Upcoming Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Computational flow analysis with boundary layer and contact representation: Car and tire aerodynamics with road contact

Tayfun E. Tezduyar, James F. Barbour Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Rice University. Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University.

Abstract

In computational flow analysis with moving solid surfaces and contact between the solid surfaces, it is a challenge to represent the boundary layers with an accuracy attributed to moving-mesh methods and represent the contact without leaving a mesh protection gap. The Space-Time Topology Change (ST-TC) method, introduced in 2013, makes moving-mesh computation possible even when we have contact between moving solid surfaces or other kinds of flow-domain topology change. The contact is represented without giving up on high-resolution flow representation near the moving surfaces. With the ST-TC and other ST computational methods introduced before and after, it has been possible to address many of the challenges encountered in conducting this class of flow analysis in the presence of additional complexities such as geometric complexity, rotation or deformation of the solid surfaces, and multiscale nature of the flow. We provide an overview of the methods that made all that possible. We also provide an overview of the computations performed for tire aerodynamics with challenges that include the influence of the car aerodynamics, complexity of a near-actual tire geometry with grooves, road contact, tire deformation and rotation, road roughness, and fluid films. This is joint work with Kenji Takizawa, Waseda University.

Biography

Tezduyar received his PhD from Caltech in 1982. He holds a 1986 Presidential Young Investigator Award. He received the computational mechanics award of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, US Assoc for Comput Mech, International Assoc for Comput Mech, Argentine Assoc for Comput Mech, Japan Assoc for Comput Mech, and the Asian Pacific Assoc for Comput Mech and the Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Tezduyar was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, US Assoc for Comput Mech, International Assoc for Comput Mech, American Academy of Mechanics, and the School of Engineering at University of Tokyo. He was also elected an Honorary Member of the Japan Assoc for Comput Mech. Tezduyar coauthored the textbook Computational Fluid-Structure Interaction: Methods and Applications (Wiley), with Japanese translation (Morikita).