A cut-cell non-conforming Cartesian mesh method for compressible and incompressible flow

This paper details a multigrid-accelerated cut-cell non-conforming Cartesian mesh methodology for the modelling of inviscid compressible and incompressible flow. This is done via a single equation set that describes sub-, trans-, and supersonic flows. Cut-cell technology is developed to furnish body-fitted meshes with an overlapping mesh as starting point, and in a manner which is insensitive to surface definition inconsistencies. Spatial discretization is effected via an edge-based vertex-centred finite volume method. An alternative dual-mesh construction strategy, similar to the cell-centred method, is developed. Incompressibility is dealt with via an artificial compressibility algorithm, and stabilization achieved with artificial dissipation. In compressible flow, shocks are captured via pressure switch-activated upwinding. The solution process is accelerated with full approximation storage (FAS) multigrid where coarse meshes are generated automatically via a volume agglomeration methodology. This is the first time that the proposed discretization and solution methods are employed to solve a single compressible–incompressible equation set on cut-cell Cartesian meshes. The developed technology is validated by numerical experiments. The standard discretization and alternative methods were found equivalent in accuracy and computational cost. The multigrid implementation achieved decreases in CPU time of up to one order of magnitude. Copyright q 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd