An Adaptive Cartesian Mesh Based Method to Simulate Turbulent Flows of Multiple Rotating Surfaces

An efficient Cartesian cut-cell/level-set method based on a multiple grid approach to simulate turbulent turbomachinery flows is presented. The finite-volume approach in an unstructured hierarchical Cartesian setup with a sharp representation of the complex moving boundaries embedded into the computational domain, which are described by multiple level-sets, ensures a strict conservation of mass, momentum, and energy. Furthermore, an efficient kinematic motion level-set interface method for the rotation of embedded boundaries described by multiple level-set fields on a computational domain distributed over several processors is introduced. This method allows the simulation of multiple boundaries rotating relatively to each other in a fixed frame of reference. To demonstrate the efficiency of the numerical method and the quality of the computed findings the generic test problem of a rotating cylinder surrounded by a stationary hull and the flow over a ducted rotating axial fan with a stationary turbulence generating grid at the inflow are simulated. The computational results of the axial fan show a good agreement with the experimental data.