A STUDY OF RECIRCULATING FLOW COMPUTATION USING BODY-FITTED COORDINATES: CONSISTENCY ASPECTS AND MESH SKEWNESS

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Abstract
A study of the computation of recirculating flows using body-fitted coordinates has been conducted with a numerical algorithm developed previously. Both the consistent treatment of the continuity equation and the effects of the grid skewness on the calculated flow field have been investigated. A more consilient method has been developed that formally satisfies the conservation laws more closely, allowing the mass residual to be driven to lower levels on highly irregular grids. The new method can also be more effective in numerically damping out disturbances in the flow field as the solution progresses. Since the computed flow fields arc found to be quite insensitive to the final level of the residuals, the residuals are not a good indicator of the level of convergence; the kinetic energy of the flow field serves as a useful alternative. It is found that the effects of the excessive local mesh skewness on the overall ac~ curacy of the calculated solution are quite tolerable. This finding demonstrates the desirable robustness of the present numerical algorithm.