Publications

Conference Paper

Extension of a Viscous Cartesian Cut-cell Solver to the Compressible RANS Equations

authors

A. Kleb, K. J. Fidkowski, and J. R. R. A. Martins

journal

AIAA Aviation Forum, 2023

doi

10.2514/6.2023-3978

Generating a computational mesh often consumes considerable time for the user during the analysis process. This can be circumvented by using cut-cell mesh generation techniques to automatically generate meshes. Previously, we developed Viscous Aerodynamic Cartesian Cut-cells (VACC), a toolbox for solving the laminar Navier–Stokes equations. In this work, we extend VACC to include the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations with the Spalart–Allmaras (SA) turbulence model. We present a novel Eikonal solver that utilizes 2D unconstrained optimizations with variable bounds at every step of a fast marching method to improve accuracy on non-uniform meshes. We implemented a constant forcing distance wall function to reduce the need for anisotropic elements near the body with high Reynolds numbers. The generality of the Eikonal solver is demonstrated on several configurations with deep concavities and sharp convexities. The SA formulation is demonstrated with preliminary investigations of rotated flat plates and 2D bump-in-channel case from the NASA Turbulence Modeling Resource website with skin friction and eddy viscosity that compares well with CFL3D.