Explicit and Robust Inverse Distance Weighting Mesh Deformation for CFD

Abstract

Mesh deformation algorithms usually require solving a system of equations which can be computationally intensive for complex three-dimensional applications. In this paper an explicit mesh deformation method is proposed based on Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation of the boundary node displacements to the interior of the flow domain. The point-by-point mesh deformation algorithm results in a straightforward implementation and parallelization. The formulation is extended to a robust Extremum Conserving (ED) mesh deformation method. An IDW mesh optimization method is also introduced based on IDW mesh deformation, which reaches virtually perfect mesh orthogonality. It is also applied to mesh motion in the fluid-structure interaction simulation of the three-dimensional AGARD 445.6 aeroelastic wing, in which IDW mesh motion shows a reduction of the computational costs up to a factor 50 with respect to Radial Basis Function (RBF) mesh deformation for a comparable simulation accuracy.