Hybrid grid generation for turbomachinery and aerospace applications

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, John Wiley, Vol 49, Num 1, pp.145-166, September 10-20 2000

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

Special Edition on Unstructured Mesh Generation
International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Vol 49 Number 1-2, 10-20 September 2000

Correspondence to: Aly Khawaja, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX78712, U.S.A.
E-mail: aly@acelab.ae.utexas.edu
E-mail: kallind@mail.utexas.edu

Abstract
A hybrid prismatic/tetrahedral grid generation method is described and applied to complex turbomachinery and aerospace geometries. The high aspect ratio prismatic cells cover the region close to each body's surface for good resolution of viscous gradients, while tetrahedra tessellate the rest of the domain. The work introduces the concepts of multi-zone mesh generation and local variation of the number of prismatic layers (unstructured prism generation). Both these ideas are aimed to allow different levels of grid resolution within the same geometry and to treat disparate geometric length scales. The grid generator is tested with various complex geometries and the resulting hybrid meshes are presented. The applicability of the hybrid grid generator over the 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.