Efficient Functional-Based Adaptation for CFD Applications

Abstract: Adjoint methods have gained popularity in recent years for driving adaptation procedures which aim to reduce error in solution functionals. While adjoint methods have been proven effective for functional-based adaptation, the practical implementation of an adjoint method can be quite burdensome since code developers constantly need to ensure and maintain a dual consistent discretization as updates are made. Also, since most engineering problems consider multiple functionals, an adjoint solution must be obtained for each functional of interest which can increase the overall computational cost significantly. In this paper, an alternative to adjoints is presented which uses a sparse approximate inverse of the Jacobian of the residual to obtain approximate adjoint sensitivities for functional-based adaptation indicators. Since the approximate inverse need only be computed once, it can be recycled for any number of functionals making the new approach more efficient than a conventional adjoint method. This new method for functional-based adaptation will be tested using the quasi-1D nozzle problem, and results are presented for functionals of integrated pressure and entropy.