Efficient mesh deformation based on Cartesian background mesh

Abstract

Moving mesh is widely used in the simulation of aerodynamic shape optimization, multibody relative motion, aircraft icing and aeroelasticity. The efficient and high quality mesh deformation is the key technology of moving mesh. This paper presented a new Mesh Deformation method based on Cartesian Background Mesh (MDCBM). First, the Cartesian background mesh is deformed with radial basis functions (RBF). Second, the displacement of Cartesian background mesh is algebraically interpolated onto all meshes in the computing domain. Since the background mesh is coarse, the background mesh deformation can be finished fast. Because the background mesh of MDCBM is regular, the mapping relationship between background mesh and the computing mesh is simple. So the time spent on mapping search is substantially reduced. The examples including NACA0012 airfoil, multi-element airfoil with structured, unstructured mesh and DLR-F4 wing–body show the good performance of MDCBM. We highlight the advantages of MDCBM with respect to its computational efficiency and high quality of deformed mesh.