Adaptive strategy of the supersonic turbulent flow over a backward‐facing step

Abstract

AbstractAn adaptive strategy incorporating mesh remeshing and refining is developed to study the supersonic turbulent flow over a backward‐facing step on a mixed quadrilateral–triangular mesh. In the Cartesian co‐ordinate system, the unsteady Favre‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations with a low‐Reynolds‐number k–εturbulence model are solved using a locally implicit scheme with an anisotropic dissipation model. In the present adaptive strategy, two error indicators for both mesh remeshing and refining, respectively, are presented. The remeshing error indicator incorporates unified magnitude of substantial derivative of pressure and that of vorticity magnitude, whereas the refining error indicator incorporates unified magnitude of substantial derivative of pressure and that of weighted vorticity magnitude. To assess the present approach, the transonic turbulent flow around an NACA 0012 airfoil is performed. Based on the comparison with the experimental data, the accuracy of the present approach is confirmed. According to the high‐resolutional result on the adaptive mesh, the structure of backstep corner vortex, expansion wave and oblique shock wave is distinctly captured. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.