Acceleration of vortex-particle simulations using a pseudo-particle method

Journal of Physics Conference Series, vol. 1618, pp. 052006

Abstract

Abstract Vortex methods like vortex-lattice or vortex-panel methods are particularly promising to enhance the industrial aerodynamic design process of modern wind turbines. However, despite their advantages over low order methods, like the blade-element-momentum theory, vortex methods share an essential disadvantage. Their computational cost rapidly increases, which is due to their n-body problem characteristics. To overcome this issue, a method that neither relies on multipole expansions nor on a multi-grid approach is presented. Based on the aerodynamic simulation of the MEXICO rotor, it is shown that the proposed vortex pseudo-particle method (VPPM) is able to reduce the computational cost related to the n-body problem of vortex methods to O(n × log(n)). However, its application is not only advantageous in terms of the reduction of the computational cost. Since vortex-and pseudo-particles share the same properties, the VPPM’s implementation is quite simple compared to that of fast multipole methods. Furthermore, no method specific boundary-conditions need to be imposed as in the case of multi-grid methods. Therefore, the presented pseudo-particle approach is an attractive alternative to fast multipole or multi-grid methods.

Authors 3

1. Frederik Thönnißen Aachen Chair of Fluid Mechanics Institute of Aerodynamics

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Fluid Mechanics and Institute of Aerodynamics, RWTH Aachen University, Wüllnerstraβe 5a, 52062 Aachen Germany

2. Erik Kaspar Fritz Aachen Chair of Fluid Mechanics Institute of Aerodynamics

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Fluid Mechanics and Institute of Aerodynamics, RWTH Aachen University, Wüllnerstraβe 5a, 52062 Aachen Germany

   TNO Energy Transition, Westerduinweg 3, 1755 LE Petten The Netherlands

3. Wolfgang Schröder Aachen Chair of Fluid Mechanics Institute of Aerodynamics

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Fluid Mechanics and Institute of Aerodynamics, RWTH Aachen University, Wüllnerstraβe 5a, 52062 Aachen Germany