Preconditioned characteristic boundary conditions for solution of the preconditioned Euler equations at low Mach number flows

Preconditioned characteristic boundary conditions (BCs) are implemented at artificial boundaries for the solution of the two- and three-dimensional preconditioned Euler equations at low Mach number flows. The preconditioned compatibility equations and the corresponding characteristic variables (or the Riemann invariants) based on the characteristic forms of preconditioned Euler equations are mathematically derived for three preconditioners proposed by Eriksson, Choi and Merkle, and Turkel. A cell-centered finite volume Roe’s method is used for the discretization of the preconditioned system of equations on unstructured meshes. The accuracy and performance of the preconditioned characteristic BCs applied at artificial boundaries are evaluated in comparison with the non-preconditioned characteristic BCs and the simplified BCs in computing steady low Mach number flows. The two-dimensional flow over the NACA0012 airfoil and three-dimensional flow over the hemispherical headform are computed and the results are obtained for different conditions and compared with the available numerical and experimental data. The sensitivity of the solution to the size of computational domain and the variation of the angle of attack for each type of BCs is also examined. Indications are that the preconditioned characteristic BCs implemented in the preconditioned system of Euler equations greatly enhance the convergence rate of the solution of low Mach number flows compared to the other two types of BCs.