Vortex method with meshless spatial adaption for accurate simulation of viscous, unsteady vortical flows

A vortex method has been developed where spatial adaption of the Lagrangian vortex particles is provided by the technique of radial basis function interpolation. In this way, the meshless formulation of the vortex method is preserved throughout. Viscous effects are provided by the core spreading method, where core size control is accomplished in the spatial adaption, thus ensuring convergence. Numerical experiments demonstrate considerable increase in accuracy, in comparison with standard remeshing schemes used with vortex methods. Proof-of-concept is achieved successfully on a problem of quasi-steady tripole vortex flow, and parallel implementation of the method has permitted high-accuracy computations of vortex interactions at high Reynolds number.