An Unstructured Multielement Solution Algorithm for Complex Geometry Hydrodynamic Simulations

The primary objective of this study is to demonstrate an efficient incompressible flow solver capable of performing time-accurate, viscous, high Reynolds number flow simulations for complex geometries using general unstructured grids. This parallel flow solver is demonstrated for large-scale meshes with viscous sublayer resolution (y·~1) up to Re=10 to the 9th power and approximately 10 to the 6th power points or more. The prolate spheroid is presented as a model problem with complex flow phenomena; surface pressure distributions agree well with experimental data. Realistic applications include 1) the NOAA FRV-40 ship hull, 2) the SUBOFF hull at model scale and full scale conditions, and 3) the DTMB 5415 hull in nonappended and dynamic fully appended configurations. In all cases, agreement between computations and experimental measurements ranges from reasonable to excellent.