Abstract
In this work, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) solutions for a multi-element airfoil computed with Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solution Adaptive Numerical Simulator (SANS), United States Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program CREATETM-AV Kestrel component Conservative Field Finite Elements (COFFE), and SU2 using output-based adapted meshes are compared with RANS solutions computed using manually generated meshes adhering to “best practices.” The adapted meshes are generated using the process implemented in SANS, which seeks to find a mesh that minimizes the error estimate of a given output functional. The manually generated meshes are the result of a systematic study of the influence of a range of meshing parameters on solution accuracy. Using the adapted meshes generally leads to a reduction of more than one order of magnitude in lift and drag error relative to the manually generated meshes of a comparable node count for all of the computational fluid dynamics solvers. Alternatively, the node counts of the adapted meshes are more than an order of magnitude smaller than the manually generated meshes for a given lift and drag error level. The improved accuracy in lift and drag computed with the adapted meshes can partially be attributed increased resolution around the stagnation points and trailing edges of the airfoil elements relative to the manually generated meshes. Notably, the adapted meshes provide accurate results despite having y values generally significantly larger than one.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2629-2643 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | AIAA Journal |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2022 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
Material presented in this paper is a product of the Air Vehicles element of the High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) CREATE program. The authors would like to thank the HPCMP for the many hours of computing time that are so critical for the successful development and validation of Conservative Field Finite Elements (COFFE). The authors would also like to thank their colleagues on the CREATE senior management and Kestrel teams for their support and hard work in producing the exceptional HPCMP CREATE-AV Kestrel product. Specifically, a special thanks goes to Robert Meakin and Nathan Hariharan as well as Scott Morton, David McDaniel, Robert Nichols, and Todd Tuckey. This work was also supported by funding from the Boeing Company, with technical monitor Mori Mani. The authors would like to thank Josh Krakos of the Boeing Company for his assistance with Edge Primitive Insertion and Collapse (EPIC). The authors would also like to thank the current and past members of the Solution Adaptive Numerical Simulator (SANS) research group: Philip Caplan, Hugh Carson, Benjamin Couchman, Cory Frontin, Arthur Huang, Savithru Jayasinghe, and Shun Zhang. Finally, the authors would like to thank Christopher L. Rumsey, Boris Diskin, W. Kyle Anderson, and all others that have helped create, contributed to, and maintain the valuable Turbulence Modeling Resource website.