Geometric Proximity of Independent Systems Simulation

The pressing need for high-fidelity transient, nonlinear, viscous, fluid-structure simulations arises in the solution of many important engineering problems. These include not only the design of high-performance aircraft where flutter, limit cycle oscillation, and buffeting remain the most important considerations, but also new emerging applications such as the aeroelastic tailoring of front and rear wings of racing cars, the control of flow-induced noise in various military and commercial systems, and the design of biomedical micro devices. All of these complex systems contain some form of gap-generating surfaces whose modeling challenges current viscous fluid-structure simulation technologies. During Phase I of this research project, an order-of-accuracy-preserving arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian computational framework was developed for enabling the computation of unsteady viscous flows past dynamic aeroelastic systems with opening and closing gaps. The feasibility of this new computational framework was also demonstrated. Hence, Phase II of this research project will focus on tightly integrating this new capability in the AERO Suite of Codes deployed at the Edwards Air Force Base, and maturing the application of the resulting new computational technology to the viscous fluid-structure simulation of real-world complex systems containing challenging gap-generating surfaces. BENEFIT: The anticipated success of this research and development effort will not only extend the range of applications of ALE codes in general, and the AERO Suite of Codes deployed at the Edwards Air Force Base in particular, to viscous applications with arbitrary control surface deflections, but also to the unsteady analysis of flows past supersonic air intakes with movable flaps or plugs, and the aeroelastic analysis of turbines and rotorcraft. Hence, the success of this effort will boost the potential for commercialization of the AERO Suite of Codes by expanding its range of applications.