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Feature‐based adaptive mesh refinement for wingtip vortices
Author(s) -
Kasmai N.,
Thompson D.,
Luke E.,
JankunKelly M.,
Machiraju R.
Publication year - 2011
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/fld.2312
Subject(s) - vortex , adaptive mesh refinement , a priori and a posteriori , computer science , computational fluid dynamics , feature (linguistics) , domain (mathematical analysis) , wind tunnel , mesh generation , algorithm , flow (mathematics) , characterization (materials science) , aerospace engineering , geometry , computational science , finite element method , mechanics , mathematics , physics , engineering , mathematical analysis , structural engineering , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , optics
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.