Accurate and Efficient Visualization of Flow Structures in a Delta Wing Simulation
Xavier Tricoche, Christoph Garth, Tom Bobach, Gerik Scheuermann, Markus Ruetten · 34th AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit · 2004
The paper is concerned with the extraction and visualization of structural features in delta wing dataset resulting from a large-scale Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulation. Its main contributions are two novel schemes designed for this purpose. First, we introduce a new method for fast and precise extraction of separation and attachment lines on the body of the delta wing. Second, we improve significantly standard stream surface computation schemes to achieve accurate integration even in regions exhibiting complex structures. Additional state-of-the-art flow visualization techniques are used to complete the study of the dataset. The main focus is on the interaction between open separation and attachment lines of the wall shear stress on one hand, and vortices that form in the vicinity of the delta wing on the other hand. These features are key factors in flight stability and their study is mandatory in aircraft design. The paper demonstrates the power of a combined use of line-type feature extraction and stream surface computation to deeply improve understanding of three-dimensional structures and ease the analysis of flow separation and vortex breakdown. I.