blockMesh an Airfoil

In this work, blockMesh is adapted to generate 2D mesh for an NACA airfoil (can be 4 or 5 digit). The mesh is divided into 4 blocks as shown in figure below. Different techniques are employed to make the number of blocks as less as possible including mergePatch, Spline and complex edgeGrading.

Complex shape of the airfoil is approximate by Spline. Points 1 and 16 as well as 5 and 17 share the same coordinates. However, as they are defined separate points, block 2 and 4 literally do not share any faces. Therefore, mergePatch is needed to connect these 2 blocks. Boundary layer on the airfoil is ensured by complex edgeGrading so that we dont need to separate boundary layer into a different block.

To make it easy and flexible for those who are new to OpenFoam, a tool is created in Excel/Calc which can help to quickly generate blockMeshDict for different airfoil profiles. What the video for the detail of how to use the tool.