Abstract
Research and/or Engineering Questions/Objective
The numerical nature of simulation tools can make them very complicated and ask for a deep understanding of the physics and numerical algorithms. The utilization of well-known CFD methods such as Finite Volume Method for solving Navier-Stokes equations are generally required but the technology enabler is the synergy of numerical, analytical methods and engineering techniques. This provides the foundation to reduce the numerical skill requirements for the engineers and the manual time spent on such tools for meshing the geometry not only for engineers but for analysts also.
Methodology
By applying analytical methods on numerical tasks, phenomena describing the behavior of the boundary layer for example can be used in order to reduce the required skills for high accuracy near wall mesh building and the manual time spent on this task. A coarser mesh can be applied and the usually by the mesh resolved phenomena can be overcome with the implementation of analytical data.
Result
As a result the considered approach enables a reduced cell count compared to the usual body fitted meshes with a thin boundary layer resolved by the mesh. It also allows the use of a Cartesian mesh with Cartesian based polyhedral cells at the fluid-solid interface as well as solid-solid interface, thus eliminating a laborious manual work of creating a fine boundary layer mesh and instead enables the automation of the meshing process completely with very low numeric skill or time requirements for the engineer or the analyst. Applicability of the approach is shown on the simulation of the external aerodynamics of the simplified car model where aerodynamic characteristics are under investigation.
Limitations of this study
This approach has proven successful in a wide range of applications and is applied by OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in the automotive, aerospace and other industries. To benefit from the synergy of numerical and analytical methods, an appropriate meshing methodology must be applied in comparison with traditional CFD approaches.
What does the paper offer that is new in the field in comparison to other work of the author?
The presented approach is unique in the simulation world for CFD simulations and this paper describes the first time the methodology applied in a CFD tool to help solve the daily engineering tasks.
Conclusions
The speed of the design cycles is increasing and in order to improve the design engineers need simulation results faster but without loss in accuracy. The described approach enables the use of CFD in the design process by non-experts also and automate the meshing task without compromising the result accuracy even with coarse meshes compared to typical CFD meshes.
Keywords : Design, CFD Simulation, Numerical Methods, Analytical Methods