Development and Verification of a Mesh Deformation Scheme For a Three Dimensional Ablative Material Solver

Modeling ablation problems with realistic conditions requires not only high fidelity numerical models of the thermal response of the material, but also accurate and efficient schemes for mesh motion. This study presents the development and verification of a three-dimensional mesh motion scheme for the Kentucky Aerothermodynamics and Thermal-response System solver. In one-dimensional geometries the mesh motion is done via a simple linear contraction algorithm, while in higher dimensional cases, displacement of the nodes is interpolated using the radial basis function approach. Various aspects of the mesh motion scheme in 2D/3D cases are discussed such as the restriction of node motion on interface planes and axis, as well as enforcing node motion to stay strictly within a plane or edge. Performance of the implemented algorithm is presented using the Ablation Workshop test cases. Additionally, two important constraints of mesh motion, such as mass loss error at the surface and the geometric conservation law are explored and discussed.