Finite element solution of the equations governing the flow of electrolyte in charged microporous membranes

Electrical double-layer effects are unimportant in flows through porous media except when the Debye length k^?1 is comparable in magnitude with the pore radius a. Under these conditions the equations governing the flow of electrolyte are those of Stokes, Nernst-Planck and Poisson. These equations are non-linear and require numerical solution. The finite element method provides a useful basis for solution and various algorithms are investigated. The numerical stability and errors of each scheme are analysed together with the development of an appropriate finite element mesh. The electro-osmotic flow of a typical electrolyte (barium chloride) through a uniformly charged cylindrical membrane pore is investigated and the ion fluxes are post-computed from the numerical solutions. The ion flux is shown to be strongly dependent on both zeta potential and pore radius, ka, indicating the effects of overlapping electrical double layers.     

A semi-coarsening strategy for unstructured multigrid based on agglomeration

Extending multigrid concepts to the calculation of complex compressible flow is usually not straightforward. This is especially true when non-embedded grid hierarchies or volume agglomeration strategies are used to construct a gradation of unstructured grids. In this work, a multigrid method for solving second-order PDE's on stretched unstructured triangulations is studied. The finite volume agglomeration multigrid technique originally developed for solving the Euler equations is used (M.-H. Lallemand and A. Dervieux, in Multigrid Methods, Theory, Applications and Supercomputing, Marcel Dekker, 337–363 (1988)). First, a directional semi-coarsening strategy based on Poisson's equation is proposed. The second-order derivatives are approximated on each level by introducing a correction factor adapted to the semi-coarsening strategy. Then, this method is applied to solve the Poisson equation. It is extended to the 2D Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with appropriate boundary treatment for low-Reynolds number turbulent flows. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Calculation of three‐dimensional turbulent flow with a finite volume multigrid method

A numerical method for the efficient calculation of three‐dimensional incompressible turbulent flow in curvilinear co‐ordinates is presented. The mathematical model consists of the Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations and the k–ε turbulence model. The numerical method is based on the SIMPLE pressure‐correction algorithm with finite volume discretization in curvilinear co‐ordinates. To accelerate the convergence of the solution method a full approximation scheme‐full multigrid (FAS‐FMG) method is utilized. The solution of the k–ε transport equations is embedded in the multigrid iteration. The improved convergence characteristic of the multigrid method is demonstrated by means of several calculations of three‐dimensional flow cases. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An unstructured finite volume technique for the 3D Poisson equation on arbitrary geometry using a σ‐coordinate system

We present a solver for a three‐dimensional Poisson equation issued from the Navier–Stokes equations applied to model rivers, estuaries, and coastal flows. The three‐dimensional physical domain is composed of an arbitrary domain in the horizontal direction and is bounded by an irregular free surface and bottom in the vertical direction. The equations are transformed vertically to the σ‐coordinate system to obtain an accurate representation of top and bottom topographies. The method is based on a second‐order finite volume technique on prisms consisting of triangular grids in the horizontal direction. The algorithm is accompanied by an analysis of different linear system solvers in order to achieve fast solutions. Numerical experiments are conducted to test the numerical accuracy and the computational efficiency of the proposed method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solution to transient Navier–Stokes equations by the coupling of differential quadrature time integration scheme with dual reciprocity boundary element method

The two‐dimensional time‐dependent Navier–Stokes equations in terms of the vorticity and the stream function are solved numerically by using the coupling of the dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM) in space with the differential quadrature method (DQM) in time. In DRBEM application, the convective and the time derivative terms in the vorticity transport equation are considered as the nonhomogeneity in the equation and are approximated by radial basis functions. The solution to the Poisson equation, which links stream function and vorticity with an initial vorticity guess, produces velocity components in turn for the solution to vorticity transport equation. The DRBEM formulation of the vorticity transport equation results in an initial value problem represented by a system of first‐order ordinary differential equations in time. When the DQM discretizes this system in time direction, we obtain a system of linear algebraic equations, which gives the solution vector for vorticity at any required time level. The procedure outlined here is also applied to solve the problem of two‐dimensional natural convection in a cavity by utilizing an iteration among the stream function, the vorticity transport and the energy equations as well. The test problems include two‐dimensional flow in a cavity when a force is present, the lid‐driven cavity and the natural convection in a square cavity. The numerical results are visualized in terms of stream function, vorticity and temperature contours for several values of Reynolds (Re) and Rayleigh (Ra) numbers. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Third‐order‐accurate semi‐implicit Runge–Kutta scheme for incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

A semi‐implicit three‐step Runge–Kutta scheme for the unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with third‐order accuracy in time is presented. The higher order of accuracy as compared to the existing semi‐implicit Runge–Kutta schemes is achieved due to one additional inversion of the implicit operator I‐τγL, which requires inversion of tridiagonal matrices when using approximate factorization method. No additional solution of the pressure‐Poisson equation or evaluation of Navier–Stokes operator is needed. The scheme is supplied with a local error estimation and time‐step control algorithm. The temporal third‐order accuracy of the scheme is proved analytically and ascertained by analysing both local and global errors in a numerical example. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical solution of three‐dimensional velocity–vorticity Navier–Stokes equations by finite difference method

This paper describes the finite difference numerical procedure for solving velocity–vorticity form of the Navier–Stokes equations in three dimensions. The velocity Poisson equations are made parabolic using the false‐transient technique and are solved along with the vorticity transport equations. The parabolic velocity Poisson equations are advanced in time using the alternating direction implicit (ADI) procedure and are solved along with the continuity equation for velocities, thus ensuring a divergence‐free velocity field. The vorticity transport equations in conservative form are solved using the second‐order accurate Adams–Bashforth central difference scheme in order to assure divergence‐free vorticity field in three dimensions. The velocity and vorticity Cartesian components are discretized using a central difference scheme on a staggered grid for accuracy reasons. The application of the ADI procedure for the parabolic velocity Poisson equations along with the continuity equation results in diagonally dominant tri‐diagonal matrix equations. Thus the explicit method for the vorticity equations and the tri‐diagonal matrix algorithm for the Poisson equations combine to give a simplified numerical scheme for solving three‐dimensional problems, which otherwise requires enormous computational effort. For three‐dimensional‐driven cavity flow predictions, the present method is found to be efficient and accurate for the Reynolds number range 100?Re?2000. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order finite difference method for incompressible fluid turbulence simulations

A Hermitian–Fourier numerical method for solving the Navier–Stokes equations with one non‐homogeneous direction had been presented by Schiestel and Viazzo (Internat. J. Comput. Fluids 1995; 24 (6):739). In the present paper, an extension of the method is devised for solving problems with two non‐homogeneous directions. This extension is indeed not trivial since new algorithms will be necessary, in particular for pressure calculation. The method uses Hermitian finite differences in the non‐periodic directions whereas Fourier pseudo‐spectral developments are used in the remaining periodic direction. Pressure–velocity coupling is solved by a simplified Poisson equation for the pressure correction using direct method of solution that preserves Hermitian accuracy for pressure. The turbulent flow after a backward facing step has been used as a test case to show the capabilities of the method. The applications in view are mainly concerning the numerical simulation of turbulent and transitional flows. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unstructured pressure‐correction solver based on a consistent discretization of the Poisson equation

A finite volume incompressible flow solver is presented for three‐dimensional unsteady flows based on an unstructured tetrahedral mesh, with collocation of the flow variables at the cell vertices. The solver is based on the pressure‐correction method, with an explicit prediction step of the momentum equations followed by a Poisson equation for the correction step to enforce continuity. A consistent discretization of the Poisson equation was found to be essential in obtaining a solution. The correction step was solved with the biconjugate gradient stabilized (Bi‐CGSTAB) algorithm coupled with incomplete lower–upper (ILU) preconditioning. Artificial dissipation is used to prevent the formation of instabilities. Flow solutions are presented for a stalling airfoil, vortex shedding past a bridge deck and flow in model alveoli. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING OF THE INCOMPRESSIBLE NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS

SUMMARY

The paper presents a finite element model for the solution of the three-dimensional, time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations. Isoparametric brick elements are used, with tri-linear interpolation for both velocity and pressure. A fractional-step algorithm is applied, and the advection-diffusion part of the system is solved using a two-step Taylor-Galerkin formulation. The pressure is computed from a Poisson equation, which is solved numerically using a preconditioned conjugate gradient method.

Computations are performed for the flow about a sphere at Reynolds numbers 50 and 100, and comparisons are made with available measurements.     

Two-phase flow in heterogeneous porous media: The method of large-scale averaging

The analysis of two-phase flow in porous media begins with the Stokes equations and an appropriate set of boundary conditions. Local volume averaging can then be used to produce the well known extension of Darcy's law for two-phase flow. In addition, a method of closure exists that can be used to predict the individual permeability tensors for each phase. For a heterogeneous porous medium, the local volume average closure problem becomes exceedingly complex and an alternate theoretical resolution of the problem is necessary. This is provided by the method of large-scale averaging which is used to average the Darcy-scale equations over a region that is large compared to the length scale of the heterogeneities. In this paper we present the derivation of the large-scale averaged continuity and momentum equations, and we develop a method of closure that can be used to predict the large-scale permeability tensors and the large-scale capillary pressure. The closure problem is limited by the principle of local mechanical equilibrium. This means that the local fluid distribution is determined by capillary pressure-saturation relations and is not constrained by the solution of an evolutionary transport equation. Special attention is given to the fact that both fluids can be trapped in regions where the saturation is equal to the irreducible saturation, in addition to being trapped in regions where the saturation is greater than the irreducible saturation. Theoretical results are given for stratified porous media and a two-dimensional model for a heterogeneous porous medium.     

Numerical simulation of 3D free surface flows,with multiple incompressible immiscible phases. Applications to impulse waves

A numerical method for the solution to the density‐dependent incompressible Navier–Stokes equations modeling the flow of N immiscible incompressible liquid phases with a free surface is proposed. It allows to model the flow of an arbitrary number of liquid phases together with an additional vacuum phase separated with a free surface. It is based on a volume‐of‐fluid approach involving N indicator functions (one per phase, identified by its density) that guarantees mass conservation within each phase. An additional indicator function for the whole liquid domain allows to treat boundary conditions at the interface between the liquid domain and a vacuum. The system of partial differential equations is solved by implicit operator splitting at each time step: first, transport equations are solved by a forward characteristics method on a fine Cartesian grid to predict the new location of each liquid phase; second, a generalized Stokes problem with a density‐dependent viscosity is solved with a FEM on a coarser mesh of the liquid domain. A novel algorithm ensuring the maximum principle and limiting the numerical diffusion for the transport of the N phases is validated on benchmark flows. Then, we focus on a novel application and compare the numerical and physical simulations of impulse waves, that is, waves generated at the free surface of a water basin initially at rest after the impact of a denser phase. A particularly useful application in hydraulic engineering is to predict the effects of a landslide‐generated impulse wave in a reservoir. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new positive‐definite regularization of incompressible Navier–Stokes equations discretized with Q1/P0 finite element

A new regularization method is proposed for the Galerkin approximation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with Q1/P0 element, by newly introducing a square‐type linear form into the variational divergence‐free constraint regularized with the global pressure jump (GPJ) method. The addition of the square‐type linear form is intended to eliminate the hydrostatic pressure mode appearing in confined flows, and to make the discretized matrix positive definite and then non‐singular without the pressure pegging trick. Effects of the free parameters for the regularization on the solutions are numerically examined with a 2‐D driven cavity flow problem. Furthermore, the convergences in the conjugate gradient iteration for the solution of the pressure Poisson equation are compared among the mixed method, the GPJ method and the present method for both leaky and non‐leaky 3‐D driven cavity flows. Finally, the non‐leaky 3‐D cavity flows at different Re numbers are solved to compare with the literature data and to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hamiltonian structure for a neutrally buoyant rigid body interacting with N vortex rings of arbitrary shape: the case of arbitrary smooth body shape

We present a (noncanonical) Hamiltonian model for the interaction of a neutrally buoyant, arbitrarily shaped smooth rigid body with N thin closed vortex filaments of arbitrary shape in an infinite ideal fluid in Euclidean three-space. The rings are modeled without cores and, as geometrical objects, viewed as N smooth closed curves in space. The velocity field associated with each ring in the absence of the body is given by the Biot–Savart law with the infinite self-induced velocity assumed to be regularized in some appropriate way. In the presence of the moving rigid body, the velocity field of each ring is modified by the addition of potential fields associated with the image vorticity and with the irrotational flow induced by the motion of the body. The equations of motion for this dynamically coupled body-rings model are obtained using conservation of linear and angular momenta. These equations are shown to possess a Hamiltonian structure when written on an appropriately defined Poisson product manifold equipped with a Poisson bracket which is the sum of the Lie–Poisson bracket from rigid body mechanics and the canonical bracket on the phase space of the vortex filaments. The Hamiltonian function is the total kinetic energy of the system with the self-induced kinetic energy regularized. The Hamiltonian structure is independent of the shape of the body, (and hence) the explicit form of the image field, and the method of regularization, provided the self-induced velocity and kinetic energy are regularized in way that satisfies certain reasonable consistency conditions.      

Footbridge between finite volumes and finite elements with applications to CFD

The aim of this paper is to introduce a new algorithm for the discretization of second‐order elliptic operators in the context of finite volume schemes on unstructured meshes. We are strongly motivated by partial differential equations (PDEs) arising in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), like the compressible Navier–Stokes equations. Our technique consists of matching up a finite volume discretization based on a given mesh with a finite element representation on the same mesh. An inverse operator is also built, which has the desirable property that in the absence of diffusion, one recovers exactly the finite volume solution. Numerical results are also provided. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental validation of two depth‐averaged turbulence models

A finite volume turbulence model for the resolution of the two‐dimensional shallow water equations with turbulent term is presented. After making a finite volume discretization of the depth‐averaged k–ε equations in conservative form, the q–r equations, that give stability to the process, are obtained. Wall and inlet boundary conditions for the turbulent equations and wall conditions for the hydrodynamic equations are discussed. A comparison between the k–ε and q–r models and some experimental results is made. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Overall dynamic constitutive relations of layered elastic composites

A method for the homogenization of a layered elastic composite is presented. It allows direct, consistent, and accurate evaluation of the averaged overall frequency-dependent dynamic material constitutive relations without the need for a point-wise solution of the field equations. When the spatial variation of the field variables is restricted by Bloch-form (Floquet-form) periodicity, then these relations together with the overall conservation and kinematical equations accurately yield the displacement or stress mode-shapes and, necessarily, the dispersion relations. The method can also give the point-wise solution of the elastodynamic field equations (to any desired degree of accuracy), which, however, is not required for the calculation of the average overall properties. The resulting overall dynamic constitutive relations are general and need not be restricted by the Bloch-form periodicity.The formulation is based on micromechanical modeling of a representative unit cell of the composite. For waves in periodic layered composites, the overall effective mass-density and compliance (stiffness) are always real-valued whether or not the corresponding unit cell (representative volume element used as a unit cell) is geometrically and/or materially symmetric. The average strain and linear momentum are coupled and the coupling constitutive parameters are always each others' complex conjugates. We separate the overall constitutive relations, which depend only on the composition and structure of the unit cell, from the overall field equations which hold for any elastic composite; i.e., we use only the local field equations and material properties to deduce the overall constitutive relations. Finally, we present solved numerical examples to further clarify the structure of the averaged constitutive relations and to bring out the correspondence of the current method with recently published results.     

Unstructured volume-agglomeration MG: Solution of the Poisson equation

We are interested in solving second-order PDEs with multigrid and unstructured meshes. The multigrid strategy we present here is adapted from the generalized finite volume agglomeration multigrid algorithm we have developed recently for the solution of the Euler equations. We now focus on Poisson's equation. A strategy is defined by introducing a correction factor for the diffusive terms, and some illustrating results are given.     

An h4 accurate vorticity-velocity formulation for calculating flow past a cylinder

A method of solution for the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible flow past a cylinder is given in which the euquation of continuity is solved by a step-by-step integration procedure at each stage of an interative process. Thus the formulation involves the solution of one first-order and one second-order equation for the velocity components, together with the vorticity transport equation. the equations are solved numerically by h⁴-accurate methods in the case of steady flow past a circular cylinder in the Reynolds number range 10–100. Results are in satisfactory agreement with recent h⁴-accurate calculations. An improved approximation to the boundary conditions at large distance is also considered.     

THE APPLICATION OF A FINITE DIFFERENCE/FINITE VOLUME ALGORITHM TO SOLVE MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS IN THE TIME DOMAIN

Abstract

A finite volume/finite difference method based on Ni's multigrid formulation is introduced for the solution of Maxwell's equations. The scheme is presented for the cases of transverse magnetic scattering from two-dimensional circular and square cylinders, as well as from NACA 0012 airfoil. The codes are validated against the traditional Method of Moments, which is analogous to a panel method in CFD. The circular cylinder scattering is compared to the analytical series solution for better understanding how the roles of numerical dispersion and dissipation errors affect the solution. The reflecting boundary conditions are modeled by the idea of inducing fields inside the conductor and a method of modeling the singularities that arise at a sharp corner is presented. Absorbing boundary conditions are modeled by integrating along the characteristic compatibility equations in the direction of the outgoing wave.