Numerical and asymptotic study of non‐axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic boundary layer stagnation‐point flows

Both numerical and asymptotic analyses are performed to study the similarity solutions of three‐dimensional boundary‐layer viscous stagnation point flow in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. The three‐dimensional boundary‐layer is analyzed in a non‐axisymmetric stagnation point flow, in which the flow is developed because of influence of both applied magnetic field and external mainstream flow. Two approaches for the governing equations are employed: the Keller‐box numerical simulations solving full nonlinear coupled system and a corresponding linearized system that is obtained under a far‐field behavior and in the limit of large shear‐to‐strain‐rate parameter (λ). From these two approaches, the flow phenomena reveals a rich structure of new family of solutions for various values of the magnetic number and λ. The various results for the wall stresses and the displacement thicknesses are presented along with some velocity profiles in both directions. The analysis discovered that the flow separation occurs in the secondary flow direction in the absence of magnetic field, and the flow separation disappears when the applied magnetic field is increased. The flow field is divided into a near‐field (due to viscous forces) and far‐field (due to mainstream flows), and the velocity profiles form because of an interaction between two regions. The magnetic field plays an important role in reducing the thickness of the boundary‐layer. A physical explanation for all observed phenomena is discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Well‐posedness of a generalized time‐harmonic transport equation for acoustics in flow

We study a generalized time‐harmonic transport equation, which appears in the Goldstein equations and allows us to model the acoustic radiation in a flow. We investigate the well‐posedness of this transport problem. The result will be established under the assumption of a Ω‐filling flow, which, in 2D, is simply equivalent to a flow that does not vanish. The approach relies on the method of characteristics, which leads to the resolution of the transport equation along the streamlines, and on general results of functional analysis. The theoretical results are illustrated with numerical results obtained with a Streamline Upwind Petrov‐Galerkin finite element scheme.     

A two‐grid stabilization method for solving the steady‐state Navier‐Stokes equations

We formulate a subgrid eddy viscosity method for solving the steady‐state incompressible flow problem. The eddy viscosity does not act on the large flow structures. Optimal error estimates are obtained for velocity and pressure. The numerical illustrations agree completely with the theoretical results. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005     

Real Gas Effects in Condensing Transonic Steam Flow

Considering the flow in the last stages of LP (low pressure) steam turbine the strong non‐linearity of the thermal parameters of state and the possibility of the two‐phase flow have to be taken into account in the numerical calculation of the flow field. In this paper a 3‐D numerical calculation of the steam condensing flow for the turbine geometry will be presented. The steam properties are described here on the basis of the IAPWS'97 formulation. The calculation of the condensation phenomenon allows one to determine the losses caused by the formation of the liquid phase and to predict the areas of erosion.     

On the structure and growth rate of unstable modes to the Rossby‐Haurwitz wave

The normal mode instability study of a steady Rossby‐Haurwitz wave is considered both theoretically and numerically. This wave is exact solution of the nonlinear barotropic vorticity equation describing the dynamics of an ideal fluid on a rotating sphere, as well as the large‐scale barotropic dynamics of the atmosphere. In this connection, the stability of the Rossby‐Haurwitz wave is of considerable mathematical and meteorological interest. The structure of the spectrum of the linearized operator in case of an ideal fluid is studied. A conservation law for perturbations to the Rossby‐Haurwitz wave is obtained and used to get a necessary condition for its exponential instability. The maximum growth rate of unstable modes is estimated. The orthogonality of the amplitude of a non‐neutral or non‐stationary mode to the Rossby‐Haurwitz wave is shown in two different inner products. The analytical results obtained are used to test and discuss the accuracy of a numerical spectral method used for the normal mode stability study of arbitrary flow on a sphere. The comparison of the numerical and theoretical results shows that the numerical instability study method works well in case of such smooth solutions as the zonal flows and Rossby‐Haurwitz waves. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005     

Heat transfer at high energy devices with prescribed cooling flow

We study the heat transfer from a high‐energy electric device into a surrounding cooling flow. We analyse several simplifications of the model to allow an easier numerical treatment. First, the flow variables velocity and pressure are assumed to be independent from the temperature which allows a reduction to Prandtl's boundary layer model and leads to a coupled nonlinear transmission problem for the temperature distribution. Second, a further simplification using a Kirchhoff transform leads to a coupled Laplace equation with nonlinear boundary conditions. We analyse existence and uniqueness of both the continuous and discrete systems. Finally, we provide some numerical results for a simple two‐dimensional model problem. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Eulerian Simulation of Gas‐Solid Particle Flow by BDIM

The numerical scheme based on the boundary domain integral method (BDIM) for the numerical simulation of twophase two‐component flows is presented. A program is being developed to model the hydrodynamics of fluidized bed systems by using the Eulerian approach in terms of velocity‐vorticity variables formulation. With the vorticity vector both phases motion computation scheme is partitioned into its kinematic and kinetic aspect. Influence of the drag coefficient on the two‐phase two‐component flow field is studied on the two‐phase gas‐solid particles vertical channel flow.     

Nonlinear simulations of vesicle wrinkling

In this paper, we study nonlinear wrinkling dynamics of a vesicle in an extensional flow. Motivated by the recent experiments and linear theory on wrinkles of a quasi‐spherical membrane, we are interested in examining the linear theory and exploring wrinkling dynamics in a nonlinear regime. We focus on a quasi‐circular vesicle in two dimensions and show that the linear analytical results are qualitatively independent of the number of dimensions. Hence, the two‐dimensional studies can provide insights into the full three‐dimensional problem. We develop a spectral accurate boundary integral method to simulate the nonlinear evolution of surface tension and the nonlinear interactions between flow and membrane morphology. We demonstrate that for a quasi‐circular vesicle, the linear theory well predicts the characteristic wavenumber during the wrinkling dynamics. Nonlinear results of an elongated vesicle show that there exist dumbbell‐like stationary shapes in weak flows. For strong flows, wrinkles with pronounced amplitudes will form during the evolution. As far as the shape transition is concerned, our simulations are able to capture the main features of wrinkles observed in the experiments. Interestingly, numerical results reveal that, in addition to wrinkling, asymmetric rotation can occur for slightly tilted vesicles. The mathematical theory and numerical results are expected to lead to a better understanding of related problems in biology such as cell wrinkling. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discrete mass conservation for porous media saturated flow

Global and local mass conservation for velocity fields associated with saturated porous media flow have long been recognized as integral components of any numerical scheme attempting to simulate these flows. In this work, we study finite element discretizations for saturated porous media flow that use Taylor–Hood (TH) and Scott–Vogelius (SV) finite elements. The governing equations are modified to include a stabilization term when using the TH elements, and we provide a theoretical result that shows convergence (with respect to the stabilization parameter) to pointwise mass‐conservative solutions. We also provide results using the SV approximation pair. These elements are pointwise divergence free, leading to optimal convergence rates and numerical solutions. We give numerical results to verify our theory and a comparison with standard mixed methods for saturated flow problems. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 625–640, 2014     

Numerical approximation of Quasi‐Newtonian flows by ALE‐FEM

The aim of this work is to investigate the numerical approximation of a nonlinear, time‐dependent quasi‐Newtonian flow problem formulated in the framework of Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian method. We present some stability results and convergence analysis of finite element solutions for semidiscrete and fully discretized problems, respectively. Numerical results supporting the derived error estimate are also presented. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2012     

An iterative method for the reconstruction of a stationary flow

In this article, an iterative algorithm based on the Landweber‐Fridman method in combination with the boundary element method is developed for solving a Cauchy problem in linear hydrostatics Stokes flow of a slow viscous fluid. This is an iteration scheme where mixed well‐posed problems for the stationary generalized Stokes system and its adjoint are solved in an alternating way. A convergence proof of this procedure is included and an efficient stopping criterion is employed. The numerical results confirm that the iterative method produces a convergent and stable numerical solution. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2007     

Flow over a profile in a channel with dynamical effects

The work deals with a numerical solution of 2D inviscid incompressible flow over the profile NACA 0012 in a channel. The finite volume method in a form of cell‐centered scheme at quadrilateral C‐mesh is used. Governing system of equations is the system of Euler equations. Numerical results are partially compared with experimental data. Steady state solutions of the flow as well unsteady flows caused by prescribed oscillation of the profile were computed. The method of artificial compressibility and the time dependent method are used for computation of the steady state solution. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Semi‐implicit schemes for transient Navier–Stokes equations and eddy viscosity models

This study presents two computational schemes for the numerical approximation of solutions to eddy viscosity models as well as transient Navier–Stokes equations. The eddy viscosity model is one example of a class of Large Eddy Simulation models, which are used to simulate turbulent flow. The first approximation scheme is a first order single step method that treats the nonlinear term using a semi‐implicit discretization. The second scheme employs a two step approach that applies a Crank–Nicolson method for the nonlinear term while also retaining the semi‐implicit treatment used in the first scheme. A finite element approximation is used in the spatial discretization of the partial differential equations. The convergence analysis for both schemes is discussed in detail, and numerical results are given for two test problems one of which is the two dimensional flow around a cylinder. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

An optimal‐order estimate for MMOC‐MFEM approximations to porous medium flow

Mathematical models used to describe porous medium flow lead to coupled systems of time‐dependent partial differential equations. Standard methods tend to generate numerical solutions with nonphysical oscillations or numerical dispersion along with spurious grid‐orientation effect. The MMOC‐MFEM time‐stepping procedure, in which the modified method of characteristics (MMOC) is used to solve the transport equation and a mixed finite element method (MFEM) is used for the pressure equation, simulates porous medium flow accurately even if large spatial grids and time steps are used. In this article we prove an optimal‐order error estimate for a family of MMOC‐MFEM approximations. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

A finite element modified method of characteristics for convective heat transport

We propose a finite element modified method of characteristics for numerical solution of convective heat transport. The flow equations are the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations including density variation through the Boussinesq approximation. The solution procedure consists of combining an essentially non‐oscillatory modified method of characteristics for time discretization with finite element method for space discretization. These numerical techniques associate the geometrical flexibility of the finite elements with the ability offered by modified method of characteristics to solve convection‐dominated flows using time steps larger than its Eulerian counterparts. Numerical results are shown for natural convection in a squared cavity and heat transport in the strait of Gibraltar. Performance and accuracy of the method are compared to other published data. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2008     

The finite volume method based on the Crouzeix–Raviart element for a fracture model

In this paper, we present and analyze a finite volume method based on the Crouzeix–Raviart element for the coupled fracture model, where the fluid flow is governed by Darcy's law in the one‐dimensional fracture and two‐dimensional surrounding matrix. In the numerical scheme, the pressure in the matrix and fracture is respectively approximated by the Crouzeix–Raviart elements and piecewise constant functions, and then the velocity is calculated by piecewise constant functions element by element. The existence and uniqueness of the numerical solution are discussed, and optimal order error estimates for both the pressure p and the velocity u are proved on general triangulations. We finally carry out numerical experiments, and results confirm our theoretical analysis.     

Numerical Investigation of Particulate Flow over a Backward‐Facing Step

Flow separation and recirculation caused by a sudden expansion in the channel geometry in the form of a backwardfacing step (BFS) appear in numerous practical applications. Additionally, BFS flow has been used as a generic test case to study fundamental flow properties, such as separation or re‐attachment. In the present work, BFS flow laden with dispersed particles is investigated by numerical simulations using a spectral element method [1]. The motion of the dispersed particles is computed by Lagrangian particle tracking. In a first step, only the influence of the flow on the particles is accounted for, while possible effects of the particle motion on the flow are neglected. Spatial distribution of the particles is investigated, and effects of different wall‐particle interaction models on the computational results are examined.     

A note on the numerical solution of an identification problem for observing two‐phase flow in capillaries

In this paper, a right‐hand side identification problem for a parabolic equation with an overdetermined condition on an observation point is considered. A first and second order of accuracy difference schemes are constructed for obtaining approximate solutions of the problem that arises in two‐phase flow in capillaries. Stability estimates and numerical results are also established. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Schwarz alternating domain decomposition approach for the solution of two‐dimensional Navier–Stokes flow problems by the method of approximate particular solutions

The method of approximate particular solutions (MAPS) is used to solve the two‐dimensional Navier–Stokes equations. This method uses particular solutions of a nonhomogeneous Stokes problem, with the multiquadric radial basis function as a nonhomogeneous term, to approximate the velocity and pressure fields. The continuity equation is not explicitly imposed since the used particular solutions are mass conservative. To improve the computational efficiency of the global MAPS, the domain is split into overlapped subdomains where the Schwarz Alternating Algorithm is employed using velocity or traction values from neighboring subdomains as boundary conditions. When imposing only velocity boundary conditions, an extra step is required to find a reference value for the pressure at each subdomain to guarantee continuity of pressure across subdomains. The Stokes lid‐driven cavity flow problem is solved to assess the performance of the Schwarz algorithm in comparison to a finite‐difference‐type localized MAPS. The Kovasznay flow problem is used to validate the proposed numerical scheme. Despite the use of relative coarse nodal distributions, numerical results show excellent agreement with respect to results reported in literature when solving the lid‐driven cavity (up to Re = 10,000) and the backward facing step (at Re = 800) problems. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 777–797, 2015     

The method of fundamental solutions for the Oseen steady‐state viscous flow past obstacles of known or unknown shapes

In this paper, the steady‐state Oseen viscous flow equations past a known or unknown obstacle are solved numerically using the method of fundamental solutions (MFS), which is free of meshes, singularities, and numerical integrations. The direct problem is linear and well‐posed, whereas the inverse problem is nonlinear and ill‐posed. For the direct problem, the MFS computations of the fluid flow characteristics (velocity, pressure, drag, and lift coefficients) are in very good agreement with the previously published results obtained using other methods for the Oseen flow past circular and elliptic cylinders, as well as past two circular cylinders. In the inverse obstacle problem the boundary data and the internal measurement of the fluid velocity are minimized using the MATLAB^© optimization toolbox lsqnonlin routine. Regularization was found necessary in the case the measured data are contaminated with noise. Numerical results show accurate and stable reconstructions of various star‐shaped obstacles of circular, bean, or peanut cross‐section.