Keats, William Andrew2006-08-222006-08-2220042004http://hdl.handle.net/10012/948Simulating transient compressible flows involving shock waves presents challenges to the CFD practitioner in terms of the mesh quality required to resolve discontinuities and prevent smearing. This document discusses a novel two-dimensional Cartesian anisotropic mesh adaptation technique implemented for transient compressible flow. This technique, originally developed for laminar incompressible flow, is efficient because it refines and coarsens cells using criteria that consider the solution in each of the cardinal directions separately. In this document the method will be applied to compressible flow. The procedure shows promise in its ability to deliver good quality solutions while achieving computational savings. Transient shock wave diffraction over a backward step and shock reflection over a forward step are considered as test cases because they demonstrate that the quality of the solution can be maintained as the mesh is refined and coarsened in time. The data structure is explained in relation to the computational mesh, and the object-oriented design and implementation of the code is presented. Refinement and coarsening algorithms are outlined. Computational savings over uniform and isotropic mesh approaches are shown to be significant.application/pdf5094224 bytesapplication/pdfenCopyright: 2004, Keats, William A.. All rights reserved.Mechanical Engineeringcompressible flowshock wavesmesh adaptationCartesianeuler equationsrefinement criterionMaster Thesis