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University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Linear elastic mesh deformation via localized orthotropic material properties optimized by the adjoint method

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The finite element method has been shown to be a powerful tool in computational engineering with recent application to electromagnetics and fluid dynamics. However, achieving the high orders of accuracy easily available to the finite element method has proven difficult due to conforming higher-order meshes to curved geometries. If higher-order nodes are not placed on the surface of the geometry error is introduced into the simulated solution. This barrier is largely a non-issue for inviscid meshes where a mid-edge node can be projected onto the nearest geometry surface with minimal detrimental side effects. Viscous meshes however have to deform most of the boundary layers in order to avoid inverting the surface elements and to maintain an acceptable mesh quality. This research focuses on extending the application of the linear elastic analogy to this mesh movement problem by attributing orthotropic material properties individually to each node or element. This technique allows each node or element to behave differently under the stress of conforming to the boundary. These localized material properties are determined using the adjoint optimization method. To better determine mesh quality, a new mesh metric called Metric3 is introduced. This new metric resembles the included angle metric and is based on an element’s isoparametric transformation matrix.

Degree

thesis:*
Grantor dc:publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Shoemake, William L.
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Hilbert, C. Bruce
  • Sreenivas, Kidambi; Matthews, Matt; Newman, James C., III
  • College of Engineering and Computer Science

Subjects

dc:subject × 2

Rights

dc:rights
Language dc:language
English, eng

Identifiers

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Repository record dc:identifier
https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/534
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1686

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Tennessee - Chattanooga
Base URL
scholar.utc.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Shoemake, William L.. Linear elastic mesh deformation via localized orthotropic material properties optimized by the adjoint method. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/534