Application of hybrid grid to analyzing complex iced airfoil aerodynamic performance

A point-to-point structure/unstructured hybrid grid generation method is developed in this paper to avoid the difficulty of generating structure grid on complex iced airfoil, and the corresponding analysis of aerodynamic performance is carried out. An unstructured grid is imposed in the zone near the iced airfoil to fit the complex boundary. A structure grid is imposed in the zone wrapping the unstructured grid to save the storage and computational time. To verify the effect of grid on the use of turbulence model, the Reynolds-averaged N-S equations are solved with implementation of the SST and SA turbulence model in both types of grid. The results of numerical simulation show that the SST turbulence model is more suitable for the complex separated flow and the ice accretion has serious effect on the aerodynamic performance of airfoil.