12th Annual CFD Symposium, 11th -12th August,2010, Bangalore

Weighted Least Squares Kinetic Upwind Meshfree Method

(WLSKUM) with Automatic Point Generation
Konark Arora1 konark.arora@gmail.com
S. M. Deshpande2 smd@jncasr.ac.in
1
CFD Division, DOCD, DRDL, Hyderabad - 500058.
2
Engineering Mechanics Unit,
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur, Bangalore 560064.
Abstract. The Least Squares Kinetic Upwind Meshfree methods are capable of working on
any arbitrary point distribution. These methods donot require the grid for flow simulation
which is an essential requirement for any conventional CFD method. However they require
a point distribution or a cloud of points and the corresponding connectivity information.
This point distribution is generally created using a grid generator. Here, we have attempted
to remove the dependence of the meshfree methods on the grid generators by developing a
CFD suite which automatically generates the points in the computational domain and the
corresponding connectivity information required by the solver without any user intervention.
The suite has been validated for standard test cases of shock reflection problem and sub-
sonic/transonic flow past NACA 0012 aerofoil and RAE aerofoil. A good match between the
present values and the experimental results has been obtained, thereby validating the suite.
Keywords: LSKUM, Meshfree, Connectivity, Point generation, Advancing front

1 Introduction
Meshfree methods [6, 10, 1, 8, 3] are slowly gaining acceptance as a useful tool in computation of
flows around practical configurations. Using LSKUM (Least Squares Kinetic Upwind Meshfree) method,
Anandhanarayanan [1] and Praveen [8] have computed inviscid supersonic and transonic flows around
flight vehicles and M165 configuration with as complex mesh as FAME. All meshfree methods operate
on a point distribution in the computational domain and require connectivity N (Po ) of every point
or node Po . The connectivity is a set of points in the neighbourhood of Po . The robustness of
a meshfree solver and the accuracy of the solution obtained by it depends upon the point distribution
in the computational domain [8]. This point distribution is generally created by use of a grid generator
and a lot of care has to be taken to generate a good point distribution. In order to avoid the use of
the grid geneartor, an embedded suite comprising of the point generation method using the advancing
front technique, the connectivity generation process and the meshfree solver has been developed in which
the required points in the computational domain are generated by the suite itself without any user
intervention. This method is expected to be very robust as the points are generated by the solver
such that all the requirements of a good cloud of points are met apart from relieving the user of the
responsibility of generating a good point distribution. Here, a brief description of the weighted least
squares meshfree method in 2D will be first given, followed by the detailed description of the advancing
front method used to automatically generate the points in the computational domain. Finally the results
of validation of the suite using standard test cases of shock reflection problem, and flow past NACA 0012
and RAE aerofoils will be presented in support of our claim.
 y,v 2

Pi

Po x,v1

Figure 1: Connectivity for node o in 2 dimension

2 Weighted Least Squares Method in 2-D

Consider Fig.1 showing connectivity of Po . To get the derivative of the function F (x, y) at point Po ,
we expand Fi around point Po in terms of Taylor series


Fi = Fo + (xi xo )Fx o + (yi yo )Fy o + O x2 , y 2 (1)

Define the differences

xi = xi xo , y i = yi yo , F i = Fi Fo

The weighted sum of the squares of errors at point Po (after truncating Taylor Series in Eq.(1)) is given
by
Xp

2
E= wi F i xi Fx o y i Fy o (2)
i=1

Minimizing the error E in Eq.(2) with respect to Fx o and Fy o , we get the following system of linear
algebraic equations
A (w) (grad F )To = b (w) (3)
where
 P P    P 
w x 2 wi xi yi Fxo wi xi Fi
A (w) = P i i P T
, (grad F )o = , b (w) = P
wi xi yi wi yi 2 Fy o wi yi Fi

The corresponding weighted least squares matrix A (w) for 3-D case is given by
P P P
w x 2 w x y w x z
P i i Pi i 2 i P i i i
A (w) = wi xi yi w y w y z
P P i i Pi i 2i
wi xi zi wi yi zi wi zi

It is observed that for wi = 1, the weighted least squares matrix A (w) reduces to the usual least squares
matrix A. The least squares (LS) matrix A so obtained is a geometric matrix whose elements are functions
of the coordinate differentials of the nodes in the connectivity. The bad connectivity at a node makes
the corresponding LS matrix a rank deficient matrix [4], which results in the loss of accuracy or even bad
connectivity related code divergence. The LS matrix for a node with good connectivity is found to be a
full rank matrix. Thus to enhance the robustness of the least squares meshfree solver, it is required that
the LS matrix should always be a full rank matrix. There are various methods of improving the rank
deficiency of the LS matrix. Praveen [8] has enhanced the connectivity of the nodes to improve the rank
deficiency of the LS matrix. We have made use of the weighted least squares approach. The weighted LS
formulae for the spatial derivatives in 2-D is
P P P P
(1) wi y i 2 wi xi F i wi xi y i wi y i F i
Fx o = P P P 2
wi xi 2 wi y i 2 ( wi xi y i )
The weights are suitably chosen so that the upwind direction becomes one of the eigendirections of the
LS matrix A along which the multidimensional LS formulae reduce to the corresponding one dimensional
formulae [2, 3, 4].
P P P X
wi y i 2 wi xi F i wi xi F i
Fx (1)
o = P 2 P 2 = P 2 because wi xi yi = 0. (4)
wi xi wi y i wi xi

Further, the weights chosen must be positive so that the Local Extremum Diminishing (LED) property
is satisfied. A very simple and novel way to calculate the positive weights, utilizing the coordinate
differentials of the neighbouring nodes in the connectivity in 2-D and 3-D, has been developed for the
purpose [2]. By doing the SVD analysis of the least squares matrix of a node with good and a bad
connectivity[4, 5], it is observed that the rank deficiency of the LS matrix of the node with bad connectivity
is overcome to a good extent, thus enabling the method to work effectively on a bad point distribution
thereby enhancing the robustness of the meshfree method. Second order accuracy in case of least squares
formulae is obatined by the defect correction method [6]. To derive second order accurate weighted


least squares formulae for the derivatives, the Taylor series in Eq.(1) is truncated to O x3 , y 3 . On
minimizing the modified weighted sum of the squares of error at Po wrt Fx o and Fy o , we get the second
order accurate weighted least squares formula for the derivatives
  P P gi P wi xi y i P wi y i F
gi
F wi y i 2 wi xi F
= P P P 2 (5)
x o wi xi 2 wi yi 2 ( wi xi y i )

where
gi = F i xi Fxi y i Fy
F (6)
2 2 i

If the weights in Eq.(5) are chosen as in [2], the second order weighted LS 2-D formulae for the derivative
reduces to the second order 1-D formulae given by
P gi P gi
wi xi F w i y F
Fxo = P , Fy o = P i 2 (7)
wi xi 2 w i yi

It is important to note that the 1-D formulae in Eq.(7) are having the modified F gi given by Eq.(6).
The weights in each of the formulae for Fxo and Fy o are different, depending upon the split stencils used
to calculate weights in each formula.

3 Automatic Point Generation

Till now, the point distribution and the connectivity information required by a meshfree solver have
to be generated by the user. The cloud of points is generally generated using a grid generator. Thus
the generation of a good cloud of points solely depends upon the skill of the user. This also defeats
the very purpose for which the meshfree methods have been developed. Generation of a good cloud of
points for a complex domain though is extremely easy as compared to the grid generation for the same
domain but becomes extremely difficult as the complexity of the domain increases because of the various
constraints to be met [8]. In order to overcome this, a new technique has been implemented where
in the entire onus of developing the point distribution and the corresponding connectivity information
has been passed on to the solver. The solver itself generates the appropriate cloud of points and the
corresponding connectivity information. The sole responsibility of the user now is to provide the domain
with appropriate boundary flags for the implementation of the boundary conditions by the solver. This
further enhances the robustness of the meshfree methods as the corresponding point distribution and the
connectivity information are being generated by the solver itself.
The advancing front technique [9] has been used for automatically generating the points in the com-
putational domain. However, no background mesh has been used in generating and locating the new
points in the computational domain. The points are generated based on the properties of the triangles.
An important advantage of generating points in this manner is the ease of simultaneous generation of the
connectivity information of the new nodes, based on the edge based data structure of the triangulated
nodes in the domain. An element in the advancing front is made up of three points A, B and C as shown
in the figures 2,3 and 4 with an angle at the point B in the front. Based on this angle , the advancing
front can be distinctly divided into three classes:

The first class of the advancing front is that in which the angle is an acute angle as shown in Fig.2.
This class of the advancing front is used for reducing the number of points in the front, eventually
leading to the closure of the point generation process. The closure is obtained by removing the
point B and elements AB and BC from the front and adding the new element AC. The point
generation process automatically stops when only three points are left in the advancing front.

The second class of the advancing front is that in which the angle is an obtuse angle less than 180o
as shown in the Fig.3. In the present case, the limiting value of the angle in the class II Advancing
Front has been selected as 150o . This type of front is treated by replacing the point B and the
elements AB and BC in the front with the point D and the elements AD and DC respectively as
shown in the Fig.3. The new point D can be located in a large number of ways. One way is to
locate the point D on the internal bisector of the angle such that an isosceles triangle is formed
having one of its sides as the shorter of the two sides of the advancing front. Treatment of this class
of front results in the addition of a new point and two triangles in the computational domain. It
will be shortly shown that the number of the points generated in the computational domain can be
controlled by the location of the new point D generated in the domain.

The third class of the advancing front is that in which the angle is greater than the limiting value
of the angle in the second class of the advancing front as shown in the Fig.4. This type of front is
treated by adding a new point D in the computational domain such that an equilateral triangle is
formed having a side equal to the shorter length of the element in the advancing front. Treatment
of this class of front results in the addition of a new point and a triangle in the computational
domain and a net increase of an element in the advancing front. The coordinates of the new point
D added in the computational domain are determined as the point of intersection of the two circles
each having a radius of the shorter length of the element with the centre located at the two points
of the element in the front as shown in the Fig.4.

This technique has been used to generate the points in the various domains. Fig.5 shows the points
 D

C
D
A
C
B A

C

B B A

Figure 2: Class I Advancing front Figure 3: Class II Advancing front Figure 4: Class III Advancing front

generated in the L shaped domain while Fig.6 shows the points generated in the rectangular domain
using this technique. This technique can also be used to generate the points in the domain by dividing the

14 16

12 14

12
10

10
8

8
6

6
4

4
2

2
0

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Figure 5: Points generated in L shaped domain Figure 6: Points generated in a rectangular domain

subdomain into a large number of small subdomains and generating the points in each of the individual
subdomain as shown in the Figs.7 and 8. This technique is extremely helpful in generating points in a
domain with a complex body such as a multi-element aerofoil. Fig.9 shows the method of controlling
the number of points generated in the domain by varying the location of the new point generated in the
computational domain as explained earlier.

4 Results and Discussion

The embedded suite comprising of the meshfree solver and the point generator has been validated
by solving the standard test cases of shock reflection problem, subsonic flow past NACA 0012 aerofoil
(M ach = 0.63, = 1.0o ), weak transonic flow past NACA 0012 aerofoil (M ach = 0.80, = 1.25o) and
transonic flow past RAE aerofoil (M ach = 0.729, = 2.31o). The computational domain given as an input
for the shock reflection problem to the suite is shown in the Fig.10. The appropriate boundaries in the
computational domain have been flagged as wall, inlet, outlet and far-field. The points generated in the
computational domain of the shock reflection problem by the suite are shown in Fig.11.The corresponding
pressure field obtained as a result from the suite is shown in the Fig.12. It is observed that the shock and
 18 16

16
14

14
12
12

10
10

8 8

6
6

4
4
2

2
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Figure 7: Division of a domain into sub-domains for
point geneartion Figure 8: Points generated in the sub-domains

16 16

14 14

12 12

10 10

8 8

6 6

4 4

2 2

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Figure 9: Control of Points generated in the domain

 0.8
INPUT DATA TO THE SOLVER
2

0.7

1.5

0.6

0.5
0.5

0.4
0

0.3
-0.5

0.2
-1 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
-1 0 1 2 3 4

Figure 10: Computational Do- Figure 11: Points generated

main for the shock reflection in the computational domain
test case given as an input to of shock reflection test case Figure 12: Pressure Contours
the suite (zoomed view) for the shock reflection test case

its reflection have been accurately captured by the embedded technique, thereby validating the suite.
The computational domains given as an input for the flow past NACA 0012 and RAE aerofoils are
shown in the Figs.13 and 14. Only the points on the surface of the NACA 0012 and RAE aerofoils,
marked as wall points have been given as an input to the suite. The points generated around the NACA

NACA Aerofoil RAE Aerofoil

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0

-0.2 -0.2

-0.4 -0.4

-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Figure 13: Points on the NACA 0012 Aerofoil Figure 14: Points on the RAE Aerofoil

0012 aerofoil shown in the Fig.13 and the RAE aerofoil shown in the Fig.14 by the suite are shown in
the Figs. 15 and 16 respectively. Figs.17 and 18 show the results obtained after running the suite on
the computational domain for the subsonic flow test case of Mach 0.63 and = 2.0o past NACA 0012
aerofoil. It is observed that the suction peak is accurately captured by the suite and the smooth pressure
contours are obtained over the NACA 0012 aerofoil. Figs.19 and 20 show the results obtained after
running the suite on the computational domain for the weak transonic flow test case of Mach 0.8 and
= 1.25o past NACA 0012 aerofoil. It is observed that the strong shock is accurately captured by the
suite on the upper surface of the NACA 0012 aerofoil. Table 1 shows the comparison of the CL and CD
values predicted by the suite with those reported in the AGARD/GAMM workshops. It is observed that
the values predicted by the suite lie with in the range reported in the AGARD/GAMM workshops.
Figs.21 and 22 show the results obtained after running the suite on the computational domain for the
 0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0

-0.2 -0.2

-0.4 -0.4

-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4

Figure 15: Points generated in the computational Figure 16: Points generated in the computational
domain of NACA 0012 Aerofoil domain of RAE Aerofoil

1.5
AEROFOIL
Cp : Point Generation

0.5
-Cp

-0.5

-1

-1.5
-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
X/C

Figure 17: Cp Distribution over NACA 0012 Aerofoil Figure 18: Pressure Contours over NACA 0012 Aero-
for Subsonic flow test case foil for Subsonic flow test case

Flow Conditions CL /CD Values obtained using the suite AGARD/GAMM

M = 0.63 CL 0.3241 0.329-0.336
= 2.0o CD 0.0068 0.003-0.0007
M = 0.80 CL 0.3511 0.3632
= 1.25o CD 0.0272 0.0187-0.02698

Table 1: Comparison of lift and drag coefficients

 1.5
AEROFOIL
Cp : Point Generation

0.5
-Cp

-0.5

-1

-1.5
-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
X/C

Figure 19: Cp Distribution over NACA 0012 Aerofoil Figure 20: Pressure Contours over NACA 0012 Aero-
for Weak Transonic flow test case foil for Weak Transonic flow test case

transonic flow test case of Mach 0.729 and = 2.31o past RAE aerofoil shown in the Fig.14. It is observed
that a fairly good match has been obtained between Cp distribution over the RAE aerofoil obtained by
the suite and the experiments. The shock too is accurately captured on the upper surface of the RAE
aerofoil, thus validating the suite.

1.5
AEROFOIL
Cp : Point Generation
Experimental Values

0.5
-Cp

-0.5

-1

-1.5
-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
X/C

Figure 21: Cp Distribution over RAE Aerofoil for Figure 22: Pressure Contours over RAE Aerofoil for
Transonic flow test case Transonic flow test case

5 Conclusion
The new technique of embedded point generation along with the meshfree sover has been successfully
developed and validated for shock reflection problem and transonic/subsonic flow past NACA 0012 and
RAE aerofoils. This technique holds a lot of promise for the future. Besides fully avoiding the use
of a mesh generator it is expected to further enhance the robustness of the mesh free solver as the
critical parameters affecting the robustness of a meshfree solver (viz. point distribution and connectivity
generation) are taken care of by the solver itself. It also completely eliminates the preprocessing time
required by the user in point and connectivity generation. Thus it can be used as a handy design tool by
the designer as it enables to get initial results and choose an initial configuration from various candidate
configurations without any user intervention required to generate point distribution. This technique
can also be of immense help in efficient parallelization of the meshfree solvers as it will enable efficient
partitioning of the computational domain and the nodes can be generated in the desired regions of the
partitions to enable efficient communication between the various partitions.This technique can help in
fully automating the optimizing procedure as it completely eliminates the user intervention required in
the point generation around a new configuration. However, this technique needs to be further tested on
complex configurations in 2D like multi-element aerofoils and cascades before extending it to 3D for use
in practical configurations.

References
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to Multibody Configurations, PhD. Thesis, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute
of Science, Bangalore, India.

[2] Arora, Konark, Rajan, N.K.S. and Deshpande, S.M. (2005), Weighted Least Squares Kinetic Upwind
Method (WLSKUM) using Eigenvector Basis, presented at 8th Annual Aesi CFD Symposium, 11th -
13th August,2005, Bangalore.

[3] Arora, Konark (2006) Weighted Least Squares Kinetic Upwind Method using Eigendirections
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Bangalore, India.

[4] Arora, Konark, Rajan, N.K.S. and Deshpande, S.M. (2007), On the Order of Accuracy of Gridfree
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26-29, 2007, Bangalore, India.

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[9] R. Lohner and P. Parikh (1988) Generation of Three-Dimensional Unstructured Grids by the Ad-
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