Perot, J. Blair | Search NASA

DOE OSTI2022

A method for generating moving, orthogonal, area preserving polygonal meshes

A new method for generating locally orthogonal polygonal meshes from a set of generator points is presented in which polygon areas are a constraint. The area constraint property is particularly useful for particle methods where moving polygons track a discrete portion of material. Because Voronoi polygon meshes have some very attractive mathematical and numerical properties for numerical computation, a generalization of Voronoi polygon meshes was formulated that enforces a polygon area constraint. Area constrained moving polygonal meshes allow one to develop hybrid particle-mesh numerical methods that display some of the most attractive features of each approach. It is shown that this mesh construction method can continuously reconnect a moving, unstructured polygonal mesh in a pseudo-Lagrangian fashion without change in cell area/volume, and the method's ability to simulate various physical scenarios is shown. Overall, the advantages are identified for incompressible fluid flow calculations, with demonstration cases that include material discontinuities of all three phases of matter and large density jumps.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

NASA NTRS1993

New concepts for Reynolds stress transport equation modeling of inhomogeneous flows

The ability to model turbulence near solid walls and other types of boundaries is important in predicting complex engineering flows. Most turbulence modeling has concentrated either on flows which are nearly homogeneous or isotropic, or on turbulent boundary layers. Boundary layer models usually rely very heavily on the presence of mean shear and the production of turbulence due to that mean shear. Most other turbulence models are based on the assumption of quasi-homogeneity. However, there are many situations of engineering interest which do not involve large shear rates and which are not quasi-homogeneous or isotropic. Shear-free turbulent boundary layers are the prototypical example of such flows, with practical situations being separation and reattachment, bluff body flow, high free-stream turbulence, and free surface flows. Although these situations are not as common as the variants of the flat plate turbulent boundary layer, they tend to be critical factors in complex engineering situations. The models developed are intended to extend classical quasi-homogeneous models into regions of large inhomogeneity. These models do not rely on the presence of mean shear or production, but are still applicable when those additional effects are included. Although the focus is on shear-free boundary layers as tests for these models, results for standard shearing boundary layers are also shown.

Perot, J. Blair↗