Mesh movement strategy based on octree decomposition

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to apply an interpolation method based on Radial Basis Functions(RBF) to transfer deformations from surface mesh to volume mesh in multidisciplinary CFD computations. In order to deal with the increasing need in all engineering areas to manipulate meshes of very large computational size, it is mandatory to develop methodologies based on the decomposition of the global problem into local smaller problems according to the current computational capabilities of personal computers. In this way we have applied an octree decomposition to generate computational domains where the interpolation can be easily affordable. The problem now is to develop an efficient strategy to carry out the domain decomposition, independently of mesh topology, and to lay down the influence anddependence regions for a given interpolation domain. This methodology can manage any kind of meshes, multiblock structured and unstructured, in an easy, robust and efficient way, preserving the quality of the original mesh even for very large deformations. In this work, it has been tested on inviscid and viscous meshes for aeronautical configurations. Furthermore, the methodology is suitable for parallel computations because of the inherent domain decomposition strategy.