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.     

Validation of adaptive unstructured hexahedral mesh computations of flow around a wind turbine airfoil

In this paper we investigate local adaptive refinement of unstructured hexahedral meshes for computations of the flow around the DU91 wind turbine airfoil. This is a 25% thick airfoil, found at the mid‐span section of a wind turbine blade. Wind turbine applications typically involve unsteady flows due to changes in the angle of attack and to unsteady flow separation at high angles of attack. In order to obtain reasonably accurate results for all these conditions one should use a mesh which is refined in many regions, which is not computationally efficient. Our solution is to apply an automated mesh adaptation technique. In this paper we test an adaptive refinement strategy developed for unstructured hexahedral meshes for steady flow conditions. The automated mesh adaptation is based on local flow sensors for pressure, velocity, density or a combination of these flow variables. This way the mesh is refined only in those regions necessary for high accuracy, retaining computational efficiency. A validation study is performed for two cases: attached flow at an angle of 6° and separated flow at 12°. The results obtained using our adaptive mesh strategy are compared with experimental data and with results obtained with an equally sized non‐adapted mesh. From these computations it can be concluded that for a given computing time, adapted meshes result in solutions closer to the experimental data compared to non‐adapted meshes for attached flow. Finally, we show results for unsteady computations. Copyright © 2005 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.     

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.     

Adaptive mesh refinement‐enhanced local DFD method and its application to solve Navier–Stokes equations

Recently, the domain‐free discretization (DFD) method was presented to efficiently solve problems with complex geometries without introducing the coordinate transformation. In order to exploit the high performance of the DFD method, in this paper, the local DFD method with the use of Cartesian mesh is presented, where the physical domain is covered by a Cartesian mesh and the local DFD method is applied for numerical discretization. In order to further improve the efficiency of the solver, the newly developed solution‐based adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) technique is also introduced. The proposed methods are then applied to the simulation of natural convection in concentric annuli between a square outer cylinder and a circular inner cylinder. Numerical experiments show that the present numerical results agree very well with available data in the literature, and AMR‐enhanced local DFD method is an effective tool for the computation of flow problems. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An hp‐adaptive unstructured finite volume solver for compressible flows

The idea of hp‐adaptation, which has originally been developed for compact schemes (such as finite element methods), suggests an adaptation scheme using a mixture of mesh refinement and order enrichment based on the smoothness of the solution to obtain an accurate solution efficiently. In this paper, we develop an hp‐adaptation framework for unstructured finite volume methods using residual‐based and adjoint‐based error indicators. For the residual‐based error indicator, we use a higher‐order discrete operator to estimate the truncation error, whereas this estimate is weighted by the solution of the discrete adjoint problem for an output of interest to form the adaptation indicator for adjoint‐based adaptations. We perform our adaptation by local subdivision of cells with nonconforming interfaces allowed and local reconstruction of higher‐order polynomials for solution approximations. We present our results for two‐dimensional compressible flow problems including subsonic inviscid, transonic inviscid, and subsonic laminar flow around the NACA 0012 airfoil and also turbulent flow over a flat plate. Our numerical results suggest the efficiency and accuracy advantages of adjoint‐based hp‐adaptations over uniform refinement and also over residual‐based adaptation for flows with and without singularities.     

Adjoint‐based airfoil optimization with discretization error control

In this article, we develop a new airfoil shape optimization algorithm based on higher‐order adaptive DG methods with control of the discretization error. Each flow solution in the optimization loop is computed on a sequence of goal‐oriented h‐refined or hp‐refined meshes until the error estimation of the discretization error in a flow‐related target quantity (including the drag and lift coefficients) is below a prescribed tolerance. Discrete adjoint solutions are computed and employed for the multi‐target error estimation and adaptive mesh refinement. Furthermore, discrete adjoint solutions are employed for evaluating the gradients of the objective function used in the CGs optimization algorithm. Furthermore, an extension of the adjoint‐based gradient evaluation to the case of target lift flow computations is employed. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated on an inviscid transonic flow around the RAE2822, where the shape is optimized to minimize the drag at a given constant lift and airfoil thickness. The effect of the accuracy of the underlying flow solutions on the quality of the optimized airfoil shapes is investigated. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interface‐fitted moving mesh method for axisymmetric two‐phase flow in microchannels

A boundary‐fitted moving mesh scheme is presented for the simulation of two‐phase flow in two‐dimensional and axisymmetric geometries. The incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations are solved using the finite element method, and the mini element is used to satisfy the inf‐sup condition. The interface between the phases is represented explicitly by an interface adapted mesh, thus allowing a sharp transition of the fluid properties. Surface tension is modelled as a volume force and is discretized in a consistent manner, thus allowing to obtain exact equilibrium (up to rounding errors) with the pressure gradient. This is demonstrated for a spherical droplet moving in a constant flow field. The curvature of the interface, required for the surface tension term, is efficiently computed with simple but very accurate geometric formulas. An adaptive moving mesh technique, where smoothing mesh velocities and remeshing are used to preserve the mesh quality, is developed and presented. Mesh refinement strategies, allowing tailoring of the refinement of the computational mesh, are also discussed. Accuracy and robustness of the present method are demonstrated on several validation test cases. The method is developed with the prospect of being applied to microfluidic flows and the simulation of microchannel evaporators used for electronics cooling. Therefore, the simulation results for the flow of a bubble in a microchannel are presented and compared to experimental data.     

A high‐precision unstructured adaptive mesh technique for gas–liquid two‐phase flows

Adaptive mesh techniques are used widely in the numerical simulations of fluid flows, and the simulation results with high accuracies are obtained by appropriate mesh adaptations. However, gas–liquid two‐phase flows are still difficult to be simulated on adaptive meshes, especially on unstructured adaptive meshes, because the physical phenomena near gas–liquid interfaces are highly complicated and in general, not modeled appropriately on adaptive meshes. In this paper, a high‐precision unstructured adaptive mesh technique for gas–liquid two‐phase flows is developed and verified/validated. In the unstructured adaptive mesh technique, the PLIC algorithm is employed to simulate interfacial dynamic behaviors and, therefore, the reconstruction method for the interfaces in refined cells is developed, which satisfies the gas and liquid volume conservations and geometrical conservations of interfaces. In addition, the physics‐based consideration is performed on the momentum calculations near interfaces, and the calculation method with gas and liquid momentum conservations is developed. For verification, the slotted‐disk revolution problem is solved. As a result, the unstructured adaptive mesh technique succeeds in reproducing the slotted‐disk shape accurately and well maintaining the shape after one full‐revolution. The dam‐break problem is also simulated and the momentum conservative calculation method succeeds in providing physically appropriate results, which show good agreements with experimental data. Therefore, it is confirmed that the developed unstructured adaptive mesh technique is very efficient to simulate gas–liquid two‐phase flows accurately. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening for the computation of compressible flows on unstructured meshes

The compressible gas flows of interest to aerospace applications often involve situations where shock and expansion waves are present. Decreasing the characteristic dimension of the computational cells in the vicinity of shock waves improves the quality of the computed flows. This reduction in size may be accomplished by the use of mesh adaption procedures. In this paper an analysis is presented of an adaptive mesh scheme developed for an unstructured mesh finite volume upwind computer code. This scheme is tailored to refine or coarsen the computational mesh where gradients of the flow properties are respectively high or low. The refinement and coarsening procedures are applied to the classical gas dynamic problems of the stabilization of shock waves by solid bodies. In particular, situations where oblique shock waves interact with an expansion fan and where bow shocks arise around solid bodies are considered. The effectiveness of the scheme in reducing the computational time, while increasing the solution accuracy, is assessed. It is shown that the refinement procedure alone leads to a number of computational cells which is 20% larger than when alternate passes of refinement and coarsening are used. Accordingly, a reduction of computational time of the same order of magnitude is obtained. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A gas‐kinetic scheme for the simulation of turbulent flows on unstructured meshes

This paper presents a numerical method for simulating turbulent flows via coupling the Boltzmann BGK equation with Spalart–Allmaras one equation turbulence model. Both the Boltzmann BGK equation and the turbulence model equation are carried out using the finite volume method on unstructured meshes, which is different from previous works on structured grid. The application of the gas‐kinetic scheme is extended to the simulation of turbulent flows with arbitrary geometries. The adaptive mesh refinement technique is also adopted to reduce the computational cost and improve the efficiency of meshes. To organize the unstructured mesh data structure efficiently, a non‐manifold hybrid mesh data structure is extended for polygonal cells. Numerical experiments are performed on incompressible flow over a smooth flat plate and compressible turbulent flows around a NACA 0012 airfoil using unstructured hybrid meshes. These numerical results are found to be in good agreement with experimental data and/or other numerical solutions, demonstrating the applicability of the proposed method to simulate both subsonic and transonic turbulent flows. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A structured but non‐uniform Cartesian grid‐based model for the shallow water equations

In large‐scale shallow flow simulations, local high‐resolution predictions are often required in order to reduce the computational cost without losing the accuracy of the solution. This is normally achieved by solving the governing equations on grids refined only to those areas of interest. Grids with varying resolution can be generated by different approaches, e.g. nesting methods, patching algorithms and adaptive unstructured or quadtree gridding techniques. This work presents a new structured but non‐uniform Cartesian grid system as an alternative to the existing approaches to provide local high‐resolution mesh. On generating a structured but non‐uniform Cartesian grid, the whole computational domain is first discretized using a coarse background grid. Local refinement is then achieved by directly allocating a specific subdivision level to each background grid cell. The neighbour information is specified by simple mathematical relationships and no explicit storage is needed. Hence, the structured property of the uniform grid is maintained. After employing some simple interpolation formulae, the governing shallow water equations are solved using a second‐order finite volume Godunov‐type scheme in a similar way as that on a uniform grid. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A two‐phase flow interface capturing finite element method

A new interface capturing algorithm is proposed for the finite element simulation of two‐phase flows. It relies on the solution of an advection equation for the interface between the two phases by a streamline upwind Petrov–Galerkin (SUPG) scheme combined with an adaptive mesh refinement procedure and a filtering technique. This method is illustrated in the case of a Rayleigh–Taylor two‐phase flow problem governed by the Stokes equations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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。     

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.     

Numerical errors of the volume‐of‐fluid interface tracking algorithm

One of the important limitations of the interface tracking algorithms is that they can be used only as long as the local computational grid density allows surface tracking. In a dispersed flow, where the dimensions of the particular fluid parts are comparable or smaller than the grid spacing, several numerical and reconstruction errors become considerable. In this paper the analysis of the interface tracking errors is performed for the volume‐of‐fluid method with the least squares volume of fluid interface reconstruction algorithm. A few simple two‐fluid benchmarks are proposed for the investigation of the interface tracking grid dependence. The expression based on the gradient of the volume fraction variable is introduced for the estimation of the reconstruction correctness and can be used for the activation of an adaptive mesh refinement algorithm. Copyright © 2002 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.     

Discretization of transport equations on 2D Cartesian unstructured grids using data from remote cells for the convection terms

This paper presents a new finite volume discretization methodology for the solution of transport equations on locally refined or unstructured Cartesian meshes. The implementation of the cell‐face values of the dependent variables enables the employment of data from remote cells and thus the use of higher‐order differencing schemes. It also results in simple and flux‐conservative multiple‐scale stencils for the discretization of the governing equations. The latter are finally cast into a generalized form that does not depend on the local mesh structure. The performance of the numerical model is demonstrated on some classical 2D problems using various gridding techniques and a bounded second‐order upwind scheme. A stable and efficient behaviour of the algorithm is observed in all test cases. The results indicate that the combination in the present model of both local grid refinement and second‐order discretization can produce substantially more accurate solutions than each of the above techniques alone, for the same computational effort. The method is also applicable to turbulent flows and can be easily extended to three‐dimensions. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.