An automatic Euler solver using the unstructured upwind method

Abstract A fully-automatic grid generator and an unstructured upwind method for the Euler equations are developed in order to achieve automation in flow computations. The unstructured grid is generated using two techniques: a geometry-adaptive refinement; and a solution-adaptive refinement. The former introduces information about the flowfield geometry into the grid, and the latter introduces the fluid physics. A combination of these two techniques enables the generation of a grid in a fully-automatic manner. Flowfields are solved by an unstructured upwind solver, which is an extension of the flux-vector splitting method of Van Leer for use on arbitrary-shaped unstructured meshes. This robust flow solver with the automatic grid generator can be a useful CFD tool for routine engineering work. The method is applied to external and internal flow problems to demonstrate its capability.