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On the use of adaptive hierarchical meshes for numerical simulation of separated flows
Author(s) -
Greaves Deborah M.,
Borthwick Alistair G. L.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in fluids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1097-0363
pISSN - 0271-2091
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0363(19980215)26:3<303::aid-fld643>3.0.co;2-y
Subject(s) - polygon mesh , discretization , quadtree , cartesian coordinate system , reynolds number , flow (mathematics) , geometry , mesh generation , cylinder , mathematics , vorticity , grid , computational fluid dynamics , adaptive mesh refinement , subdivision , stencil , algorithm , turbulence , mathematical analysis , finite element method , mechanics , computational science , vortex , physics , engineering , civil engineering , thermodynamics
This paper describes the use of adaptive hierarchical grids to predict incompressible separated flow at low Reynolds number. The grids consist of a quadtree system of hierarchical Cartesian meshes which are generated by recursive subdivision about seeding points. The governing equations are discretized in collocated primitive variable form using finite volumes and solved using a pressure correction scheme. The mesh is locally adapted at each time step, with panel division or removal dependent on the vorticity magnitude. The resulting grids have fine local resolution and are economical in array size. Results are presented for unidirectional, impulsively started flow past a circular and a square cylinder at various Reynolds numbers up to 5000 and 250 respectively. It is clear that hierarchical meshes may offer gains in efficiency when applied to complex flow domains or strongly sheared flows. However, as expected, the stepped approximation to curved boundaries resulting from the Cartesian quadtree representation adversely affects the accuracy of the results for flow past a circular cylinder. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.