FFVHC-ACE: Fully Automated Cartesian-Grid-Based Solver for Compressible Large-Eddy Simulation

Abstract

This study presents a fully automated Cartesian-grid-based compressible flow solver, named FrontFlow/Violet Hierarchical Cartesian for Aeronautics based on Compressible-flow Equations (FFVHC-ACE), for large-eddy simulation (LES) and its aeronautical applications. FFVHC-ACE enables high-fidelity LES of high-Reynolds-number flows around complex geometries by adopting three key numerical methods: hierarchical Cartesian grids, wall modeling in LES, and the kinetic-energy and entropy preserving (KEEP) scheme. The hierarchical Cartesian grids allow fully automated grid generation for complex geometries in FFVHC-ACE, and high-fidelity LES of high-Reynolds-number flows around complex geometries is realized by the wall modeling and the KEEP scheme on the non-body-fitted hierarchical Cartesian grids. We apply FFVHC-ACE to wall-modeled LES around high-lift aircraft configurations at wind-tunnel-scale Reynolds number and real-flight Reynolds number , demonstrating the capability of FFVHC-ACE for fully automated grid generation and high-fidelity simulations around complex aircraft configurations. The computed flowfield and aerodynamic forces at the wind-tunnel-scale Reynolds number agree well with the experimental data provided in the past AIAA High Lift Prediction Workshop (Rumsey et al., Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 56, No. 2, 2019, pp. 621–644). Furthermore, the wall-modeled LES at the real-flight Reynolds number shows good agreement of the lift coefficient with flight-test data.