An unstructured numerical method for computational aeroacoustics

The successful application of Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA) requires high accuracy numerical schemes with good dissipation and dispersion characteristics. Unstructured meshes have a greater geometrical flexibility than existing high order structured mesh methods. This work investigates the suitability of unstructured mesh techniques by computing a two-dimensionallinearised Euler problem with various discretisation schemes and different mesh types. The goal of the present work is the development of an unstructured numerical method with the high accuracy, low dissipation and low dispersion required to be an effective tool in the study of aeroacoustics. The suitability of the unstructured method is investigated using aeroacoustic test cases taken from CAA Benchmark Workshop proceedings. Comparisons are made with exact solutions and a high order structured method. The higher order structured method was based upon a standard central differencing spatial discretisation. For the unstructured method a vertex-based data structure is employed. A median-dual control volume is used for the finite volume approximation with the option of using a Green-Gauss gradient approximation technique or a Least Squares approximation. The temporal discretisation used for both the structured and unstructured numerical methods is an explicit Runge-Kutta method with local timestepping. For the unstructured method, the gradient approximation technique is used to compute gradients at each vertex, these are then used to reconstruct the fluxes at the control volume faces. The unstructured mesh types used to evaluate the numerical method include semi-structured and purely unstructured triangular meshes. The semi-structured meshes were created directly from the associated structured mesh. The purely unstructured meshes were created using a commercial paving algorithm. The Least Squares method has the potential to allow high order reconstruction. Results show that a Weighted Least gradient approximation gives better solutions than unweighted and Green-Gauss gradient computation. The solutions are of acceptable accuracy on these problems with the absolute error of the unstructured method approaching that of a high order structured solution on an equivalent mesh for specific aeroacoustic scenarios.