Fluid-thermal-structural interaction simulation with coupled CFD/CSD method

The aerothermoelasticity problem under hypersonic environment has received extensive attention. In order to make precise predictions, a focus on the abatement of calculated quantity with negligible loss of accuracy is associated with comprehensive aerothermoelasitc analysis. Most traditional engineering methods considering the calculated efficiency requirement more than computational accuracy is not appropriate for the hypersonic flow. Thus an efficient method with high accuracy plays an important role in the simulation and analysis of aerothermoelasticity behavior. To predict the aerothermoelasitc performance of hypersonic flight, aerothermoelasticity computing method based on an in-house developed computational fluid dynamics(CFD) code hybrid unstructured Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver(HUNS3D) is coupled in source level with the open source computational structural dynamics(CSD) analysis solver CalculiX. A multi-level subspace radial basis function (RBF) interpolation based on `double-edge' greedy algorithm creating an approximate interpolation for all moving boundary points acts as a unified method for mesh deformation and fluid-structure coupled simulation. Parallel local RBF interpolation reducing the computational cost serves as a method to transfer the aerodynamic loads including pressure and heat flux from CFD mesh to CSD mesh and the wall temperature from structure surface to the flow field solver. This coupling method is demonstrated by a three-dimensional unsteady fluid-thermal-structure coupling case for Mach number 6.47 over a cylinder. Good qualitative and quantitative agreement has been achieved between the predicted results and the available experimental data. It is shown that the presented method has its effectiveness and potential in accurately predicting the aerothermoelastic problems.