A numerical methodology for an aeroelastic SBLI flow

Abstract

A novel concept termed Mesoflaps for Aeroelastic Transpiration (MAT) has the capability to control shock/boundary-layer interactions (SBLIs). The MAT concept consists of a matrix of small flaps (rigidly fixed at their upstream end and covering an enclosed cavity) which are designed to undergo local aeroelastic deflection to achieve proper mass bleed or injection when subjected to gas dynamic shock loads. To investigate the behavior of the MAT system, a coupled aeroelastic finite element scheme was developed.The technique uses an unstructured adaptive grid for both the flow domain and the solid domain and loose-coupling. Issues of optimum fluid cycles per aeroelastic iteration, under-relaxation, and mesh re-gridding vs. motion were considered in the context of the flap deflection.The aeroelastic convergence was significantly accelerated and improved by employing a number of such techniques.

Improved multi‐level Newton solvers for fully coupled multi‐physics problems

“…Fluid-structure interaction problems have been solved using relaxation-based iteration algorithms [1,2] and strongly-coupled algorithms [3][4][5]16]. Although the relaxation-based approaches are easy to implement, they are inappropriate for solving problems with strong coupling as they are slow to converge if they converge at all [5].…”

“…Numerical techniques employed for coupled multi-physical domain simulations that are encountered in, for example, electromechanical systems, thermomechanical systems and uidstructure systems have been based on relaxation [1,2], the strongly coupled Newton method [3][4][5] and the relatively recently introduced multi-level Newton method [6,7].…”