Damped, direction-dependent multigrid for hypersonic flow computations (Q809731)

The authors describe the improved multigrid technique applied to the solution of the steady Euler equation. The literature background gives the solution techniques which have been applied to the nonlinear system. The algorithm of the multigrid and nested iteration method is briefly exposed. In the case of failure of the relaxation method a switch is made to a fully explicit evolution technique. For this case some numerical examples of smooth and nonsmooth subsonic, transonic and hypersonic flow are presented and results are compared with single grid calculations. When the standard procedure is applied to hypersonic test cases, local mesh refinement may sweep the fine grid out of the attraction domain of the pure relaxation technique. To avoid bad grid corrections the authors propose a local damping technique for the restricted defects and for the coarse grid corrections together with a global upwind prolongation of the correction and a global upwind restriction of the defect. The defect damping operator is derived from a two-grid convergence analysis. Satisfactory convergence results are shown for the computation of the hypersonic launch and reentry flow around a blunt forebody with canopy. The test examples gave significantly better performances of the improved technique than a standard nonlinear multigrid method. The promising results allow to apply the described strategy not only to the hypersonic flow problems but also to others which have been treated by the multigrid techniques. The paper contains some practical advises and algorithmic explanations. It can be helpful both for theoretical considerations and practical applications.