Parallel Efficient Mesh Motion using Radial Basis Functions with Application to Multi-bladed Rotors

摘要

Radial basis functions are used to provide a solution to the problem of mesh motion for unsteady aerodynamic simulation. The method is independent of connectivity and produces high quality meshes, but is expensive for large meshed in its full form. However, the efficiency of the technique is greatly improved by reducing the number of surface points used to define deformations of the surface, and the minor error in position that this implies at other surface points is corrected with a simple decaying peturbation. This means the exact surface is retained, but the mesh motion is significantly faster. An example deformation is considered for a helicopter rotor with an exaggerated cyclic pitch motion. This shows excellent mesh quality, and validates a scheme that is also simple, robust and readily parallelised.