Abstract

The overset grid adaptive method offers an efficient approach for the computational modeling of steady or transient three-dimensional compressible flow problems. When implementing this approach on parallel distributed memory computing systems, its scaling, load balancing, and partitioning must be addressed. In this study, we present a parallel, three-dimensional, finite volume compressible Navier–Stokes solver with block-based adaptive mesh refinement capability. The overset grid system consists of an Octree forest governed adaptive Cartesian off-body grid and a pre-partitioned body-conforming grid. To create, manage, and efficiently handle the load balancing and partitioning of the off-body grid, the developed solver utilizes the open source library of p4est. The communication between the partitions of the p4est governed off-body grid and the body-conforming grid is established by using an efficient spatial query algorithm. The parallel performance of the developed solver is evaluated by solving two benchmark problems: steady supersonic flow over a semi-infinite blunt-nose cylinder and the transient interaction of an incident planar shock with a sphere in quiescent air. The results show that the solver accurately captures and tracks the resultant flow shock structures while exhibiting good scalable parallel performance.

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