CFD‐based optimization of aerofoils using radial basis functions for domain element parameterization and mesh deformation

A novel domain element shape parameterization method is presented for computational fluid dynamics‐based shape optimization. The method is to achieve two aims: (1) provide a generic ‘wrap‐around’ optimization tool that is independent of both flow solver and grid generation package and (2) provide a method that allows high‐fidelity aerodynamic optimization of two‐ and three‐dimensional bodies with a low number of design variables. The parameterization technique uses radial basis functions to transfer domain element movements into deformations of the design surface and corresponding aerodynamic mesh, thus allowing total independence from the grid generation package (structured or unstructured). Independence from the flow solver (either inviscid, viscous, aeroelastic) is achieved by obtaining sensitivity information for an advanced gradient‐based optimizer (feasible sequential quadratic programming) by finite‐differences. Results are presented for two‐dimensional aerofoil inverse design and drag optimization problems. Inverse design results demonstrate that a large proportion of the design space is feasible with a relatively low number of design variables using the domain element parameterization. Heavily constrained (in lift, volume, and moment) two‐dimensional aerofoil drag optimization has shown that significant improvements over existing designs can be achieved using this method, through the use of various objective functions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A local grid refinement method for three‐dimensional turbulent recirculating flows

A local grid refinement method is presented and applied to a three‐dimensional turbulent recirculating flow. It is based on the staggered grid arrangement. The computational domain is covered by block‐structured subgrids of different refinement levels. The exchange of information between the subgrids is fully conservative and all grids are treated implicitly. This allows for a simultaneous solution of one variable in all grids. All variables are stored in one‐dimensional arrays. The solver selected for the solution of the discretised finite difference equations is the preconditioned bi‐conjugate gradient (Bi‐CG) method. For the case examined (turbulent flow around a surface‐mounted cube), it was found that the latter method converges faster than the line solver. The locally refined mesh improved the accuracy of the pressure distribution on cube faces compared with a coarse mesh and yielded the same results as a fine single mesh, with a 62% gain in computer time. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

AERODYNAMIC OPTIMIZATION OF HIGH-SPEED TRAIN BASED ON RBF MESH DEFORMATION

基于局部型函数三维参数化方法、改进的蚁群算法和改进的克里金（Kriging）代理模型,开展了列车头型的三维气动减阻优化设计研究。为了避免复杂几何外形大变形情况下千万量级网格的重复生成,提高高速列车头型优化设计的效率,引入了缩减控制点的径向基函数网格变形技术。优化结果表明：径向基函数网格变形技术在不降低网格质量的情况下可以有效缩短网格变形的时间消耗,能够用于复杂几何外形的气动优化设计;在给定的设计空间内,控制鼻锥外形的6个关键设计参数对列车气动阻力的影响呈单调递增关系;优化后,在满足约束条件的情况下,简化外形列车的整车气动阻力减小5.41%,头尾车减阻效果明显,中间车气动阻力基本不变。     

A 3D incompressible Navier–Stokes velocity–vorticity weak form finite element algorithm

The velocity–vorticity formulation is selected to develop a time‐accurate CFD finite element algorithm for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in three dimensions.The finite element implementation uses equal order trilinear finite elements on a non‐staggered hexahedral mesh. A second order vorticity kinematic boundary condition is derived for the no slip wall boundary condition which also enforces the incompressibility constraint. A biconjugate gradient stabilized (BiCGSTAB) sparse iterative solver is utilized to solve the fully coupled system of equations as a Newton algorithm. The solver yields an efficient parallel solution algorithm on distributed‐memory machines, such as the IBM SP2. Three dimensional laminar flow solutions for a square channel, a lid‐driven cavity, and a thermal cavity are established and compared with available benchmark solutions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiscale block spectral solution for unsteady flows

Many problems of interest are characterized by 2 distinctive and disparate scales and a huge multiplicity of similar small‐scale elements. The corresponding scale‐dependent solvability manifests itself in the high gradient flow around each element needing a fine mesh locally and the similar flow patterns among all elements globally. In a block spectral approach making use of the scale‐dependent solvability, the global domain is decomposed into a large number of similar small blocks. The mesh‐pointwise block spectra will establish the block‐block variation, for which only a small set of blocks need to be solved with a fine mesh resolution. The solution can then be very efficiently obtained by coupling the local fine mesh solution and the global coarse mesh solution through a block spectral mapping. Previously, the block spectral method has only been developed for steady flows. The present work extends the methodology to unsteady flows of short temporal and spatial scales (eg, those due to self‐excited unsteady vortices and turbulence disturbances). A source term–based approach is adopted to facilitate a two‐way coupling in terms of time‐averaged flow solutions. The global coarse base mesh solution provides an appropriate environment and boundary condition to the local fine mesh blocks, while the local fine mesh solution provides the source terms (propagated through the block spectral mapping) to the global coarse mesh domain. The computational method will be presented with several numerical examples and sensitivity studies. The results consistently demonstrate the validity and potential of the proposed approach.     

Mono‐block and non‐matching multi‐block structured mesh adaptation based on aerodynamic functional total derivatives for RANS flow

An enhanced goal‐oriented mesh adaptation method is presented based on aerodynamic functional total derivatives with respect to mesh nodes in a Reynolds‐Averaged Navier‐Stokes (RANS) finite‐volume mono‐block and non‐matching multi‐block‐structured grid framework. This method falls under the category of methods involving the adjoint vector of the function of interest. The contribution of a Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model is taken into account through its linearization. Meshes are adapted accordingly to the proposed indicator. Applications to 2D RANS flow about a RAE2822 airfoil in transonic, and detached subsonic conditions are presented for the drag coefficient estimation. The asset of the proposed method is patent. The obtained 2D anisotropic mono‐block mesh well captures flow features as well as global aerodynamic functionals. Interestingly, the constraints imposed by structured grids may be relaxed by the use of non‐matching multi‐block approach that limits the outward propagation of local mesh refinement through all of the computational domain. The proposed method also leads to accurate results for these multi‐block meshes but at a fraction of the cost. Finally, the method is also successfully applied to a more complex geometry, namely, a mono‐block mesh in a 3D RANS transonic flow about an M6 wing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation of self‐propelled anguilliform swimming by local domain‐free discretization method

The local domain‐free discretization method is extended in this work to simulate fluid–structure interaction problems, the class of which is exemplified by the self‐propelled anguilliform swimming of deforming bodies in a fluid medium. Given the deformation of the fish body in its own reference frame, the translational and rotational motions of the body governed by Newton's Law are solved together with the surrounding flow field governed by Navier–Stokes equations. When the body is deforming and moving, no mesh regeneration is required in the computation. The loose coupling strategy is employed to simulate the fluid–structure interaction involved in the self‐propelled swimming. The local domain‐free discretization method and an efficient algorithm for classifying the Eulerian mesh points are described in brief. To validate the fluid–structure interaction solver, we simulate the ‘lock‐in’ phenomena associated with the vortex‐induced vibrations of an elastically mounted cylinder. Finally, we demonstrate applications of the method to two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional anguilliform‐swimming fish. The kinematics and dynamics associated with the center of mass are shown and the rotational movement is also presented via the angular position of the body axis. The wake structure is visualized in terms of vorticity contours. All the obtained numerical results show good agreement with available data in the literature. Copyright © 2011 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.     

Object‐oriented parallel algorithms for computing three‐dimensional isopycnal flow

In this paper, we derive an object‐oriented parallel algorithm for three‐dimensional isopycnal flow simulations. The matrix formulation is central to the algorithm. It enables us to apply an efficient preconditioned conjugate gradient linear solver for the global system of equations, and leads naturally to an object‐oriented data structure design and parallel implementation. We discuss as well, in less detail, a similar algorithm based on the reduced system, suitable also for parallel computation. Favorable performances are observed on test problems. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann simulations of incompressible flows with freely moving objects

For simulating freely moving problems, conventional immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann methods encounter two major difficulties of an extremely large flow domain and the incompressible limit. To remove these two difficulties, this work proposes an immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann flux solver (IB‐LBFS) in the arbitrary Lagragian–Eulerian (ALE) coordinates and establishes a dynamic similarity theory. In the ALE‐based IB‐LBFS, the flow filed is obtained by using the LBFS on a moving Cartesian mesh, and the no‐slip boundary condition is implemented by using the boundary condition‐enforced immersed boundary method. The velocity of the Cartesian mesh is set the same as the translational velocity of the freely moving object so that there is no relative motion between the plate center and the mesh. This enables the ALE‐based IB‐LBFS to study flows with a freely moving object in a large open flow domain. By normalizing the governing equations for the flow domain and the motion of rigid body, six non‐dimensional parameters are derived and maintained to be the same in both physical systems and the lattice Boltzmann framework. This similarity algorithm enables the lattice Boltzmann equation‐based solver to study a general freely moving problem within the incompressible limit. The proposed solver and dynamic similarity theory have been successfully validated by simulating the flow around an in‐line oscillating cylinder, single particle sedimentation, and flows with a freely falling plate. The obtained results agree well with both numerical and experimental data. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coupling methods between finite element–based Boussinesq‐type wave and particle‐based free‐surface flow models

We develop one‐way coupling methods between a Boussinesq‐type wave model based on the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method and a free‐surface flow model based on a mesh‐free particle method to strike a balance between accuracy and computational cost. In our proposed model, computation of the wave model in the global domain is conducted first, and the nonconstant velocity profiles in the vertical direction are reproduced by using its results. Computation of the free‐surface flow is performed in a local domain included within the global domain with interface boundaries that move along the reproduced velocity field in a Lagrangian fashion. To represent the moving interfaces, we used a polygon wall boundary model for mesh‐free particle methods. Verification and validation tests of our proposed model are performed, and results obtained by the model are compared with theoretical values and experimental results to show its accuracy and applicability.     

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.     

A cell‐based smoothed finite element method with semi‐implicit CBS procedures for incompressible laminar viscous flows

In this paper, the cell‐based smoothed finite element method (CS‐FEM) with the semi‐implicit characteristic‐based split (CBS) scheme (CBS/CS‐FEM) is proposed for computational fluid dynamics. The 3‐node triangular (T3) element and 4‐node quadrilateral (Q4) element are used for present CBS/CS‐FEM for two‐dimensional flows. The 8‐node hexahedral element (H8) is used for three‐dimensional flows. Two types of CS‐FEM are implemented in this paper. One is standard CS‐FEM with quadrilateral gradient smoothing cells for Q4 element and hexahedron cells for H8 element. Another is called as n‐sided CS‐FEM (nCS‐FEM) whose gradient smoothing cells are triangles for Q4 element and pyramids for H8 element. To verify the proposed methods, benchmarking problems are tested for two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional flows. The benchmarks show that CBS/CS‐FEM and CBS/nCS‐FEM are capable to solve incompressible laminar flow and can produce reliable results for both steady and unsteady flows. The proposed CBS/CS‐FEM method has merits on better robustness against distorted mesh with only slight more computation time and without losing accuracy, which is important for problems with heavy mesh distortion. The blood flow in carotid bifurcation is also simulated to show capabilities of proposed methods for realistic and complicated flow problems.     

基于网格退化和重组技术的类桁架拓扑优化方法

发展了一种基于有限元网格退化和重组技术的类桁架拓扑优化方法,可在不改变设计域包络的情况下(如维持流型、艺术外观和附加功能等)对结构进行减重。首先,分别对二维问题和三维问题发展相应的有限元网格退化算法,并在刚度等效的意义上对网格进行重组,建立了具有杆元拓扑特征的有限元模型。其次,以全局种子网格的长度尺寸和杆元横截面积为优化变量,构造了域内双层驱动拓扑优化问题,得到具有最优体分比的杆元拓扑结构。数值算例表明,所提方法可获得新型式的结构拓扑优化方案,并可将结构拓扑优化理论推向工程化应用。     

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.     

Design optimization of axial flow hydraulic turbine runner: Part I—an improved Q3D inverse method

With the aim of constructing a comprehensive design optimization procedure of axial flow hydraulic turbine, an improved quasi‐three‐dimensional inverse method has been proposed from the viewpoint of system and a set of rotational flow governing equations as well as a blade geometry design equation has been derived. The computation domain is firstly taken from the inlet of guide vane to the far outlet of runner blade in the inverse method and flows in different regions are solved simultaneously. So the influence of wicket gate parameters on the runner blade design can be considered and the difficulty to define the flow condition at the runner blade inlet is surmounted. As a pre‐computation of initial blade design on S2m surface is newly adopted, the iteration of S1 and S2m surfaces has been reduced greatly and the convergence of inverse computation has been improved. The present model has been applied to the inverse computation of a Kaplan turbine runner. Experimental results and the direct flow analysis have proved the validation of inverse computation. Numerical investigations show that a proper enlargement of guide vane distribution diameter is advantageous to improve the performance of axial hydraulic turbine runner. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

进化算法与确定性算法在优化控制问题中的收敛性对比

对比了进化算法(基因算法)与确定性算法(共轭梯度法)在优化控制问题中的优化效率．两种方法都与分散武优化策略-Nash对策进行了结合，并成功地应用于优化控制问题。计算模型采用绕NACA0012翼型的位流流场．区域分裂技术的引用使得全局流场被分裂为多个带有重叠区的子流场，使用4种不同的方法进行当地流场解的耦合，这些算法可以通过当地的流场解求得全局流场解。数值计算结果的对比表明．进化算法可以得到与共轭梯度法相同的计算结果．并且进化算法的不依赖梯度信息的特性使其在复杂问题及非线性问题中具有广泛的应用前景。     

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.     

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.