Using the Adjoint Formulation for Target Functional-Based Mesh-Adaptation

Abstract

In this paper we will present a goal-oriented mesh adaption for the DLR TAU code, together with first applications of the procedure to simple inviscid, 2D flow around airfoils. This improvement to the existing mesh adaption already available in the TAU code allows us to produce improved computational meshes that provide more accurate predictions for selected functionals of the flow solution such as drag or lift --- in fact, for any for which the necessary adjoint solution can be computed. After a short introduction to the problem at hand, we show the mathematical foundation of the method and its derivation. Next is a section on the implementation of the procedure into the DLR TAU code, followed by results of mesh refinement studies done with the new method and comparisons to global and the default feature (gradient) based adaption strategies. Lastly, we present our conclusions and discuss further work to improve the method and its implementation.