A novel multi-fidelity coupled simulation method for flow systems

For the numerical simulation of flow systems with various complex components, the traditional one-dimensional (1D) network method has its comparative advantage in time consuming and the CFD method has its absolute advantage in the detailed flow capturing. The proper coupling of the advantages of different dimensional methods can strike balance well between time cost and accuracy and then significantly decrease the whole design cycle for the flow systems in modern machines. A novel multi-fidelity coupled simulation method with numerical zooming is developed for flow systems. This method focuses on the integration of one-, two- and three-dimensional codes for various components. Coupled iterative process for the different dimensional simulation cycles of sub-systems is performed until the concerned flow variables of the whole system achieve convergence. Numerical zooming is employed to update boundary data of components with different dimensionalities. Based on this method, a highly automatic, multi-discipline computing environment with integrated zooming is developed. The numerical results of Y-Junction and the air system of a jet engine are presented to verify the solution method. They indicate that this type of multi-fidelity simulation method can greatly improve the prediction capability for the flow systems.