based large eddy simulation for the flow over circular cylinder at ReD = 3900

With the development of computational power, large eddy simulation (LES) method is increasingly used in simulating complex flow. However, there still exist many factors affecting the LES quality and appropriate mesh resolution is among one of them. This work aims to develop an automatic procedure to refine the LES mesh by combining adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and LES quality criteria. An LES refinement criterion is developed by estimating the proper grid length scale which meets the accuracy requirement of LES method. With this criterion, the baseline mesh is automatically refined with the AMR method. In this work, an efficient one-shot refinement strategy is also proposed to reduce the overall simulation time. Current AMR-based LES method is verified with the typical LES test case about the flow past circular cylinder at Re _D = 3900. Results show that the automatically refined mesh provides systematically better agreement with experimental results and with current method the balance between accuracy and computational expense for LES can be obtained.     

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.     

Block-based adaptive mesh refinement scheme using numerical density of entropy production for three-dimensional two-fluid flows

In this work, we present a fast and parallel finite volume scheme on unstructured meshes applied to complex fluid flow. The mathematical model is based on a three-dimensional compressible low Mach two-phase flows model, combined with a linearised ‘artificial pressure’ law. This hyperbolic system of conservation laws allows an explicit scheme, improved by a block-based adaptive mesh refinement scheme. Following a previous one-dimensional work, the useful numerical density of entropy production is used as mesh refinement criterion. Moreover, the computational time is preserved using a local time-stepping method. Finally, we show through several test cases the efficiency of the present scheme on two- and three-dimensional dam-break problems over an obstacle.     

三维各向异性叉树网格流场自适应算法研究

建立了三维叉树形网格的数据结构,并将结构网格的有限体积法引入到叉树网格中,建立了相应的NS方程求解方法。在此基础上完善了包括各向异性自适应判别、合并/分裂、网格优化等步骤的算法,并提出了对流场结构进行“保护”性加密的优化加密方式。基于自适应叉树网格对高超声速横向喷流流场进行了数值模拟,捕捉到细致的流场结构,并将壁面压力系数计算值与文献试验值比较,得到了很好的模拟效果,具有较高的流场分辨精度。     

An h-adaptive solution of the spherical blast wave problem

Shock waves and contact discontinuities usually appear in compressible flows, requiring a fine mesh in order to achieve an acceptable accuracy of the numerical solution. The usage of a mesh adaptation strategy is convenient as uniform refinement of the whole mesh becomes prohibitive in three-dimensional (3D) problems. An unsteady h-adaptive strategy for unstructured finite element meshes is introduced. Non-conformity of the refined mesh and a bounded decrease in the geometrical quality of the elements are some features of the refinement algorithm. A 3D extension of the well-known refinement constraint for 2D meshes is used to enforce a smooth size transition among neighbour elements with different levels of refinement. A density-based gradient indicator is used to track discontinuities. The solution procedure is partially parallelised, i.e. the inviscid flow equations are solved in parallel with a finite element SUPG formulation with shock capturing terms while the adaptation of the mesh is sequentially performed. Results are presented for a spherical blast wave driven by a point-like explosion with an initial pressure jump of 10⁵ atmospheres. The adapted solution is compared to that computed on a fixed mesh. Also, the results provided by the theory of self-similar solutions are considered for the analysis. In this particular problem, adapting the mesh to the solution accounts for approximately 4% of the total simulation time and the refinement algorithm scales almost linearly with the size of the problem.     

一种新的求解对流占优问题的自适应网格细化方法

在均匀网格上求解对流占优问题时,往往会产生数值震荡现象,因此需要局部加密网格来提高解的精度。针对对流占优问题,设计了一种新的自适应网格细化算法。该方法采用流线迎风SUPG(Petrov-Galerkin)格式求解对流占优问题,定义了网格尺寸并通过后验误差估计子修正来指导自适应网格细化,以泡泡型局部网格生成算法BLMG为网格生成器,通过模拟泡泡在区域中的运动得到了高质量的点集。与其他自适应网格细化方法相比,该方法可在同一框架内实现网格的细化和粗化,同时在所有细化层得到了高质量的网格。数值算例结果表明,该方法在求解对流占优问题时具有更高的数值精度和更好的收敛性。     

A high-order Runge-Kutta discontinuous Galerkin method with a subcell limiter on adaptive unstructured grids for two-dimensional compressible inviscid flows

A robust, adaptive unstructured mesh refinement strategy for high-order Runge-Kutta discontinuous Galerkin method is proposed. The present work mainly focuses on accurate capturing of sharp gradient flow features like strong shocks in the simulations of two-dimensional inviscid compressible flows. A posteriori finite volume subcell limiter is employed in the shock-affected cells to control numerical spurious oscillations. An efficient cell-by-cell adaptive mesh refinement is implemented to increase the resolution of our simulations. This strategy enables to capture strong shocks without much numerical dissipation. A wide range of challenging test cases is considered to demonstrate the efficiency of the present adaptive numerical strategy for solving inviscid compressible flow problems having strong shocks.     

The use of dynamic grid adaptation algorithms for the modelling of flow around a circular cylinder in sub‐critical flow regime

In the present study a dynamic grid adaptation (DGA) algorithm is utilized for predicting flow around a circular cylinder in sub‐critical flow regime at a Reynolds number of 1.4×10⁵. The reason for adopting a DGA algorithm is the unsteadiness of the flow field which makes a conventional mesh inefficient. The concept being adopted is to concentrate mesh refinement in regions with high gradients and high turbulent viscosity, while in the region further downstream where the flow is fully developed a coarser mesh will develop and turbulence is modelled with the large eddy simulation (LES) turbulence model. The aim of the study is to present an appropriate variable for mesh refinement, which accomplishes a high rate of mesh refinement in the region with high gradients. The new variable is a product of the local mesh cell size and the rate of strain and includes two additional variables to allow control over the refinement behaviour. The results are compared with experimental data at the corresponding Reynolds number and also with numerical results obtained with conventional mesh. It is demonstrated that DGA algorithms can give results of a very high quality for a mesh that is significantly smaller than for a conventional mesh. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive mesh refinement for two-phase slug flows with an a priori indicator

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel adaptive mesh refinement AMR technique for computing unstable one dimensional two-phase flows in pipelines. In multiphase flows, the prediction and localisation of inter-facial waves, slugs and instabilities related to flow conditions under study require high levels of accuracy. This is more apparent in systems at industrial scales, where flow lines possess highly distorted regions and irregular topologies.Uniform fine meshes for these long devices are costly and in general situations the optimum space discretisation could not be determined a priori.Adaptive mesh refinement AMR procedure provides a remedy to this problem by refining the mesh locally, allowing to capture regions where sharp discontinuities and steep gradients are present. With appropriate algorithm and data organisation, AMR helps to reduce CPU time and speeds up simulations of flows in long pipes. The effectiveness of AMR methods relies on estimators that determine where refinement is required. We show in this work that for transient flows combining gradient-based error estimator with Kelvin–Helmholtz stability condition can improve the acceleration of computation and locate regions where refinements are required. The Kelvin–Helmholtz is a local condition and is an a priori indicator for the refinement.     

The direct simulation Monte Carlo method using unstructured adaptive mesh and its application

The implementation of an adaptive mesh‐embedding (h‐refinement) scheme using unstructured grid in two‐dimensional direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is reported. In this technique, local isotropic refinement is used to introduce new mesh where the local cell Knudsen number is less than some preset value. This simple scheme, however, has several severe consequences affecting the performance of the DSMC method. Thus, we have applied a technique to remove the hanging node, by introducing the an‐isotropic refinement in the interfacial cells between refined and non‐refined cells. Not only does this remedy increase a negligible amount of work, but it also removes all the difficulties presented in the originals scheme. We have tested the proposed scheme for argon gas in a high‐speed driven cavity flow. The results show an improved flow resolution as compared with that of un‐adaptive mesh. Finally, we have used triangular adaptive mesh to compute a near‐continuum gas flow, a hypersonic flow over a cylinder. The results show fairly good agreement with previous studies. In summary, the proposed simple mesh adaptation is very useful in computing rarefied gas flows, which involve both complicated geometry and highly non‐uniform density variations throughout the flow field. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An approach of dynamic mesh adaptation for simulating 3‐dimensional unsteady moving‐immersed‐boundary flows

In this paper, we present an approach of dynamic mesh adaptation for simulating complex 3‐dimensional incompressible moving‐boundary flows by immersed boundary methods. Tetrahedral meshes are adapted by a hierarchical refining/coarsening algorithm. Regular refinement is accomplished by dividing 1 tetrahedron into 8 subcells, and irregular refinement is only for eliminating the hanging points. Merging the 8 subcells obtained by regular refinement, the mesh is coarsened. With hierarchical refining/coarsening, mesh adaptivity can be achieved by adjusting the mesh only 1 time for each adaptation period. The level difference between 2 neighboring cells never exceeds 1, and the geometrical quality of mesh does not degrade as the level of adaptive mesh increases. A predictor‐corrector scheme is introduced to eliminate the phase lag between adapted mesh and unsteady solution. The error caused by each solution transferring from the old mesh to the new adapted one is small because most of the nodes on the 2 meshes are coincident. An immersed boundary method named local domain‐free discretization is employed to solve the flow equations. Several numerical experiments have been conducted for 3‐dimensional incompressible moving‐boundary flows. By using the present approach, the number of mesh nodes is reduced greatly while the accuracy of solution can be preserved.     

Accurate and robust adaptive mesh refinement for aerodynamic simulation with multi‐block structured curvilinear mesh

A multi‐block curvilinear mesh‐based adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) method is developed to satisfy the competing objectives of improving accuracy and reducing cost. Body‐fitted curvilinear mesh‐based AMR is used to capture flow details of various length scales. A series of efforts are made to guarantee the accuracy and robustness of the AMR system. A physics‐based refinement function is proposed, which is proved to be able to detect both shock wave and vortical flow. The curvilinear mesh is refined with cubic interpolation, which guarantees the aspect ratio and smoothness. Furthermore, to enable its application in complex configurations, a sub‐block‐based refinement strategy is developed to avoid generating invalid mesh, which is the consequence of non‐smooth mesh lines or singular geometry features. A newfound problem of smaller wall distance, which negatively affects the stability and is never reported in the literature, is also discussed in detail, and an improved strategy is proposed. Together with the high‐accuracy numerical scheme, a multi‐block curvilinear mesh‐based AMR system is developed. With a series of test cases, the current method is verified to be accurate and robust and be able to automatically capture the flow details at great cost saving compared with the global refinement. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A parallel adaptive numerical method with generalized curvilinear coordinate transformation for compressible Navier–Stokes equations

A fourth‐order finite‐volume method for solving the Navier–Stokes equations on a mapped grid with adaptive mesh refinement is proposed, implemented, and demonstrated for the prediction of unsteady compressible viscous flows. The method employs fourth‐order quadrature rules for evaluating face‐averaged fluxes. Our approach is freestream preserving, guaranteed by the way of computing the averages of the metric terms on the faces of cells. The standard Runge–Kutta marching method is used for time discretization. Solutions of a smooth flow are obtained in order to verify that the method is formally fourth‐order accurate when applying the nonlinear viscous operators on mapped grids. Solutions of a shock tube problem are obtained to demonstrate the effectiveness of adaptive mesh refinement in resolving discontinuities. A Mach reflection problem is solved to demonstrate the mapped algorithm on a non‐rectangular physical domain. The simulation is compared against experimental results. Future work will consider mapped multiblock grids for practical engineering geometries. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An adaptive moving finite element method for steady low Mach number compressible combustion problems

This work surveys an r-adaptive moving mesh finite element method for the numerical solution of premixed laminar flame problems. Since the model of chemically reacting flow involves many different modes with diverse length scales, the computation of such a problem is often extremely time-consuming. Importantly, to capture the significant characteristics of the flame structure when using detailed chemistry, a much more stringent requirement on the spatial resolution of the interior layers of some intermediate species is necessary. Here, we propose a moving mesh method in which the mesh is obtained from the solution of so-called moving mesh partial differential equations. Such equations result from the variational formulation of a minimization problem for a given target functional that characterizes the inherent difficulty in the numerical approximation of the underlying physical equations. Adaptive mesh movement has emerged as an area of intense research in mesh adaptation in the last decade. With this approach, points are only allowed to be shifted in space leaving the topology of the grid unchanged. In contrast to methods with local refinement, data structure hence is unchanged and load balancing is not an issue as grid points remain on the processor where they are. We will demonstrate the high potential of moving mesh methods for effectively optimizing the distribution of grid points to reach the required resolution for chemically reacting flows with extremely thin boundary layers.     

Adaptive h-refinement on 3D unstructured grids for transient problems

An adaptive finite element scheme for transient problems is presented. The classic h-enrichment/coarsening is employed in conjunction with a tetrahedral finite element discretization in three dimensions. A mesh change is performed every n time steps, depending on the Courant number employed and the number of ‘protective layers’ added ahead of the refined region. In order to simplify the refinement/coarsening logic and to be as fast as possible, only one level of refinement/coarsening is allowed per mesh change. A high degree of vectorizability has been achieved by pre-sorting the elements and then performing the refinement/coarsening groupwise according to the case at hand. Further reductions in CPU requirements arc realized by optimizing the identification and sorting of elements for refinement and deletion. The developed technology has been used extensively for shock-shock and shock-object interaction runs in a production mode. A typical example of this class of problems is given.     

Feature‐based adaptive mesh refinement for wingtip vortices

Feature‐based solution‐adaptive mesh refinement is an attractive strategy when it is known a priori that the resolution of certain key features is critical to achieving the objectives of a simulation. In this paper, we apply vortex characterization techniques, which are typically employed to visualize vortices, to identify regions of the computational domain for mesh refinement. We investigate different refinement strategies that are facilitated by these vortex characterization techniques to simulate the flow past a wing in a wind tunnel. Our results, which we compare with experimental data, indicate that it is necessary to refine the region within and near the vortex extent surface to obtain an accurate prediction. Application of the identified mesh refinement strategy also produced observed improvement in the results predicted for a spinning missile with deflected canards. Copyright © 2010 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.     

自适应一致性高阶无单元伽辽金法

近来提出的一致性高阶无单元伽辽金法通过导数修正技术大幅度减少了所需积分点数目,并能够精确地通过线性和二次分片试验,显著改善标准无单元伽辽金法的计算效率、精度和收敛性.本文在此基础之上,充分利用无单元法易于在局部区域添加节点的优势,发展了一致性高阶无单元伽辽金法的h型自适应分析方法.根据应变能密度梯度该方法自适应地确定需节点加密的区域,基于背景积分网格的局部多层细化要求生成新的计算节点,同时考虑了节点分布由密到疏渐进过渡的情形.采用相邻两次计算的应变能的相对误差作为自适应过程的停止准则,将所发展自适应无网格法应用于由几何外形、边界外载和体力等因素造成的应力集中问题的计算分析.数值结果表明,所发展方法能够自适应地对高应力梯度区域进行节点加密,自动给出合理的计算节点分布.与已有的标准无网格法的自适应分析相比,所发展方法在计算效率、精度和应力场光滑性等方面均展现出显著优势.与采用节点均匀分布的一致性高阶无单元伽辽金法相比,它大幅度地减少了计算节点数目,有效提高了一致性高阶无单元伽辽金法在分析应力集中等存在局部高梯度问题时的计算效率和求解精度.