Jk. Watterson et al., A SOLUTION-ADAPTIVE MESH PROCEDURE FOR PREDICTING CONFINED EXPLOSIONS, International journal for numerical methods in fluids, 26(2), 1998, pp. 235-247
Explosion hazards constitute a significant practical problem for indus
try. In response to the need for better-resolved predictions for confi
ned explosions, and particularly with a view to advancing safety cases
for offshore oil and gas rigs, an existing unstructured, adaptive mes
h, finite volume Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computational fluid d
ynamics code (originally developed to handle non-combusting turbomachi
nery hows) has been modified to include a one-equation, eddy break-up
combustion model. Two benefits accrue from the use of unstructured, so
lution-adaptive meshes: first, great geometrical flexibility is possib
le; second, automatic mesh adaptation allows computational effort to b
e focused on important or interesting areas of the flow by enhancing m
esh resolution only where it is required. In the work reported here, t
he mesh was adaptively refined to achieve flame front capture, and it
is shown that this results in a 10%-33% CPU saving for two-dimensional
calculations and a saving of between 57% and 70% for three-dimensiona
l calculations. The geometry of the three-dimensional calculations was
relatively simple, and it may be expected that the use of unstructure
d meshes for truly complex geometries will result in CPU savings suffi
cient to allow an order-of-magnitude increase in either complexity or
resolution. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.