A solution adaptive simulation of compressible multi‐fluid flows with general equation of state

The unstructured quadrilateral mesh‐based solution adaptive method is proposed in this article for simulation of compressible multi‐fluid flows with a general form of equation of state (EOS). The five equation model (J. Comput. Phys. 2002; 118 :577–616) is employed to describe the compressible multi‐fluid flows. To preserve the oscillation‐free property of velocity and pressure across the interface, the non‐conservative transport equation is discretized in a compatible way of the HLLC scheme for the conservative Euler equations on the unstructured quadrilateral cell‐based adaptive mesh. Five numerical examples, including an interface translation problem, a shock tube problem with two fluids, a solid impact problem, a two‐dimensional Riemann problem and a bubble explosion under free surface, are used to examine its performance in solving the various compressible multi‐fluid flow problems with either the same types of EOS or different types of EOS. The results are compared with those calculated by the following methods: the method with ROE scheme (J. Comput. Phys. 2002; 118 :577–616), the seven equation model (J. Comput. Phys. 1999; 150 :425–467), Shyue's fluid‐mixture model (J. Comput. Phys. 2001; 171 :678–707) or the method in Liu et al. (Comp. Fluids 2001; 30 :315–337). The comparisons for the test problems show that the proposed method seems to be more accurate than the method in Allaire et al. (J. Comput. Phys. 2002; 118 :577–616) or the seven‐equation model (J. Comput. Phys. 1999; 150 :425–467). They also show that it can adaptively and accurately solve these compressible multi‐fluid problems and preserve the oscillation‐free property of pressure and velocity across the material interface. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient and accurate algebraic interface capturing method for unstructured grids in 2 and 3 dimensions: The THINC method with quadratic surface representation

We present in this paper an efficient and accurate volume of fluid (VOF) type scheme to compute moving interfaces on unstructured grids with arbitrary quadrilateral mesh elements in 2D and hexahedral elements in 3D. Being an extension of the multi‐dimensional tangent of hyperbola interface capturing (THINC) reconstruction proposed by the authors in Cartesian grid, an algebraic VOF scheme is devised for arbitrary quadrilateral and hexahedral elements. The interface is cell‐wisely approximated by a quadratic surface, which substantially improves the numerical accuracy. The same as the other THINC type schemes, the present method does not require the explicit geometric representation of the interface when computing numerical fluxes and thus is very computationally efficient and straightforward in implementation. The proposed scheme has been verified by benchmark tests, which reveal that this scheme is able to produce high‐quality numerical solutions of moving interfaces in unstructured grids and thus a practical method for interfacial multi‐phase flow simulations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interface‐fitted moving mesh method for axisymmetric two‐phase flow in microchannels

A boundary‐fitted moving mesh scheme is presented for the simulation of two‐phase flow in two‐dimensional and axisymmetric geometries. The incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations are solved using the finite element method, and the mini element is used to satisfy the inf‐sup condition. The interface between the phases is represented explicitly by an interface adapted mesh, thus allowing a sharp transition of the fluid properties. Surface tension is modelled as a volume force and is discretized in a consistent manner, thus allowing to obtain exact equilibrium (up to rounding errors) with the pressure gradient. This is demonstrated for a spherical droplet moving in a constant flow field. The curvature of the interface, required for the surface tension term, is efficiently computed with simple but very accurate geometric formulas. An adaptive moving mesh technique, where smoothing mesh velocities and remeshing are used to preserve the mesh quality, is developed and presented. Mesh refinement strategies, allowing tailoring of the refinement of the computational mesh, are also discussed. Accuracy and robustness of the present method are demonstrated on several validation test cases. The method is developed with the prospect of being applied to microfluidic flows and the simulation of microchannel evaporators used for electronics cooling. Therefore, the simulation results for the flow of a bubble in a microchannel are presented and compared to experimental data.     

Parallel three‐dimensional simulation of the injection molding process

This paper describes the development of a parallel three‐dimensional unstructured non‐isothermal flow solver for the simulation of the injection molding process. The numerical model accounts for multiphase flow in which the melt and air regions are considered to be a continuous incompressible fluid with distinct physical properties. This aspect avoids the complex reconstruction of the interface. A collocated finite volume method is employed, which can switch between first‐ and second‐order accuracy in both space and time. The pressure implicit with splitting of operators algorithm is used to compute the transient flow variables and couple velocity and pressure. The temperature equation is solved using a transport equation with convection and diffusion terms. An upwind differencing scheme is used for the discretization of the convection term to enforce a bounded solution. In order to capture the sharp interface, a bounded compressive high‐resolution scheme is employed. Parallelization of the code is achieved using the PETSc framework and a single program multiple data message passing model. Predicted numerical solutions for several example problems are considered. The first case validates the solution algorithm for moderate Reynolds number flows using a structured mesh. The second case employs an unstructured hybrid mesh showing the capability of the solver to describe highly viscous flows closer to realistic injection molding conditions. The final case presents the non‐isothermal filling of a thick cavity using three mesh sizes and up to 80 processors to assess parallel performance. The proposed algorithm is shown to have good accuracy and scalability. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the usage of NURBS as interface representation in free‐surface flows

When simulating free‐surface flows using the finite element method, there are many cases where the governing equations require information which must be derived from the available discretized geometry. Examples are curvature or normal vectors. The accurate computation of this information directly from the finite element mesh often requires a high degree of refinement—which is not necessarily required to obtain an accurate flow solution. As a remedy and an option to be able to use coarser meshes, the representation of the free surface using non‐uniform rational B‐splines (NURBS) curves or surfaces is investigated in this work. The advantages of a NURBS parameterization in comparison with the standard approach are discussed. In addition, it is explored how the pressure jump resulting from surface tension effects can be handled using doubled interface nodes. Numerical examples include the computation of surface tension in a two‐phase flow as well as the computation of normal vectors as a basis for mesh deformation methods. For these examples, the improvement of the numerical solution compared with the standard approaches on identical meshes is shown. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A hybrid immersed boundary and material point method for simulating 3D fluid–structure interaction problems

A numerical method is developed for solving the 3D, unsteady, incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in curvilinear coordinates containing immersed boundaries (IBs) of arbitrary geometrical complexity moving and deforming under forces acting on the body. Since simulations of flow in complex geometries with deformable surfaces require special treatment, the present approach combines a hybrid immersed boundary method (HIBM) for handling complex moving boundaries and a material point method (MPM) for resolving structural stresses and movement. This combined HIBM & MPM approach is presented as an effective approach for solving fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problems. In the HIBM, a curvilinear grid is defined and the variable values at grid points adjacent to a boundary are forced or interpolated to satisfy the boundary conditions. The MPM is used for solving the equations of solid structure and communicates with the fluid through appropriate interface‐boundary conditions. The governing flow equations are discretized on a non‐staggered grid layout using second‐order accurate finite‐difference formulas. The discrete equations are integrated in time via a second‐order accurate dual time stepping, artificial compressibility scheme. Unstructured, triangular meshes are employed to discretize the complex surface of the IBs. The nodes of the surface mesh constitute a set of Lagrangian control points used for tracking the motion of the flexible body. The equations of the solid body are integrated in time via the MPM. At every instant in time, the influence of the body on the flow is accounted for by applying boundary conditions at stationary curvilinear grid nodes located in the exterior but in the immediate vicinity of the body by reconstructing the solution along the local normal to the body surface. The influence of the fluid on the body is defined through pressure and shear stresses acting on the surface of the body. The HIBM & MPM approach is validated for FSI problems by solving for a falling rigid and flexible sphere in a fluid‐filled channel. The behavior of a capsule in a shear flow was also examined. Agreement with the published results is excellent. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A stabilized Nitsche‐type extended embedding mesh approach for 3D low‐ and high‐Reynolds‐number flows

This paper presents a stabilized extended finite element method (XFEM) based fluid formulation to embed arbitrary fluid patches into a fixed background fluid mesh. The new approach is highly beneficial when it comes to computational grid generation for complex domains, as it allows locally increased resolutions independent from size and structure of the background mesh. Motivating applications for such a domain decomposition technique are complex fluid‐structure interaction problems, where an additional boundary layer mesh is used to accurately capture the flow around the structure. The objective of this work is to provide an accurate and robust XFEM‐based coupling for low‐ as well as high‐Reynolds‐number flows. Our formulation is built from the following essential ingredients: Coupling conditions on the embedded interface are imposed weakly using Nitsche's method supported by extra terms to guarantee mass conservation and to control the convective mass transport across the interface for transient viscous‐dominated and convection‐dominated flows. Residual‐based fluid stabilizations in the interior of the fluid subdomains and accompanying face‐oriented fluid and ghost‐penalty stabilizations in the interface zone stabilize the formulation in the entire fluid domain. A detailed numerical study of our stabilized embedded fluid formulation, including an investigation of variants of Nitsche's method for viscous flows, shows optimal error convergence for viscous‐dominated and convection‐dominated flow problems independent of the interface position. Challenging two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional numerical examples highlight the robustness of our approach in all flow regimes: benchmark computations for laminar flow around a cylinder, a turbulent driven cavity flow at Re = 10000 and the flow interacting with a three‐dimensional flexible wall. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A further work on multi‐phase two‐fluid approach for compressible multi‐phase flows

This paper is to continue our previous work Niu (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2001; 36 :351–371) on solving a two‐fluid model for compressible liquid–gas flows using the AUSMDV scheme. We first propose a pressure–velocity‐based diffusion term originally derived from AUSMDV scheme Wada and Liou (SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 1997; 18 (3):633—657) to enhance its robustness. The scheme can be applied to gas and liquid fluids universally. We then employ the stratified flow model Chang and Liou (J. Comput. Physics 2007; 225 :240–873) for spatial discretization. By defining the fluids in different regions and introducing inter‐phasic force on cell boundary, the stratified flow model allows the conservation laws to be applied on each phase, and therefore, it is able to capture fluid discontinuities, such as the fluid interfaces and shock waves, accurately. Several benchmark tests are studied, including the Ransom's Faucet problem, 1D air–water shock tube problems, 2D shock‐water column and 2D shock‐bubble interaction problems. The results indicate that the incorporation of the new dissipation into AUSM⁺‐up scheme and the stratified flow model is simple, accurate and robust enough for the compressible multi‐phase flows. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A nodal Godunov method for Lagrangian shock hydrodynamics on unstructured tetrahedral grids

We present a nodal Godunov method for Lagrangian shock hydrodynamics. The method is designed to operate on three‐dimensional unstructured grids composed of tetrahedral cells. A node‐centered finite element formulation avoids mesh stiffness, and an approximate Riemann solver in the fluid reference frame ensures a stable, upwind formulation. This choice leads to a non‐zero mass flux between control volumes, even though the mesh moves at the fluid velocity, but eliminates volume errors that arise due to the difference between the fluid velocity and the contact wave speed. A monotone piecewise linear reconstruction of primitive variables is used to compute interface unknowns and recover second‐order accuracy. The scheme has been tested on a variety of standard test problems and exhibits first‐order accuracy on shock problems and second‐order accuracy on smooth flows using meshes of up to O(10⁶) tetrahedra. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Volume preserving immersed boundary methods for two‐phase fluid flows

In this article, we propose a simple area‐preserving correction scheme for two‐phase immiscible incompressible flows with an immersed boundary method (IBM). The IBM was originally developed to model blood flow in the heart and has been widely applied to biofluid dynamics problems with complex geometries and immersed elastic membranes. The main idea of the IBM is to use a regular Eulerian computational grid for the fluid mechanics along with a Lagrangian representation of the immersed boundary. Using the discrete Dirac delta function and the indicator function, we can include the surface tension force, variable viscosity and mass density, and gravitational force effects. The principal advantage of the IBM for two‐phase fluid flows is its inherent accuracy due in part to its ability to use a large number of interfacial marker points on the interface. However, because the interface between two fluids is moved in a discrete manner, this can result in a lack of volume conservation. The idea of an area preserving correction scheme is to correct the interface location normally to the interface so that the area remains constant. Various numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed conservative IBM for two‐phase fluid flows. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shape morphing and topology optimization of fluid channels by explicit boundary tracking

An integrated shape morphing and topology optimization approach based on the deformable simplicial complex methodology is developed to address Stokes and Navier‐Stokes flow problems. The optimized geometry is interpreted by a set of piecewise linear curves embedded in a well‐formed triangular mesh, resulting in a physically well‐defined interface between fluid and impermeable regions. The shape evolution is realized by deforming the curves while maintaining a high‐quality mesh through adaption of the mesh near the structural boundary, rather than performing global remeshing. Topological changes are allowed through hole merging or splitting of islands. The finite element discretization used provides smooth and stable optimized boundaries for simple energy dissipation objectives. However, for more advanced problems, boundary oscillations are observed due to conflicts between the objective function and the minimum length scale imposed by the meshing algorithm. A surface regularization scheme is introduced to circumvent this issue, which is specifically tailored for the deformable simplicial complex approach. In contrast to other filter‐based regularization techniques, the scheme does not introduce additional control variables, and at the same time, it is based on a rigorous sensitivity analysis. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the applicability of the approach.     

Improved MPS method with variable‐size particles

Using variable‐size particles in the moving particle semi‐implicit method (MPS) could lead to inaccurate predictions and/or numerical instability. In this paper, a variable‐size particle moving particle semi‐implicit method (VSP‐MPS) scheme is proposed for the MPS method to achieve more reliable simulations with variable‐size particles. To improve stability and accuracy, a new gradient model is developed based on a previously developed MPS scheme that requires no surface detection MPS. The dynamic particle coalescing and splitting algorithm is revised to achieve dynamic multi‐resolution. A cubic spline function with additional function is employed as the kernel function. The effectiveness of the VSP‐MPS method is demonstrated by three verification examples, that is, a hydrostatic pressure problem, a complicated free surface flow problem with large deformation, and a dynamic impact problem. The new VSP‐MPS scheme with variable‐size particles is found to have balanced efficiency and accuracy that is suitable for simulating large systems with complex flow patterns. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi‐size‐mesh multi‐time‐step algorithm for noise computation on curvilinear meshes

Aeroacoustic problems are often multi‐scale and a zonal refinement technique is thus desirable to reduce computational effort while preserving low dissipation and low dispersion errors from the numerical scheme. For that purpose, the multi‐size‐mesh multi‐time‐step algorithm of Tam and Kurbatskii [AIAA Journal, 2000, 38 (8), p. 1331–1339] allows changes by a factor of two between adjacent blocks, accompanied by a doubling in the time step. This local time stepping avoids wasting calculation time, which would result from imposing a unique time step dictated by the smallest grid size for explicit time marching. In the present study, the multi‐size‐mesh multi‐time‐step method is extended to general curvilinear grids by using a suitable coordinate transformation and by performing the necessary interpolations directly in the physical space due to multidimensional interpolations combining order constraints and optimization in the wave number space. A particular attention is paid to the properties of the Adams–Bashforth schemes used for time marching. The optimization of the coefficients by minimizing an error in the wave number space rather than satisfying a formal order is shown to be inefficient for Adams–Bashforth schemes. The accuracy of the extended multi‐size‐mesh multi‐time‐step algorithm is first demonstrated for acoustic propagation on a sinusoidal grid and for a computation of laminar trailing edge noise. In the latter test‐case, the mesh doubling is close to the airfoil and the vortical structures are crossing the doubling interface without affecting the quality of the radiated field. The applicability of the algorithm in three dimensions is eventually demonstrated by computing tonal noise from a moderate Reynolds number flow over an airfoil. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An adaptive numerical scheme for solving incompressible 2‐phase and free‐surface flows

In this paper, we present a numerical scheme for solving 2‐phase or free‐surface flows. Here, the interface/free surface is modeled using the level‐set formulation, and the underlying mesh is adapted at each iteration of the flow solver. This adaptation allows us to obtain a precise approximation for the interface/free‐surface location. In addition, it enables us to solve the time‐discretized fluid equation only in the fluid domain in the case of free‐surface problems. Fluids here are considered incompressible. Therefore, their motion is described by the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equation, which is temporally discretized using the method of characteristics and is solved at each time iteration by a first‐order Lagrange‐Galerkin method. The level‐set function representing the interface/free surface satisfies an advection equation that is also solved using the method of characteristics. The algorithm is completed by some intermediate steps like the construction of a convenient initial level‐set function (redistancing) as well as the construction of a convenient flow for the level‐set advection equation. Numerical results are presented for both bifluid and free‐surface problems.     

Development of a hybrid particle‐mesh method for two‐phase flow simulations

A hybrid particle‐mesh method was developed for efficient and accurate simulations of two‐phase flows. In this method, the main component of the flow is solved using the constrained interpolated profile/multi‐moment finite volumemethod; the two‐phase interface is rendered using the finite volume particle (FVP) method. The effect of surface tension is evaluated using the continuum surface force model. Numerical particles in the FVP method are distributed only on the surface of the liquid in simulating the interface between liquid and gas; these particles are used to determine the density of each mesh grid. An artificial term was also introduced to mitigate particle clustering in the direction of maximum compression and sparse discretization errors in the stretched direction. This enables accurate interface tracking without diminishing numerical efficiency. Two benchmark simulations are used to demonstrate the validity of the method developed and its numerical stability. Copyright © 2016 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.     

An extended finite element method for the simulation of particulate viscoelastic flows

We present an extended finite element method (XFEM) for the direct numerical simulation of the flow of viscoelastic fluids with suspended particles. For moving particle problems, we devise a temporary arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) scheme which defines the mapping of field variables at previous time levels onto the computational mesh at the current time level. In this method, a regular mesh is used for the whole computational domain including both fluid and particles. A temporary ALE mesh is constructed separately and the computational mesh is kept unchanged throughout the whole computations. Particles are moving on a fixed Eulerian mesh without any need of re-meshing. For mesh refinements around the interface, we combine XFEM with the grid deformation method, in which nodal points are redistributed close to the interface while preserving the mesh topology. Our method is verified by comparing with the results of boundary fitted mesh problems combined with the conventional ALE scheme. The proposed method shows similar accuracy compared with boundary fitted mesh problems and superior accuracy compared with the fictitious domain method. If the grid deformation method is combined with XFEM, the required computational time is reduced significantly compared to uniform mesh refinements, while providing mesh convergent solutions. We apply the proposed method to the particle migration in rotating Couette flow of a Giesekus fluid. We investigate the effect of initial particle positions, the Weissenberg number, the mobility parameter of the Giesekus model and the particle size on the particle migration. We also show two-particle interactions in confined shear flow of a viscoelastic fluid. We find three different regimes of particle motions according to initial separations of particles.     

Cahn–Hilliard modeling of particles suspended in two‐phase flows

In this paper, we present a model for the dynamics of particles suspended in two‐phase flows by coupling the Cahn–Hilliard theory with the extended finite element method (XFEM). In the Cahn–Hilliard model the interface is considered to have a small but finite thickness, which circumvents explicit tracking of the interface. For the direct numerical simulation of particle‐suspended flows, we incorporate an XFEM, in which the particle domain is decoupled from the fluid domain. To cope with the movement of the particles, a temporary ALE scheme is used for the mapping of field variables at the previous time levels onto the computational mesh at the current time level. By combining the Cahn–Hilliard model with the XFEM, the particle motion at an interface can be simulated on a fixed Eulerian mesh without any need of re‐meshing. The model is general, but to demonstrate and validate the technique, here the dynamics of a single particle at a fluid–fluid interface is studied. First, we apply a small disturbance on a particle resting at an interface between two fluids, and investigate the particle movement towards its equilibrium position. In particular, we are interested in the effect of interfacial thickness, surface tension, particle size and viscosity ratio of two fluids on the particle movement towards its equilibrium position. Finally, we show the movement of a particle passing through multiple layers of fluids. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An adaptive Lagrangian boundary element approach for three‐dimensional transient free‐surface Stokes flow as applied to extrusion,thermoforming, and rheometry

An adaptive (Lagrangian) boundary element approach is proposed for the general three‐dimensional simulation of confined free‐surface Stokes flow. The method is stable as it includes remeshing capabilities of the deforming free surface and thus can handle large deformations. A simple algorithm is developed for mesh refinement of the deforming free‐surface mesh. Smooth transition between large and small elements is achieved without significant degradation of the aspect ratio of the elements in the mesh. Several flow problems are presented to illustrate the utility of the approach, particularly as encountered in polymer processing and rheology. These problems illustrate the transient nature of the flow during the processes of extrusion and thermoforming, the elongation of a fluid sample in an extensional rheometer, and the coating of a sphere. Surface tension effects are also explored. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite‐volume multi‐stage schemes for shallow‐water flow simulations

A finite‐volume multi‐stage (FMUSTA) scheme is proposed for simulating the free‐surface shallow‐water flows with the hydraulic shocks. On the basis of the multi‐stage (MUSTA) method, the original Riemann problem is transformed to an independent MUSTA mesh. The local Lax–Friedrichs scheme is then adopted for solving the solution of the Riemann problem at the cell interface on the MUSTA mesh. The resulting first‐order monotonic FMUSTA scheme, which does not require the use of the eigenstructure and the special treatment of entropy fixes, has the generality as well as simplicity. In order to achieve the high‐resolution property, the monotonic upstream schemes for conservation laws (MUSCL) method are used. For modeling shallow‐water flows with source terms, the surface gradient method (SGM) is adopted. The proposed schemes are verified using the simulations of six shallow‐water problems, including the 1D idealized dam breaking, the steady transcritical flow over a hump, the 2D oblique hydraulic jump, the circular dam breaking and two dam‐break experiments. The simulated results by the proposed schemes are in satisfactory agreement with the exact solutions and experimental data. It is demonstrated that the proposed FMUSTA schemes have superior overall numerical accuracy among the schemes tested such as the commonly adopted Roe and HLL schemes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.