An Overset Unstructured Mesh Discontinuous Galerkin Approach for Aerodynamic Problems

Abstract

We present a novel approach for the simulation of aerodynamic configurations where vortical and wake effects are important. The approach makes use of a well established Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes unstructured mesh solver in the region near the body geometry, in order to efficiently handle the associated geometric complexity in these regions. In the off-body regions, a high-order (up to 6th order) accurate Discontinuous Galerkin discretization is used to accurately capture wake and vortical effects. The near body and off-body solvers operate on separate overlapping meshes and a separate software module is invoked to compute and manage the time-dependent interpolations between the two grid systems. The approach is demonstrated on the canonical problem of an isentropic convecting vortex and for the steady-state flow over a lifting wing with resolved wing tip vortex.