Development and application of adaptive grids in two-dimensional transonic calculations

A new method for generating solution-dependent adaptive grids for steady problems in transonic calculations has been developed. The method is based on a pressure distribution solution along the airfoil, which results in a denser mesh in the shock and supersonic regions and a relatively coarse mesh in the subsonic region. The method has been successfully incorporated into an existing transonic potential-flow code. Results are presented which indicate that the adaptive grid method gives both an accurate shock position and better shock resolution with a relatively coarse mesh size. Observations are made and recommendations for future improvements and applications are outlined.