Overset Grid Assembler and Flow Solver with Adaptive Spatial Load Balancing

Abstract

An overset mesh approach is useful for unsteady flow problems which involve components moving relative to each other. Since the generation of a single mesh around all components is prone to mesh stretching due to the relative motion of bodies, using the overset grid methodology, an individual mesh can be generated for each component. In this study, a parallel overset grid assembler was developed to establish connectivity across component meshes. Connectivity information was transferred to the developed parallel flow solver. The assembler uses multiple methods such as alternating digital tree and stencil walking to reduce the time spent on domain connectivity. Both the assembler and solver were partitioned spatially so that overlapping mesh blocks reside in the same partitions. Spatial partitioning was performed using a 3D space partitioning structure, namely octree, to which mesh blocks are registered. The octree was refined adaptively until bins of octree could be evenly distributed to processors. The assembler and solver were tested on a generic helicopter configuration in terms of load balance, scalability, and memory usage.