Compressive advection and multi‐component methods for interface‐capturing

This paper develops methods for interface‐capturing in multiphase flows. The main novelties of these methods are as follows: (a) multi‐component modelling that embeds interface structures into the continuity equation; (b) a new family of triangle/tetrahedron finite elements, in particular, the P₁DG‐P₂(linear discontinuous between elements velocity and quadratic continuous pressure); (c) an interface‐capturing scheme based on compressive control volume advection methods and high‐order finite element interpolation methods; (d) a time stepping method that allows use of relatively large time step sizes; and (e) application of anisotropic mesh adaptivity to focus the numerical resolution around the interfaces and other areas of important dynamics. This modelling approach is applied to a series of pure advection problems with interfaces as well as to the simulation of the standard computational fluid dynamics benchmark test cases of a collapsing water column under gravitational forces (in two and three dimensions) and sloshing water in a tank. Two more test cases are undertaken in order to demonstrate the many‐material and compressibility modelling capabilities of the approach. Numerical simulations are performed on coarse unstructured meshes to demonstrate the potential of the methods described here to capture complex dynamics in multiphase flows. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High-order curvilinear mesh generation technique based on an improved radius basic function approach

A high-order curvilinear hybrid mesh generation technique is developed for high-order numerical method (eg, discontinuous Galerkin method) applications to improve the accuracy for problems with curve boundary. The grid generation technique is based on an improved radius basic function (RBF) approach by which the straight-edge mesh is converted into high-order curve mesh. Firstly, an initial straight-edge mesh is prepared by traditional grid generation software. Then, high-order interpolation points are inserted into the mesh entities such as edges, faces, and cells according to the final demand of mesh order. To preserve the original geometry, the inserted points on solid wall are then projected onto the CAD model using an open source tool “Open Cascade.” Finally, other inserted points in the field near the solid wall are moved to appropriate positions by the improved RBF approach to avoid tangled cells. If we use the original RBF approach, then the inserted points on the edge and face entities normal to the solid boundary in the region of boundary layer will move to improper positions. To overcome this problem, a weighting based on the local grid aspect ratio between normal direction and tangential direction is introduced into the baseline RBF approach. Three typical configurations are tested to validate the mesh generator. Meanwhile, a third-order solution of subsonic flow over an analytical 3D body of revolution in the second International Workshop on High-Order CFD Methods is supplied by a discontinuous Galerkin solver. These numerical tests demonstrate the potential capability of present technique for high-order simulations of complex geometries.     

A technique of flux reconstruction at the interfaces of nonconforming grids for aeroacoustic simulations

A flux reconstruction technique is presented to perform aeroacoustic computations using implicit high-order spatial schemes on multiblock structured grids with nonconforming interfaces. The use of such grids, with mesh spacing discontinuities across the block interfaces, eases local mesh refinements, simplifies the mesh generation process, and thus facilitates the computation of turbulent flows. In this work, the spatial discretization consists of sixth-order finite-volume implicit schemes with low-dispersion and low-dissipation properties. The flux reconstruction is based on the combination of noncentered schemes with local interpolations to define ghost cells and compute flux values at the grid interfaces. The flow variables in the ghost cells are calculated from the flow field in the grid cells using a meshless interpolation with radial basis functions. In this study, the flux reconstruction is applied to both plane and curved nonconforming interfaces. The performance of the method is first evaluated by performing two-dimensional simulations of the propagation of an acoustic pulse and of the convection of a vortex on Cartesian and wavy grids. No significant spurious noise is produced at the grid interfaces. The applicability of the flux reconstruction to a three-dimensional computation is then demonstrated by simulating a jet at a Mach number of 0.9 and a diameter-based Reynolds number of 4×10⁵ on a Cartesian grid. The nonconforming grid interface located downstream of the jet potential core does not appreciably affect the flow development and the jet sound field, while reducing the number of mesh points by a factor of approximately two.     

A local mesh refinement approach for large‐eddy simulations of turbulent flows

In this paper, a local mesh refinement (LMR) scheme on Cartesian grids for large‐eddy simulations is presented. The approach improves the calculation of ghost cell pressures and velocities and combines LMR with high‐order interpolation schemes at the LMR interface and throughout the rest of the computational domain to ensure smooth and accurate transition of variables between grids of different resolution. The approach is validated for turbulent channel flow and flow over a matrix of wall‐mounted cubes for which reliable numerical and experimental data are available. Comparisons of predicted first‐order and second‐order turbulence statistics with the validation data demonstrated a convincing agreement. Importantly, it is shown that mean streamwise velocities and fluctuating turbulence quantities transition smoothly across coarse‐to‐fine and fine‐to‐coarse interfaces. © 2016 The Authors International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

An immersed boundary solver for inviscid compressible flows

In this paper, a simple and efficient immersed boundary (IB) method is developed for the numerical simulation of inviscid compressible Euler equations. We propose a method based on coordinate transformation to calculate the unknowns of ghost points. In the present study, the body‐grid intercept points are used to build a complete bilinear (2‐D)/trilinear (3‐D) interpolation. A third‐order weighted essentially nonoscillation scheme with a new reference smoothness indicator is proposed to improve the accuracy at the extrema and discontinuity region. The dynamic blocked structured adaptive mesh is used to enhance the computational efficiency. The parallel computation with loading balance is applied to save the computational cost for 3‐D problems. Numerical tests show that the present method has second‐order overall spatial accuracy. The double Mach reflection test indicates that the present IB method gives almost identical solution as that of the boundary‐fitted method. The accuracy of the solver is further validated by subsonic and transonic flow past NACA2012 airfoil. Finally, the present IB method with adaptive mesh is validated by simulation of transonic flow past 3‐D ONERA M6 Wing. Global agreement with experimental and other numerical results are obtained.     

Coupling methods between finite element–based Boussinesq‐type wave and particle‐based free‐surface flow models

We develop one‐way coupling methods between a Boussinesq‐type wave model based on the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method and a free‐surface flow model based on a mesh‐free particle method to strike a balance between accuracy and computational cost. In our proposed model, computation of the wave model in the global domain is conducted first, and the nonconstant velocity profiles in the vertical direction are reproduced by using its results. Computation of the free‐surface flow is performed in a local domain included within the global domain with interface boundaries that move along the reproduced velocity field in a Lagrangian fashion. To represent the moving interfaces, we used a polygon wall boundary model for mesh‐free particle methods. Verification and validation tests of our proposed model are performed, and results obtained by the model are compared with theoretical values and experimental results to show its accuracy and applicability.     

Evaluation of RBFs for volume data interpolation in CFD

A greedy method for choosing an optimum reduced set of control points is integrated with RBF interpolation and evaluated for the purpose of interpolating large‐volume data sets in CFD. Given a function defined at a set of points, the greedy method selects a small subset of these points that is sufficient to keep the interpolation error at all the remaining points below a chosen bound. This is equivalent to a type of data compression and would have useful storage, post‐processing, and computational applications in CFD. To test the method in terms of both the point selection scheme and the suitability of reduced control point volume interpolation, a trial application of the interpolation to velocity fields in CFD volume meshes is considered. To optimise the point selection process, and attempt to be able to capture multiple length scales, a variable support radius formulation has also been included. Structured and unstructured mesh cases are considered for aerofoils, a wing case and a wing‐body case. For smooth volume functions, the method is shown to work well, producing accurate velocity interpolations using a very small number of the cells in the mesh. For general complex fields including large gradients, the method is still shown to be effective, although large gradients require more interpolation points to be used.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A γ‐DGBGK scheme for compressible multi‐fluids

The paper presents a Discontinuous Galerkin γ‐BGK (γ‐DGBGK) method for compressible multicomponent flow simulations by coupling the discontinuous Galerkin method with a γ‐BGK scheme based on WENO limiters. In this γ‐DGBGK method, the construction of the flux in the DG method is based on the kinetic scheme which not only couples the convective and dissipative terms together, but also includes both discontinuous and continuous terms in the flux formulation at cell interfaces. WENO limiters are used to obtain uniform high‐order accuracy and sharp non‐oscillatory shock transition, and time accuracy obtained by integration for the flux function at the cell interface. Numerical examples in one and two space dimensions are presented to illustrate the robust and accuracy of the present scheme. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

格子玻尔兹曼法多块网格的交界结构优化研究

基于格子玻尔兹曼方法LBM(Lattice Boltzmann Method)对多块网格方法(Multi-Block)的粗细网格交界结构进行了研究,提出了一种新的优化处理方案。解决了原有网格交界结构存在的三个问题,即两套插值运算造成的程序结构复杂的问题,存储前几个时间步的节点流场数据以备插值运算造成内存浪费的问题和基于时间插值结果进行空间插值计算造成插值误差积累的问题。用一次多点二维空间插值的方式,将原方法的空间和时间双插值,简并成一次空间插值。通过对经典的非定常的圆柱绕流算例和定常的标准顶盖方腔驱动流算例的仿真模拟,验证了交界面处质量、动量及应力的连续性以及网格交界面数据过渡的流畅度,最终验证了改进方法的正确性。数值模拟结果表明,改进后多块算法可实现局部网格细化,进一步推动LBM方法在实际工程问题中的应用。     

基于人工神经网络的非结构网格尺度控制方法

网格自动化生成和自适应是制约计算流体力学发展的瓶颈问题之一, 网格生成质量、效率、灵活性、自动化程度和鲁棒性是非结构网格生成的关键问题. 在非结构网格生成中, 网格空间尺度分布控制至关重要, 直接影响网格生成质量、效率和求解精度. 采用传统的背景网格法进行空间尺度分布控制需要在背景网格上求解微分方程得到背景网格上的尺度分布, 再将网格尺度从背景网格插值到真实空间点, 过程十分繁琐且耗时. 本文从效率和自动化角度提出两种网格尺度控制方法, 首先发展了基于径向基函数(RBF)插值的网格尺度控制方法, 通过贪婪算法实现边界参考点序列的精简, 提高了RBF插值的效率. 同时, 还采用人工神经网络进行网格尺度控制, 初步引入相对壁面距离和相对网格尺度作为神经网络输入输出参数, 建立人工神经网络训练模型, 采用商业软件生成二维圆柱和二维翼型非结构三角形网格作为训练样本, 通过训练和学习建立起相对壁面距离和相对网格尺度的神经网络关系. 进一步实现了二维圆柱、不同的二维翼型的尺度预测, RBF方法和神经网络方法的效率与传统背景网格法相比提高了5~10倍, 有助于提高网格生成的效率. 最后, 将方法推广应用于各向异性混合网格尺度预测, 得到的网格质量满足要求.      

Multi‐resolution analysis for high accuracy and efficiency of Euler computation

A multi‐resolution analysis (MRA) is proposed for efficient flow computation with preserving the high‐order numerical accuracy of a conventional solver. In the MRA process, the smoothness of a flow pattern is assessed by the difference between original flow property values, and the values approximated by high‐order interpolating polynomial in decomposition. Insignificant data in smooth region are discarded, and flux computation is performed only where crucial features of a solution exist. The reduction of expensive flow computation improves the overall computational efficiency. In order to maintain the high‐order accuracy, modified thresholding procedure restricts the additional error introduced by the thresholding below the order of accuracy of a conventional solver. The practical applicability of the MRA method is validated in various continuous and discontinuous flow problems. The MRA stably computes the Euler equations for continuous and discontinuous flow problems and maintains the accuracy of a conventional solver. Overall, it substantially enhances the computational efficiency of the conventional third‐order accurate solver. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An hp‐adaptive discontinuous Galerkin method for shallow water flows

An adaptive spectral/hp discontinuous Galerkin method for the two‐dimensional shallow water equations is presented. The model uses an orthogonal modal basis of arbitrary polynomial order p defined on unstructured, possibly non‐conforming, triangular elements for the spatial discretization. Based on a simple error indicator constructed by the solutions of approximation order p and p?1, we allow both for the mesh size, h, and polynomial approximation order to dynamically change during the simulation. For the h‐type refinement, the parent element is subdivided into four similar sibling elements. The time‐stepping is performed using a third‐order Runge–Kutta scheme. The performance of the hp‐adaptivity is illustrated for several test cases. It is found that for the case of smooth flows, p‐adaptivity is more efficient than h‐adaptivity with respect to degrees of freedom and computational time. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simple high‐resolution advection scheme

A simple, robust, mass‐conserving numerical scheme for solving the linear advection equation is described. The scheme can estimate peak solution values accurately even in regions where spatial gradients are high. Such situations present a severe challenge to classical numerical algorithms. Attention is restricted to the case of pure advection in one and two dimensions since this is where past numerical problems have arisen. The authors' scheme is of the Godunov type and is second‐order in space and time. The required cell interface fluxes are obtained by MUSCL interpolation and the exact solution of a degenerate Riemann problem. Second‐order accuracy in time is achieved via a Runge–Kutta predictor–corrector sequence. The scheme is explicit and expressed in finite volume form for ease of implementation on a boundary‐conforming grid. Benchmark test problems in one and two dimensions are used to illustrate the high‐spatial accuracy of the method and its applicability to non‐uniform grids. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advances in viscous vortex methods—meshless spatial adaption based on radial basis function interpolation

Vortex methods have a history as old as finite differences. They have since faced difficulties stemming from the numerical complexity of the Biot–Savart law, the inconvenience of adding viscous effects in a Lagrangian formulation, and the loss of accuracy due to Lagrangian distortion of the computational elements. The first two issues have been successfully addressed, respectively, by the application of the fast multipole method, and by a variety of viscous schemes which will be briefly reviewed in this article. The standard method to deal with the third problem is the use of remeshing schemes consisting of tensor product interpolation with high‐order kernels. In this work, a numerical study of the errors due to remeshing has been performed, as well as of the errors implied in the discretization itself using vortex blobs. In addition, an alternative method of controlling Lagrangian distortion is proposed, based on ideas of radial basis function (RBF) interpolation (briefly reviewed here). This alternative is formulated grid‐free, and is shown to be more accurate than standard remeshing. In addition to high‐accuracy, RBF interpolation allows core size control, either for correcting the core spreading viscous scheme or for providing a variable resolution in the physical domain. This formulation will allow in theory the application of error estimates to produce a truly adaptive spatial refinement technique. Proof‐of‐concept is provided by calculations of the relaxation of a perturbed monopole to a tripole attractor. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An internal penalty discontinuous Galerkin method for simulating conjugate heat transfer in a closed cavity

Using the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method for conjugate heat transfer problems can provide improved accuracy close to the fluid‐solid interface, localizing the data exchange process, which may further enhance the convergence and stability of the entire computation. This paper presents a framework for the simulation of conjugate heat transfer problems using DG methods on unstructured grids. Based on an existing DG solver for the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equation, the fluid advection‐diffusion equation, Boussinesq term, and solid heat equation are introduced using an explicit DG formulation. A Dirichlet‐Neumann partitioning strategy has been implemented to achieve the data exchange process via the numerical flux of interface quadrature points in the fluid‐solid interface. Formal h and p convergence studies employing the method of manufactured solutions demonstrate that the expected order of accuracy is achieved. The algorithm is then further validated against 3 existing benchmark cases, including a thermally driven cavity, conjugate thermally driven cavity, and a thermally driven cavity with conducting solid, at Rayleigh numbers from 1000 to 100 000. The computational effort is documented in detail demonstrating clearly that, for all cases, the highest‐order accurate algorithm has several magnitudes lower error than first‐ or second‐order schemes for a given computational effort.     

An effective approach for modeling fluid flow in heterogeneous media using numerical manifold method

A major challenge of modeling fluid flow in heterogeneous media is to model the material interfaces, which may be arbitrarily oriented or intersected with Dirichlet, Neumann, or other boundaries, making it difficult to mesh and accurately satisfy the boundary constraints. In order to solve these problems, we derived a new continuous approach in the numerical manifold method (NMM). NMM is an ideal method to handle boundaries, considering its flexibility and efficiency with fixed mathematical mesh and its integration precision. With the two‐cover‐meshing system, we construct physical covers containing gradient jump terms defined as extended degrees of freedom to realize the refraction law across material interfaces. In the global equilibrium equations, the jump terms are naturally considered with the energy‐work seepage model. In this approach, high accuracy is expected from the newly constructed jump function together with simplex integration. Moreover, high mesh efficiency is realized by fixed triangular mathematical mesh with algorithms fully considering interfaces intersecting with Dirichlet, Neumann, or other boundaries and simplex integration on elements in arbitrary shapes. The new approach was coded into our NMM fluid flow model. We calculated examples involving fluid flow through a domain including (1) a single interface, (2) an idealized fault represented by multiple material interfaces, (3) intersected interfaces, and (4) an octagonal inclusion. We compared the simulated results to analytical solutions or results with denser mesh to test precision and efficiency and thereby proved that the new approach is accurate, efficient, and flexible, especially when considering intense geometric change or intersections. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical errors of the volume‐of‐fluid interface tracking algorithm

One of the important limitations of the interface tracking algorithms is that they can be used only as long as the local computational grid density allows surface tracking. In a dispersed flow, where the dimensions of the particular fluid parts are comparable or smaller than the grid spacing, several numerical and reconstruction errors become considerable. In this paper the analysis of the interface tracking errors is performed for the volume‐of‐fluid method with the least squares volume of fluid interface reconstruction algorithm. A few simple two‐fluid benchmarks are proposed for the investigation of the interface tracking grid dependence. The expression based on the gradient of the volume fraction variable is introduced for the estimation of the reconstruction correctness and can be used for the activation of an adaptive mesh refinement algorithm. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An unfitted interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method for incompressible Navier–Stokes two‐phase flow

A discontinuous Galerkin method for the solution of the immiscible and incompressible two‐phase flow problem based on the nonsymmetric interior penalty method is presented. Therefore, the incompressible Navier–Stokes equation is solved for a domain decomposed into two subdomains with different values of viscosity and density as well as a singular surface tension force. On the basis of a piecewise linear approximation of the interface, meshes for both phases are cut out of a structured mesh. The discontinuous finite elements are defined on the resulting Cartesian cut‐cell mesh and may therefore approximate the discontinuities of the pressure and the velocity derivatives across the interface with high accuracy. As the mesh resolves the interface, regularization of the density and viscosity jumps across the interface is not required. This preserves the local conservation property of the velocity field even in the vicinity of the interface and constitutes a significant advantage compared with standard methods that require regularization of these discontinuities and cannot represent the jumps and kinks in pressure and velocity. A powerful subtessellation algorithm is incorporated to allow the usage of standard time integrators (such as Crank–Nicholson) on the time‐dependent mesh. The presented discretization is applicable to both the two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional cases. The performance of our approach is demonstrated by application to a two‐dimensional benchmark problem, allowing for a thorough comparison with other numerical methods. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite‐element/level‐set/operator‐splitting (FELSOS) approach for computing two‐fluid unsteady flows with free moving interfaces

The present work is devoted to the study on unsteady flows of two immiscible viscous fluids separated by free moving interface. Our goal is to elaborate a unified strategy for numerical modelling of two‐fluid interfacial flows, having in mind possible interface topology changes (like merger or break‐up) and realistically wide ranges for physical parameters of the problem. The proposed computational approach essentially relies on three basic components: the finite element method for spatial approximation, the operator‐splitting for temporal discretization and the level‐set method for interface representation. We show that the finite element implementation of the level‐set approach brings some additional benefits as compared to the standard, finite difference level‐set realizations. In particular, the use of finite elements permits to localize the interface precisely, without introducing any artificial parameters like the interface thickness; it also allows to maintain the second‐order accuracy of the interface normal, curvature and mass conservation. The operator‐splitting makes it possible to separate all major difficulties of the problem and enables us to implement the equal‐order interpolation for the velocity and pressure. Diverse numerical examples including simulations of bubble dynamics, bifurcating jet flow and Rayleigh–Taylor instability are presented to validate the computational method. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient second‐order accurate cut‐cell method for solving the variable coefficient Poisson equation with jump conditions on irregular domains

A numerical method is presented for solving the variable coefficient Poisson equation on a two‐dimensional domain in the presence of irregular interfaces across which both the variable coefficients and the solution itself may be discontinuous. The approach involves using piecewise cubic splines to represent the irregular interface, and applying this representation to calculate the volume and area of each cut cell. The fluxes across the cut‐cell faces and the interface faces are evaluated using a second‐order accurate scheme. The deferred correction approach is used, resulting in a computational stencil for the discretized Poisson equation on an irregular (complex) domain that is identical to that obtained on a regular (simple) domain. In consequence, a highly efficient multigrid solver based on the additive correction multigrid (ACM) method can be applied to solve the current discretized equation system. Several test cases (for which exact solutions to the variable coefficient Poisson equation with and without jump conditions are known) have been used to evaluate the new methodology for discretization on an irregular domain. The numerical solutions show that the new algorithm is second‐order accurate as claimed, even in the presence of jump conditions across an interface. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.