A parallel dynamic overset grid framework for immersed boundary methods

Abstract

A parallel, dynamic, overset framework has been developed for the curvilinear immersed boundary (overset-CURVIB) method to enable tackling a wide range of challenging flow problems. The dynamic overset grids are used to locally increase the grid resolution near complex immersed bodies, which are handled using a sharp interface immersed boundary method, undergoing large movements as well as arbitrary relative motions. The new framework extends the previous overset-CURVIB method with fixed overset grids and a sequential grid assembly to moving overset grids and an efficient parallel grid assembly. In addition, a parallel strategy is developed to interpolate variables at the grid boundaries, which drastically decreases the execution time and increases the parallel efficiency of our framework compared to the previous strategy. The moving/rotating overset grids are solved in a non-inertial frame of reference to avoid recalculating the curvilinear metrics of transformation while the background/stationary grids are solved in the inertial frame. The new framework is verified and validated against experimental data, and analytical/benchmark solutions. In addition, the results of the overset grid are compared with results over a similar single grid. The method is shown to be 2nd order accurate, decrease the computational cost relative to a single grid, and has a good overall parallel speedup. The grid assembly takes less than 7% of the total cpu time even at the highest number of cpus tested in this work. The capabilities of our method are demonstrated by simulating the flow past a rotating blades of a wind turbine and a school of self-propelled aquatic swimmers arranged initially in a diamond pattern.