Title:
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An investigation into finite volume methods for solid mechanics
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Research into applying finite volume methods to problems in solid mechanics is presented. The
investigation has been motivated by the idea that a high-fidelity aeroelastic simulation can be made
possible by extending the finite volume methods already implemented in many existing computational
fluid dynamics solvers to solid mechanics.
A detailed study and survey of applicable methods have been conducted to identify suitable candidates
for a three-dimensional time-accurate large-deformation solid mechanics solver.
A vertex-centred and a cell-centred solver were initially implemented. Upon comparison, the cell-centred
solver appeared to be computationally more efficient despite suffering from a numerical issue.
From this analysis, an improved formulation was subsequently developed for the cell-centred solver.
In addition, a robust method for numerical gradient evaluation has been developed and incorporated
to minimise errors associated with skewed cells or poorly supported cells at domain boundary. The
method is based upon the Green-Gauss method, but takes advantage of a secondary numerical gradient
to improve overall accuracy and reliability .
The improved cell-centred solver has been shown to be accurate, robust and suitable for large deformations
in a non-linear validation case against NASTRAN. High computational efficiency has also
been demonstrated in OpenMP parallelisation and convergence acceleration via multigrid. The multigrid
implementation has been made possible through incorporating a dual-time implicit scheme into
the solver.
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