On the use of composite grid schemes in computational aerodynamics (Q1085731)

In finite difference flow field simulations the use of a single well- ordered body-conforming curvilinear mesh can lead to efficient solution procedures. However, it is generally impractical to build a single grid of this type for complex three-dimensional aircraft configurations. As a result, a trend in computational aerodynamics has been toward the use of composite grids. Composite grids use more than one grid to mesh an overall configuration with each individual subgrid of the system patched or overset together. Because each individual subgrid in the system is well ordered, the overall grid is suitable for efficient finite difference solution using vectorized or multitasking computers. Some of the advantages and difficulties of using various composite grid schemes are reviewed in this paper.