Mesh Type and Number for the CFD Simulations of Air Distribution in an Aircraft Cabin

This investigation evaluated the impact of three mesh types (hexahedral, tetrahedral, and hybrid cells) and five grid numbers (3, 6, 12, 24, and >38 million cells) on the accuracy and computing costs of air distribution simulations in a first-class cabin. This study performed numerical error analysis and compared the computed distributions of airflow and temperature. The study found that hexahedral meshes were the most accurate, but the computing costs were also the highest. Twelve-million-cell hexahedral meshes would produce acceptable numerical results for the first-class cabin. Different mesh types would require different grid numbers in order to generate accurate results.