Modeling Three-Dimensional Groundwater Flows by the Body-Fitted Coordinate (BFC) Method: I. Stationary Boundary Problems

Based on the body-fitted coordinate (BFC) method, a three-dimensional finite difference computer code, BFC3DGW, was developed to simulate groundwater flow problems. Methodology and solution procedures of the BFC method for simulating groundwater flows, particularly when the flow domain is stationary as in the case of confined aquifers, are described. The code was verified by comparing numerical results with analytical solutions for well-flow problems in an isosceles right-triangular aquifer. An example simulation is made to demonstrate capability of the code for solving flow problems in anisotropic aquifers where directions of anisotropy change continuously. The method differs from the conventional finite difference method (FDM) in the ability to use a flexible, nonorthogonal, and body-fitted grid. The main advantages of the method are the convenience of grid generation, the simplified implementation of boundary conditions, and the capability to construct a generalized computer code which can be consistently applied to problem domains of any shape.     

Numerical simulation of standing wave with 3D predictor-corrector finite difference method for potential flow equations

A three-dimensional （3D） predictor-corrector finite difference method for standing wave is developed. It is applied to solve the 3D nonlinear potential flow equa- tions with a free surface. The 3D irregular tank is mapped onto a fixed cubic tank through the proper coordinate transform schemes. The cubic tank is distributed by the staggered meshgrid, and the staggered meshgrid is used to denote the variables of the flow field. The predictor-corrector finite difference method is given to develop the difference equa- tions of the dynamic boundary equation and kinematic boundary equation. Experimental results show that, using the finite difference method of the predictor-corrector scheme, the numerical solutions agree well with the published results. The wave profiles of the standing wave with different amplitudes and wave lengths are studied. The numerical solutions are also analyzed and presented graphically.     

近水面水下爆炸二维Level-set数值模拟

水下爆炸是一个多介质、动边界、瞬态非线性过程,捕捉介质之间交界面的变化是数值模拟的一个难点.本文采用Level-set方法来描述水下爆炸气体产物和流体交界面以及自由表面变化,应用TVD (Total Variation Diminishing) 计算技术求解Level-set流场,首先建立了近水面水下爆炸的二维数值方法,然后,将该方法推广到流场内有刚性结构的情况,考虑了冲击波和刚性结构物的相互作用.为了模拟无限边界流场问题,引进了Thompson建立的无反射边界条件.     

ELAFINT: A MIXED EULERIAN–LAGRANGIAN METHOD FOR FLUID FLOWS WITH COMPLEX AND MOVING BOUNDARIES

In this work a mixed Eulerian–Lagrangian technique is devised, hereinafter abbreviated as ELAFINT (Eulerian–Lagrangian Algorithm For INterface Tracking). The method is capable of handling fluid flows in the presence of both irregularly shaped solid boundaries and moving/free phase boundaries. The position and shape of the boundary are tracked explicitly by the Lagrangian translation of marker particles. The field equations are solved on an underlying fixed grid as in Eulerian methods. The interface passes through the grid lay-out and details regarding the treatment of the cut cells so formed are provided. The issues involved in treating the internal boundaries are dealt with, with particular attention to conservation and consistency in the vicinity of the interface. The method is tested by comparing with solutions from well-tested body-fitted co-ordinate methods. Test cases pertaining to forced and natural convection in irregular geometries and moving phase boundaries with melt convection are presented. The capability developed here can be beneficial in solving difficult flow problems involving moving and geometrically complex boundaries.     

Simulation of three-dimensional polymer mould filling processes using a pseudo-concentration method

Mould filling processes, in which a material flow front advances through a mould, are typical examples of moving boundary problems. The moving boundary is accompanied by a moving contact line at the mould walls causing, from a macroscopic modelling viewpoint, a stress singularity. In order to be able to simulate such processes, the moving boundary and moving contact line problem must be overcome. A numerical model for both two- and three-dimensional mould filling simulations has been developed. It employs a pseudo-concentration method in order to avoid elaborate three-dimensional remeshing, and has been implemented in a finite element program. The moving contact line problem has been overcome by employing a Robin boundary condition at the mould walls, which can be turned into a Dirichlet (no-slip) or a Neumann (free-slip) boundary condition depending on the local pseudo-concentration. Simulation results for two-dimensional test cases demonstrate the model's ability to deal with flow phenomena such as fountain flow and flow in bifurcations. The method is by no means limited to two-dimensional flows, as is shown by a pilot simulation for a simple three-dimensional mould. The reverse problem of mould filling is the displacement of a viscous fluid in a tube by a less viscous fluid, which has had considerable attention since the 1960's. Simulation results for this problem are in good agreement with results from the literature. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element analysis of flow and heat transfer with moving free surface using fixed grid system

A numerical study was performed on flow and heat transfer involving moving free surfaces that occurs in mold filling processes such as casting and injection molding. In these problems, the calculation domain changes continuously and the numerical treatment of the moving interface tends to cause artificial diffusion. Among the solution algorithms based on the Eulerian method, the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method was used because the method is simple and efficient in handling the complex flow patterns inside the cavity. To solve the transport equation of free surface without artificial smearing of the interface the baby-cell method was employed in the geometric reconstruction of the free surface. Furthermore, a predictor–corrector method was adopted in the time integration of volume-of-fluid (VOF) transport equation to increase the accuracy. The proposed scheme was verified through several benchmark problems. In order to show the capability of the proposed method, several three-dimensional mold filling processes were solved. The current algorithm was applied to the floating body problem. Three-dimensional floating body problems were tested.     

A new VOF‐based numerical scheme for the simulation of fluid flow with free surface. Part II: application to the cavity filling and sloshing problems

Finite element analysis of fluid flow with moving free surface has been performed in 2‐D and 3‐D. The new VOF‐based numerical algorithm that has been proposed by the present authors (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids, submitted) was applied to several 2‐D and 3‐D free surface flow problems. The proposed free surface tracking scheme is based on two numerical tools; the orientation vector to represent the free surface orientation in each cell and the baby‐cell to determine the fluid volume flux at each cell boundary. The proposed numerical algorithm has been applied to 2‐D and 3‐D cavity filling and sloshing problems in order to demonstrate the versatility and effectiveness of the scheme. The proposed numerical algorithm resolved successfully the free surfaces interacting with each other. The simulated results demonstrated applicability of the proposed numerical algorithm to the practical problems of large free surface motion. It has been also demonstrated that the proposed free surface tracking scheme can be easily implemented in any irregular non‐uniform grid systems and can be extended to 3‐D free surface flow problems without additional efforts. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Three-dimensional surface water modelling using a mesh adaptive technique

Numerical simulation of open water flow in natural courses seems to be doomed to one- or two-dimensional numerical simulations. Investigations of flow hydrodynamics through the application of three-dimensional models actually have very few appearances in the literature. This paper discusses the development and the initial implementation of a general three-dimensional and time-dependent finite volume approach to simulate the hydrodynamics of surface water flow in rivers and lakes. The slightly modified Navier-Stokes equations, together with the continuity and the water depth equations, form the theoretical basis of the model. A body-fitted time-dependent co-ordinate system has been used in the solution process, in order to accommodate the commonly complex and irregular boundary and bathymetry of natural water courses. The proposed adaptive technique allows the mesh to follow the movement of the water boundaries, including the unsteady free-water surface. The primitive variable equations are written in conservative form in the Cartesian co-ordinate system, and the computational procedure is executed in the moveable curvilinear co-ordinate system. Special stabilizing techniques are introduced in order to eliminate the oscillating behaviour associated with the finite volume formulation. Also, a new and comprehensive approximation for the pressure forces at the faces of a control volume is presented. Finally, results of several tests demonstrate the performance of the finite volume approach coupled with the adaptive technique employed in the three-dimensional time-dependent mesh system.     

UPWIND LOCAL DIFFERENTIAL QUADRATURE METHOD FOR SOLVING COUPLED VISCOUS FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER EQUATIONS

The differential quadrature method (DQM) has been applied successfully to solve numerically many problems in the fluid mechanics. But it is only limited to the flow problems in regular regions. At the same time, here is no upwind mechanism to deal with the convective property of the fluid flow in traditional DQ method. A local differential quadrature method owning upwind mechanism (ULDQM) was given to solve the coupled problem of incompressible viscous flow and heat transfer in an irregular region. For the problem of flow past a contraction channel whose boundary does not parallel to coordinate direction, the satisfactory numerical solutions were obtained by using ULDQM with a few grid points. The numerical results show that the ULDQM possesses advantages including well convergence, less computational workload and storage as compared with the low-order finite difference method.     

坐标变换法数值求解微通道行波电场电渗流

采用坐标变换法数值求解了耦合的Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP)方程和Navier-Stokes(NS)方程, 研究二维狭窄微通道行波电场电渗流数值解. 数值结果表明,坐标变换法能有效降低电渗流解数值解在双电层的高梯度, 有效改善数值解的收敛性和稳定性. 坐标变换的电渗流数值解和原始坐标下的数值解完全一致. 坐标变换后采用简单的网格也能得到和原始坐标下复杂网格相同的解. 给出了滑移边界的近似解与完整的PNP-NS数值解的比较. 在双电层厚度与微通道深度比值(λ/H)很小的情况下(相对深通道), 两者的解基本一致. 但在λ/H较大时(相对浅通道)滑移边界的解高于电渗流速度.      

A net inflow method for incompressible viscous flow with moving free surface

A new finite element procedure called the net inflow method has been developed to simulate time-dependent incompressible viscous flow including moving free surfaces and inertial effects. As a fixed mesh approach with triangular element, the net inflow method can be used to analyse the free surface flow in both regular and irregular domains. Most of the empty elements are excluded from the computational domain, which is adjusted successively to cover the entire region occupied by the liquid. The volume of liquid in a control volume is updated by integrating the net inflow of liquid during each iteration. No additional kinetic equation or material marker needs to be considered. The pressure on the free surface and in the liquid region can be solved explicitly with the continuity equation or implicitly by using the penalty function method. The radial planar free surface flow near a 2D point source and the dam-breaking problem on either a dry bed or a still liquid have been analysed and presented in this paper. The predictions agree very well with available analytical solutions, experimental measurements and/or other numerical results.     

三维非稳定渗流自由面边界积分项的精确数值计算

利用固定网格法分析三维非稳定渗流问题时,将要面对两项积分难题:以自由面及单元表面为边界的空间积分及以自由面为边界的曲面积分。针对常用的任意8结点6平面三维普通单元,提出采用坐标变换及等参变换技术求取空间积分项的精确数值解;至于曲面积分项,建议改用单元非饱和区部分表面作为积分边界,经过坐标变换及等参变换处理积分边界后,利用高斯数值积分可求出曲面积分项的精确数值解。通过一个普通单元及一项均质半无限边界堤坝的实例分析,表明此方法的精确性和稳定性良好。     

Effect of quadratic pressure gradient term on a one-dimensional moving boundary problem based on modified Darcy’s law

A relatively high formation pressure gradient can exist in seepage flow in low-permeable porous media with a threshold pressure gradient, and a significant error may then be caused in the model computation by neglecting the quadratic pressure gradient term in the governing equations. Based on these concerns, in consideration of the quadratic pressure gradient term, a basic moving boundary model is constructed for a one-dimensional seepage flow problem with a threshold pressure gradient. Owing to a strong nonlinearity and the existing moving boundary in the mathematical model, a corresponding numerical solution method is presented. First, a spatial coordinate transformation method is adopted in order to transform the system of partial differential equations with moving boundary conditions into a closed system with fixed boundary conditions; then the solution can be stably numerically obtained by a fully implicit finite-difference method. The validity of the numerical method is verified by a published exact analytical solution. Furthermore, to compare with Darcy’s flow problem, the exact analytical solution for the case of Darcy’s flow considering the quadratic pressure gradient term is also derived by an inverse Laplace transform. A comparison of these model solutions leads to the conclusion that such moving boundary problems must incorporate the quadratic pressure gradient term in their governing equations; the sensitive effects of the quadratic pressure gradient term tend to diminish, with the dimensionless threshold pressure gradient increasing for the one-dimensional problem.     

流固耦合不可压物质点法及其在晃动问题中的应用

作为一种混合拉格朗日欧拉法,物质点法在流固耦合问题中具有重要的应用前景。对于自由液面的流动问题,基于物质点法框架已建立了弱可压物质点法和完全不可压物质点法,但在处理流固耦合问题时遇到了困难。弱可压物质点法由于采用可压缩状态方程,导致求解时间步长过小,压力振荡严重,产生了非物理的飞溅现象;完全不可压物质点法基于投影算法和不可压条件,消除了弱可压物质点法的压力振荡,提高了时间步长,但难以处理移动边界问题。基于变分形式的投影算法提出了一种新型流固耦合不可压物质点法,得到了体积加权的压力泊松方程PPE(Pressure Poisson Equation),解决了完全不可压物质点法无法处理不规则边界和移动边界的问题。采用流固耦合不可压物质点法研究了运动刚体容器中的液体晃动问题,并与已有实验和数值结果进行对比,验证了算法的正确性和精度。     

Oblique water entry of a cone by a fully three-dimensional nonlinear method

The hydrodynamic problem of a cone entering the water surface obliquely has been analyzed by the three-dimensional (3-D) incompressible velocity potential theory with the fully nonlinear boundary conditions on the moving free surface and body surface boundary. The time stepping method is used in the stretched coordinate system defined as the ratio of the physical system to the distance that the cone has travelled into water. The boundary element method is used to solve the potential at each time step. Both triangular element mesh and quadrilateral element mesh have been used. Discretisation of the body surface and the free surface is applied regularly during the simulation to account for their change and deformation, and data from the old mesh is transferred into the new one through interpolation. Both the dynamic and kinematic free surface boundary conditions are satisfied through the Eulerian form. In particular the free surface elevation and potential variation are traced at a given azimuth of the cylindrical coordinate system, in the direction parallel to the body surface or perpendicular to the free surface to avoid multi-valued function. Detailed convergence study with respect to time step and element size has been undertaken and high accuracy has been achieved. Results for the cone in vertical entry are compared with those obtained from the 2-D axisymmetric method and good agreement is found. Simulations are made for cones of various deadrise angles and different oblique entries and detailed results are provided.     

Application of Boundary-Fitted Coordinate Transformations to groundwater flow modeling

The Boundary-Fitted Coordinate (BFC) Transformation method is a very powerful, efficient and accurate method of modeling heat or fluid flow in two- or three-dimensional domains with complex boundary shapes and abrupt changes in internal properties. Since the late 1970's it has become the modeling method of choice among many aerodynamicists and heat-flow modelers. It is being presented here for the first time as a new approach to modeling groundwater flow, based on successful research results in two dimensions. The BFC transformation method was employed to simulate two hypothetical well-flow scenarios in isotropic and anisotropic domains, and actual groundwater flows in the area of West Lafayette, Indiana. The numerical solutions in those cases were at least as accurate as and/or consistent with those obtained by purely finite difference and finite element methods, but with the added advantage of more accurate representation and implementation of the boundary condition in the region of great sensitivity. The BFC method successfully applied to two-dimensional simulations should be easily extended to simulations of three-dimensional flow and transport and thus, this research is continuing in that direction.     

Method of Lines for Transient Flow Fields

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code based on the method of lines (MOL) approach was developed for the solution of transient, two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible separated internal flows in complex rectangular geometries. The predictive accuracy of the code was tested by applying it to the prediction of flow fields in both laminar and turbulent channel flows with and without sudden expansion, and comparing its predictions with either measured data or numerical results available in the literature. The predicted flow fields were found to be in favorable agreement with those available in the literature for laminar channel flow with sudden expansion and turbulent channel flow with Re=6600. The code was then applied to the prediction of the highly turbulent flow field in the inlet flue of a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The predicted flow field was found to display the same trend with the experimental findings and numerical solutions reported previously for a turbulent diverging duct. As the code uses the MOL approach in conjunction with (i) an intelligent higher-order spatial discretization scheme, (ii) a parabolic algorithm for pressure, and (iii) an elliptic grid generator using a body-fitted coordinate system for complex geometries, it provides an efficient algorithm for future direct numerical simulation (DNS) applications in complex rectangular geometries.     

Overlapping grids and multigrid methods for three-dimensional unsteady flow calculations in IC engines

A new computational methodology with emphasis on using an overlapping grid technique and a multigrid method has been developed. The main feature of the present overlapping-grid system is of extended flexibility to deal with three-dimensional complex multicomponent geometries. The multigrid method is incorporated into this technique to accelerate the convergence of the numerical solution. The current scheme has been applied for computations of the laminar flows in the multicomponent configuration of internal combusion engines. The flow is governed by three-dimensional, time-dependent, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with the continuity equation. A time-independent grid system is constructed for the moving boundary, i.e. the moving piston in the engine. This grid system is entirely different from others for the same problem in previous works. The performance of the present method has been validated by comparing the results with those from an equivalent, single-grid method and those from experiments. In addition, the flexibility and potential of the method has been demonstrated by calculating several cases which would be very difficult to be handled by other schemes.     

Numerical solution of the unsteady Euler equations for airfoils using approximate boundary conditions

This paper presents an efficient numerical method for solving the unsteady Euler equations on stationary rectilinear grids. Boundary conditions on the surface of an airfoil are implemented by using their first-order expansions on the mean chord line. The method is not restricted to flows with small disturbances since there are no restrictions on the mean angle of attack of the airfoil. The mathematical formulation and the numerical implementation of the wall boundary conditions in a fully implicit time-accurate finite-volume Euler scheme are described. Unsteady transonic flows about an oscillating NACA 0012 airfoil are calculated. Computational results compare well with Euler solutions by the full boundary conditions on a body-fitted curvilinear grid and published experimental data. This study establishes the feasibility for computing unsteady fluid-structure interaction problems, where the use of a stationary rectilinear grid offers substantial advantages in saving computer time and program design since it does not require the generation and implementation of time-dependent body-fitted grids.