NURBS evaluation and utilization for grid generation

In the last few years, Non-Uniform Rational BSpline (NURBS) has evolved as an essential tool for a semi-analytical representation of geometrical entities encountered in Computational Field Simulation (CFS). The grid generation techniques based on NURBS have been developed and reported in the literature by various researchers. However, the evaluation of NURBS for surface/volume grid point generation is time consuming and the representation of widely utilized aerodynamic shapes into NURBS is not trivial. This paper addressed these issues. An enhanced algorithm for NURBS evaluation based on the proper utilization of the basis functions is presented. An accurate representation of the widely utilized transition duct designed by using superellipse equation is developed. An example of the NURBS surface definition to a 3D volume and its utilization in grid adaptation by combing NURBS with elliptic generation system is presented. The computational example involving a flow field around a generic missile configuration is presented for demonstrating grid adaptation.