An output-based adaptive and high-order method for a rotor in hover

Abstract

A high-order discontinuous Galerkin finite element discretization and output-based adaptation scheme for the compressible Euler equations are presented and applied to an isolated rotor in hover. A simplex cut-cell mesh generation technique is used to support robust and autonomous creation of higher-order meshes. The calculations are performed using a parallel implementation of the DG discretization and the results are compared to experimental data. As accurate simulation of rotorcraft wakes and blade-vortex interactions continues to be a challenge, the output-based adaptation scheme is used with thrust as the output of interest to refine the mesh. The result is a solution with less than three million degrees of freedom that is capable of preserving a rotor tip vortex for three and a half revolutions.