Methods for Computationally Efficient Structured CFD Simulations of Complex Turbomachinery Flows

Abstract

This research presents more efficient computational methods by which to perform multiple-block structured CFD simulations of turbomachinery, thus enabling higher-fidelity solutions of complicated geometries and their associated flows. This computational framework offers flexibility in allocating resources to balance process count and wall-clock computation time, while facilitating research interests of simulating axial compressor stall inception with more complete gridding of the flow passages and rotor tip clearance regions than is typically practiced with structured codes. The scheme presented herein expedites CFD simulation of previously impractical geometries and flows. These methods are validated and demonstrate improved computational efficiency when applied to complicated geometries and flows.

Keywords:

• CFD
• Turbomachinery
• High-performance computing
• Multi-block
• Algorithms
• Clearance flows
• Compressor stall