A vorticity formulation for computational fluid dynamic and aeroelastic analyses of viscous flows

The paper deals with a novel computational formulation for the analysis of viscous flows past a solid body. The formulation is based upon a convenient decomposition of the flow field into potential and rotational velocity contributions, which has the distinguishing feature that the rotational velocity vanishes in much of, if not all, the region in which the vorticity is negligible. Contrary to related formulations implemented by the authors in the past, in the proposed approach, discontinuities of the potential and rotational velocity fields across a prescribed surface emanating from the trailing edge (such as the wake mid-surface) are eliminated, thereby facilitating numerical implementations. However, the main novelty is related to the application of the boundary condition: first, the expression for the velocity used for the condition on the body boundary is consistent with that for the velocity in the field; also—contrary to related formulations used by the authors in the past—in the proposed approach, the condition on the body boundary does not require the evaluation of the total vorticity (inside and outside the computational domain). The proposed algorithm, valid for three-dimensional compressible flows, is validated—as a first step—for the case of two-dimensional incompressible flows. Specifically, numerical results are presented for the aerodynamic analysis of two-dimensional incompressible viscous flows past a circular cylinder and past a Joukowski airfoil. In order to verify the desirable absence of artificial damping, we present also results pertaining to the flutter (i.e., dynamic aeroelastic) analysis of a spring-mounted circular cylinder in a viscous flow, free to move in a direction orthogonal to the unperturbed flow. In both cases (aerodynamics and aeroelasticity), the results are in good agreement with existing literature data.