Skip to main content
SHARE
Publication

Comparison of Full-Field and Integrated CFD Convergence Based on Richardson Extrapolation

by Justin R Weinmeister, Devina Sanjaya
Publication Type
Conference Paper
Book Title
AIAA Aviation Forum and Ascend
Publication Date
Publisher Location
United States of America
Conference Name
AIAA Aviation Forum and Exposition
Conference Location
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America
Conference Sponsor
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Conference Date
-

This work investigated the usefulness of Richardson extrapolation--based discretization error estimates across all points in a solution field to produce a spatial convergence field for a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The presented work used previously developed methods for Richardson extrapolation to compute the convergence orders of a CFD simulation at all points of the base (coarsest) mesh solution. Three test cases of increasing complexity were considered: Poiseuille flow, incompressible flow around a sharp corner, and transonic flow over an RAE 2822 airfoil. These test cases highlighted the potential of the proposed method to identify error sources and their relation to the model system-response-quantity convergence orders. However, these test cases also revealed the immaturity of the proposed method stemming from the unreliability of computing observed convergence orders at single points. Nonetheless, the test cases highlighted that the observed convergence orders allow for a more accurate diagnosis of constructive and destructive error transport than mesh pair error estimates. In the long run, the proposed method can be a tool for developing efficient and advanced error management strategies like adaptive mesh refinement.