Dynamic Semi-Structured Meshes for Fast Numerical Simulation of Multi-phase Modelling in the Energy Industry

My project is to model the Navier-Stokes equations (N-S) fast and efficient. To do so, a semi-structured meshes approach will be developed that will inherit the advantages of both structured and unstructured grids. In this project, the semi-structured mesh is created by starting with fully unstructured grids which are coarse enough to capture the complexity of the domain. Then, each unstructured element is split a few times, depending on the required resolution, to create a nested structured mesh inside each unstructured element. In this way, the code can perform the majority of the calculations based on structured elements which make the computation potentially as fast as structured based codes but with the flexibility of unstructured grids schemes. Roughly, this project has the potential of reducing simulation times by a third. This reduction is important in the energy industry and has a wide variety of applications e.g. modelling jet flows, mixing tanks, slug flows, flow in pipes etc.