Towards a Simulation System for Virtual Flight - Dynamic High-Order Overset Grids Method

Abstract

A virtual flight through a realistic atmosphere is of vital interest not only for aircraft design but also for airports and airlines regarding runway capacity and safety. In the future virtual flight shall allow a simulation of a flight through a realistic atmosphere including the reaction of the aircraft to aerodynamic forces and the resulting trailing vortices from their generation until final decay. For realization, a bidirectional coupling between the atmospheric domain and a moving aircraft-centered domain is required. In this paper, we present a dynamic high-order overset grids method including hole-cutting, implemented in a discontinuous Galerkin solver for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. Using discontinuous Galerkin for spatial discretization removes the requirement for halo elements at the artificial boundaries and simplifies the construction of the interface. The number of solution interpolation points at the interface is lower than in conventional Finite-Volume schemes using volume interpolation, resulting in less computational effort. The method can handle any kind of movement on a trajectory altered during run-time. Special emphasis is put on the ability of the interface to transfer turbulent structures without significant disturbance. The presented test cases include a 3D convergence test and the Taylor-Green vortex, both with a grid moving along a non-trivial trajectory.