NURBS-based isogeometric analysis for the computation of flows about rotating components

The ability of non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) to exactly represent circular geometries makes NURBS-based isogeometric analysis attractive for applications involving flows around and/or induced by rotating components (e.g., submarine and surface ship propellers). The advantage over standard finite element discretizations is that rotating components may be introduced into a stationary flow domain without geometric incompatibility. Although geometric compatibility is exactly achieved, the discretization of the flow velocity and pressure remains incompatible at the interface between the stationary and rotating subdomains. This incompatibility is handled by using a weak enforcement of the continuity of solution fields at the interface of the stationary and rotating subdomains.