Hybrid Prismatic/Tetrahedral Grids for Turbomachinery Applications

Proceedings, 6th International Meshing Roundtable, Sandia National Laboratories, pp.21-32, October 1997

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

Yannis Kallinderis, Aly Khawajat, and Harlan McMorris: Dept. of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712

Stefan Irmisch and Donald Walker: ABB Corporate Research Ltd CH-5405 Baden-Dattwil, Switzerland

Abstract
The paper demonstrates the applicability, universality, and robustness of a hybrid grid generation method via application to complex turbomachinery geometries. The method consists of using a surface mesh generator to triangulate the geometry to be modeled. The volume mesh is then created using prismatic and tetrahedral elements. The prisms cover the region close to each body's surface for better resolution of viscous gradients, while tetrahedra are created in the remainder of the domain. The grid generator is tested with various complex geometries and the resulting hybrid meshes are presented. The applicability of the hybrid grid generator over a wide range of geometries with minimal user interaction demonstrates the robustness and universality of the method. The validity of the generated grids is tested via turbulent flow simulations over turbine blade geometries.

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