Numerical aspects of gradient reconstruction schemes applied to complex geometries

The present work primarily focuses on the study of three gradient reconstruction techniques applied to the calculation of viscous terms in a cell-centered, finite volume formulation for general unstructured grids. The work also addresses different ways of formulating the limiter functions necessary to maintain stability in the presence of flow discontinuities. The flows of interest are simulated using the compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations, and the negative Spalart–Allmaras model is used for turbulence closure. Definition of interface inviscid terms uses the Roe approximate Riemann solver, whereas the interface viscous terms are calculated with a standard centered scheme together with appropriate definitions of the interface gradients. Steady-state solutions are obtained using an implicit time-integration method, together with a novel convergence acceleration technique. This new approach defines a set of three simple rules for controlling the global CFL number based on the residue evolution. The work considers three test cases, namely the subsonic bump-in-channel flow, the subsonic NASA high-lift common research model multielement airfoil and the transonic ONERA M6 wing. Present results are compared to experimental and numerical data available in the literature. Severe numerical instabilities are observed when the simplest gradient reconstruction technique is used, while more sophisticated formulations are able to provide excellent agreement with the existing literature. Current results are demonstrated to be highly insensitive to modifications made to the entropy fix terms of the numerical flux. Integrated aerodynamic forces are shown to be mildly dependent on the limiter formulation used, even in the absence of shock waves. The proposed convergence acceleration procedure manages to quickly drive the residue terms to machine zero, provided no major instabilities are present.