Interdisciplinary CFD: Coupled Aero//Structural Heating In A Parallel Computing Environment

A coupled solution for the flow over a flight vehicle including the stress state of the vehicle structure, and the transient temperature distribution in the structure is proposed. Aerodynamic heating will be computed using a hybrid grid code designed for store separation. Structural heating may create special issues that must be included. If the structure is pinned or clamped, heating may induce high stress states. In addition, high structural temperatures may cause functional failure of operational portion of the vehicle. If infrared sensors are employed, the shock layer temperatures around the vehicle and the structural temperature field may be sufficiently high that the sensors are adversely affected and may even be inoperative. In order to solve this interdisciplinary problem, it is proposed that the coupled fluid dynamic, structural, heat conduction code development be carried out by using a parallel environment on engineering workstations. Several parallel computing environments will be examined for efficiency and ease of use as well as the portabtlity to large massively parallel systems. The final goal will be a coupled code to solve a class of interdisciplinary problems on either a parallel environment using workstations across a network or a massively parallel system.