Analysis of adaptive mesh refinement capability for the prediction of shock wave/boundary layer interactions

Abstract

In this bachelor’s thesis, the flow over a nominally two-dimensional 20° compression corner at M= 2.85 has been simulated in order to evaluate the capabilities of adaptive mesh refinement methods in flows involving shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interactions. Hence, Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations have been carried out using Ansys Fluent to pursue the former objective.

The initial grid convergence study using k-omega SST turbulence model showed that the optimal cell count for a structured mesh in the simulated conditions was 9.0 x 10^4. In addition, a turbulence model assessment was performed comparing Spalart-Allmaras model with different k-epsilon and k-omega turbulence models. For the studied flow, Georgiadis and Yoder version of the k-omega SST model was the one which showed better agreement with the experimental values.

Finally, different adaptive mesh refinement configurations were tested, regarding pressure and velocity gradients. Thus, results comparable to the fine grid solution were obtained, with a reduction of more than an 80% in the overall computational cost.