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The purpose of this paper is as follows: to significantly reduce the computation time (by a factor of 1,000 and more) compared to known numerical techniques for real-world problems with complex interfaces; and to simplify the solution by using trivial unfitted Cartesian meshes (no need in complicated mesh generators for complex geometry).

This study extends the recently developed optimal local truncation error method (OLTEM) for the Poisson equation with constant coefficients to a much more general case of discontinuous coefficients that can be applied to domains with different material properties (e.g. different inclusions, multi-material structural components, etc.). This study develops OLTEM using compact 9-point and 25-point stencils that are similar to those for linear and quadratic finite elements. In contrast to finite elements and other known numerical techniques for interface problems with conformed and unfitted meshes, OLTEM with 9-point and 25-point stencils and unfitted Cartesian meshes provides the 3-rd and 11-th order of accuracy for irregular interfaces, respectively; i.e. a huge increase in accuracy by eight orders for the new 'quadratic' elements compared to known techniques at similar computational costs. There are no unknowns on interfaces between different materials; the structure of the global discrete system is the same for homogeneous and heterogeneous materials (the difference in the values of the stencil coefficients). The calculation of the unknown stencil coefficients is based on the minimization of the local truncation error of the stencil equations and yields the optimal order of accuracy of OLTEM at a given stencil width. The numerical results with irregular interfaces show that at the same number of degrees of freedom, OLTEM with the 9-points stencils is even more accurate than the 4-th order finite elements; OLTEM with the 25-points stencils is much more accurate than the 7-th order finite elements with much wider stencils and conformed meshes.

The significant increase in accuracy for OLTEM by one order for 'linear' elements and by 8 orders for 'quadratic' elements compared to that for known techniques. This will lead to a huge reduction in the computation time for the problems with complex irregular interfaces. The use of trivial unfitted Cartesian meshes significantly simplifies the solution and reduces the time for the data preparation (no need in complicated mesh generators for complex geometry).

It has been never seen in the literature such a huge increase in accuracy for the proposed technique compared to existing methods. Due to a high accuracy, the proposed technique will allow the direct solution of multiscale problems without the scale separation.

This paper aims to present the development of a highly parallel finite-difference computational fluid dynamics code in generalized curvilinear coordinates system. The objectives are to handle internal and external flows in fairly complex geometries including shock waves, compressible turbulence and heat transfer.

The code is equipped with high-order discretization schemes to improve the computational accuracy of the solution algorithm. Besides, a new method to deal with the geometrical singularities, so-called domain decomposition method (DDM), is implemented. The DDM consists of using two different meshes communicating with each other, where the base mesh is Cartesian and the overlapped one a hollow cylinder.

The robustness of the present implemented code is appraised through several numerical test cases including a vortex advection, supersonic compressible flow over a cylinder, Poiseuille flow, turbulent channel and pipe flows. The results obtained here are in an excellent agreement when compared to the experimental data and the previous direct numerical simulation (DNS). As for the DDM strategy, it was successful as simulation time is clearly decreased and the connection between the two subdomains does not create spurious oscillations.

In sum, the developed solver was capable of solving, accurately and with high-precision, two- and three-dimensional compressible flows including fairly complex geometries. It is noted that the data provided by the DNS of supersonic pipe flows are not abundant in the literature and therefore will be available online for the community.

Sizing functions are crucial inputs for unstructured mesh generation since they determine the element distributions of resulting meshes to a large extent. Meanwhile, automating the procedure of creating a sizing function is a prerequisite to set up a fully automatic mesh generation pipeline. In this paper, an automatic algorithm is proposed to create a high-quality sizing function for an unstructured surface and volume mesh generation by using a triangular mesh as the background mesh.

A practically efficient and effective solution is developed by using local operators carefully to re-mesh the tessellation of the input Computer Aided Design (CAD) models. A nonlinear programming (NLP) problem has been formulated to limit the gradient of the sizing function, while in this study, the object function of this NLP is replaced by an analytical equation that predicts the number of elements. For the query of the sizing value, an improved algorithm is developed by using the axis-aligned bounding box (AABB) tree structure.

The local operations of re-meshing could effectively and efficiently resolve the banding issue caused by using the default tessellation of the model to define a sizing function. Experiments show that the solution of the revised NLP, in most cases, could provide a better solution at the lower cost of computational time. With the help of the AABB tree, the sizing function defined at a surface background mesh can be also used as the input of volume mesh generation.

Theoretical analysis reveals that the construction of the initial sizing function could be reduced to the solution of an optimization problem. The definitions of the banding elements and surface proximity are also given. Under the guidance of this theoretical analysis, re-meshing and ray-casting technologies are well-designed to initial the sizing function. Smoothing with the revised NLP and querying by the AABB tree, the paper provides an automatic method to get a high-quality sizing function for both surface and volume mesh generation.

Topology optimization is a method used for developing optimized geometric designs by distributing material pixels in a given design space that maximizes a chosen quantity of interest (QoI) subject to constraints. The purpose of this study is to develop a problem-agnostic automatic differentiation (AD) framework to compute sensitivities of the QoI required for density distribution-based topology optimization in an unstructured co-located cell-centered finite volume framework. Using this AD framework, the authors develop and demonstrate the topology optimization procedure for multi-dimensional steady-state heat conduction problems.

Topology optimization is performed using the well-established solid isotropic material with penalization approach. The method of moving asymptotes, a gradient-based optimization algorithm, is used to perform the optimization. The sensitivities of the QoI with respect to design variables, required for optimization algorithm, are computed using a discrete adjoint method with a novel AD library named residual automatic partial differentiator (Rapid).

Topologies that maximize or minimize relevant quantities of interest in heat conduction applications are presented. The efficacy of the technique is demonstrated using a variety of realistic heat transfer applications in both two and three dimensions, in conjugate heat transfer problems with finite conductivity ratios and in non-rectangular/non-cuboidal domains.

In contrast to most published work which has either used finite element methods or Cartesian finite volume methods for transport applications, the topology optimization procedure is developed in a general unstructured finite volume framework. This permits topology optimization for flow and heat transfer applications in complex design domains such as those encountered in industry. In addition, the Rapid library is designed to provide a problem-agnostic pathway to automatically compute all required derivatives to machine accuracy. This obviates the necessity to write new code for finding sensitivities when new physics are added or new cost functions are considered and permits general-purpose implementations of topology optimization for complex industrial applications.

High resolution models of air pollution transport and transformation are necessary in order to test possible abatement strategies based on pollution control and to forecast high pollution episodes. Models are especially relevant for secondary pollutants like ozone and nitrogen dioxide, which are formed in the atmosphere through nonlinear chemical reactions involving primary pollutant species, often far from their sources. Often we are trying to resolve the interactions between plumes from point sources such as power stations and regional pollution tides of ozone formed in other European countries. One method of tackling this problem of different scales is to use different grid sizes, using highly resolved grids in regions where the structure is very fine. Telescopic gridding is currently used in high emission areas or around sensitive receptor points. However, since meteorological conditions vary, this method cannot resolve a priori highly structured regions away from sources, e.g. along plumes. Such refinement can be achieved using adaptive methods which increase resolutions in regions of steep spatial gradients. This article describes the use of 3D adaptive gridding models for pollution transport and reactions using both a layered and a fully adaptive 3D tetrahedral approach and provides examples which show the effect of grid resolution on secondary pollutant formation.

This paper aims to provide a preliminary method for the numerical simulation of the flow field around a parachute.

With the rise of computational fluid dynamics and structural finite element method, it is possible to accurately describe the dynamic characteristics of a parachute. In order to simulate the flow field around the parachute during terminal descent, a finite volume method and Spalart‐Allmaras turbulence model are used to solve the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations.

The calculated results for flow field show good agreement with the experimental data.

Although a preliminary analysis for the flow field around the parachute could be obtained using current method, the exact flow field (such as involving the canopy flexibility and weave porosity) calculations still rely on the complex fluid‐structure interaction analytical techniques that should be studied in future.

A very useful method for the preliminary analyses of the parachutes.

By comparing the calculated results with those of relevant experiment, it is proved that the proposed method is valid and available to parachute analyses.

This paper aims to describe a research effort towards the comprehension of the unsteady phenomena due to the deployment of high-lift devices at approach/landing conditions.

The work starts from a preexisting platform based on an immersed boundary (IB) method whose capabilities are extended to study compressible and viscous flows around moving/deforming objects. A hybrid Lagrangian-Eulerian approach is designed to consider the motion of multiple bodies through a fixed Cartesian mesh. That is, the cells’ volumes do not move in space but rather they observe the solid walls crossing themselves. A dynamic discrete forcing makes use of a moving least-square procedure which has been validated by simulating well-known benchmarks available for rigid body motions. Partitioned fluid-structure interactions (FSI) strategies are explored to consider aeroelastic phenomena. A shared platform, between the aerodynamic and the structural solvers, fulfils the loads’ transfer and drives the sequence of the operating steps.

The first part of the results is devoted to a basic two-dimensional study aiming at evaluating the accuracy of the method when simple rigid motions are prescribed. Afterwards, the paper discusses the solution obtained when applying the dynamic IB method to the rigid deployment of a Krueger-flap. The final section discusses the aeroelastic behaviour of a three-element airfoil during its deployment phase. A loose FSI coupling is applied for estimating the possible loads’ downgrade.

The IB surfaces are allowed to move less than one IB-cell size at each time-step de-facto restricting the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) based on the wall velocity to be smaller than unity. The violation of this constraint would impair the explicit character of the method.

The proposed method improves automation in FSI numerical analysis and relaxes the human expertise/effort for meshing the computational domain around complex three-dimensional geometries. The logical consequence is an overall speed-up of the simulation process.

The value of the paper consists in demonstrating the applicability of dynamic IB techniques for studying high-lift devices. In particular, the proposed Cartesian method does not want to compete with body-conforming ones whose accuracy remains generally superior. Rather, the merit of this research is to propose a fast and automatic simulation system as a viable alternative to classic multi-block structured, chimaera or unstructured tools.

To improve flow solutions on meshes with cells/elements which are distorted/ non‐orthogonal.

The cell‐centred finite volume (FV) discretisation method is well established in computational fluid dynamics analysis for modelling physical processes and is typically employed in most commercial tools. This method is computationally efficient, but its accuracy and convergence behaviour may be compromised on meshes which feature cells with non‐orthogonal shapes, as can occur when modelling very complex geometries. A co‐located vertex‐based (VB) discretisation and partially staggered, VB/cell‐centred (CC), discretisation of the hydrodynamic variables are investigated and compared with purely CC solutions on a number of increasingly distorted meshes.

The co‐located CC method fails to produce solutions on all the distorted meshes investigated. Although more expensive computationally, the co‐located VB simulation results always converge whilst its accuracy appears to grace‐fully degrade on all meshes, no matter how extreme the element distortion. Although the hybrid, partially staggered, formulations also allow solutions on all the meshes, the results have larger errors than the co‐located vertex based method and are as expensive computationally; thus, offering no obvious advantage.

Employing the ability of the VB technique to resolve the flow field on a distorted mesh may well enable solutions to be obtained on complex meshes where established CC approaches fail

This paper investigates a range of cell centred, vertex based and hybrid approaches to FV discretisation of the NS hydrodynamic variables, in an effort characterize their capability at generating solutions on meshes with distorted or non‐orthogonal cells/elements.

The main advantage of the proposed method is that the computations can be performed on a Cartesian grid with complex immersed boundaries (IBs). The purpose of this paper is to device a numerical scheme based on an embedding finite element method for the solution of two-dimensional (2D) Navier-Stokes equations.

Geometries featuring the stationary solid obstacles in the flow are embedded in the Cartesian grid with special discretizations near the embedded boundary to ensure the accuracy of the solution in the cut cells. To comprehend the complexities of the viscous flows with IBs, the paper adopts a compact interpolation scheme near the IBs that allows to satisfy the second-order accuracy and the conservation property of the solver. The interpolation scheme is designed by virtue of the shape function in the finite element scheme.

Three numerical examples are selected to demonstrate the accuracy and flexibility of the proposed methodology. Simulation of flow past a circular cylinder for a range of Re=20-200 shows excellent agreements with other results using different numerical schemes. Flows around a pair of tandem cylinders and several bodies are particularly investigated. The paper simulates the time-based variation of the flow phenomena for uniform flow past a pair of cylinders with various streamwise gaps between two cylinders. The results in terms of drag coefficient and Strouhal number show excellent agreements with the results available in the literature.

Details of the flow characteristics, such as velocity distribution, pressure and vorticity fields are presented. It is concluded the combined embedding boundary method and FE discretizations are robust and accurate for solving 2D fluid flows with complex IBs.

A calculation procedure is proposed for heat and fluid flows in geometries with a time‐dependent boundary. The procedure incorporates a moving mesh arrangement with multi‐block iteration and has been developed to assist future simulations of heat and mass transfer with phase change. The solver for the basic equations is the SIMPLE algorithm with a non‐staggered grid arrangement. The space conservation law is invoked and applied for the explicit tracking of a moving boundary with a moving mesh. For mapping complex geometries a multi‐block iteration strategy is employed. A cubic spline interpolation allows the “uniqueness of zonal boundary” requirement to be met. An interpolation method is also developed for variables near the zone boundaries.The calculation procedure using multi‐block iteration and a moving mesh is applied to three benchmark‐testing problems. The numerical results are in very good general agreement with available experimental data.