Turbulent flow simulation near fixed drone propeller using immersed boundary method

Current paper investigates the possibility of modeling the flow near the drone propeller on a simply connected mesh using the immersed boundary method and calculating its aerodynamic characteristics. An important part of the technique is the moving mesh adaptation to the surface of a streamlined body that retains its topology. The position and shape of the body are given by an interpolation grid, which stores the function of the distance to the body surface, as well as a number of geometry parameters. The method described in this paper is usually used to simulate flow near moving bodies, but here a stationary formulation is considered to assess the possibilities of using the proposed method for modeling flow near bodies of complex shapes where there are areas of high curvature and thin edges. For the proposed formulation of the problem, the results of the calculation carried out by the classical method on a body-fitted mesh and the results of modeling obtained using the method of immersed boundaries on a simply connected mesh are presented. The paper compares the results of these approaches, evaluates the possibility of using the immersed boundary method in combination with mesh adaptation to simulate the flow around bodies of complex shapes, and identifies the weaknesses of the proposed approach.