A fluid-mixture type algorithm for barotropic two-fluid flow problems

Our goal is to present a simple interface-capturing approach for barotropic two-fluid flow problems in more than one space dimension. We use the compressible Euler equations in isentropic form as a model system with the thermodynamic property of each fluid component characterized by the Tait equation of state. The algorithm uses a non-isentropic form of the Tait equation of state as a basis to the modeling of the numerically induced mixing between two different barotropic fluid components within a grid cell. Similar to our previous work for multicomponent problems, see [J. Comput. Phys. 171 (2001) 678] and references cited therein, we introduce a mixture type of the model system that consists of the full Euler equations for the basic conserved variables and an additional set of evolution equations for the problem-dependent material quantities and also the approximate location of the interfaces. A standard high-resolution method based on a wave-propagation formulation is employed to solve the proposed model system with the dimensional-splitting technique incorporated in the method for multidimensional problems. Several numerical results are presented in one, two, and three space dimensions that show the feasibility of the method as applied to a reasonable class of practical problems without introducing any spurious oscillations in the pressure near the smeared material interfaces.     

Euler及N-S方程的二维四边形/叉树混合网格自适应算法

描述了一种基于直角叉树网格的Euler和N-S方程自适应算法.由于考虑了粘性的作用,提出并使用了四边形叉树混合网格的方法,在几何表面附近生成贴体的四边形网格,外流场使用直角叉树网格.采用中心有限体积法,对Euler及N-S方程进行数值求解,对N-S方程的计算中加入了B-L代数湍流模型.在流场中,运用了网格自适应算法,提高了数值计算对激波、流动分离等特性的捕捉和分辨能力.采用上述方法,数值分析了单段和多段翼型的绕流问题.     

A grid based particle method for evolution of open curves and surfaces

We propose a new numerical method for modeling motion of open curves in two dimensions and open surfaces in three dimensions. Following the grid based particle method we proposed in [S. Leung, H.K. Zhao, A grid based particle method for moving interface problems. J. Comput. Phys. 228 (2009) 2993–3024], we represent the open curve or the open surface by meshless Lagrangian particles sampled according to an underlying fixed Eulerian mesh. The underlying grid is used to provide a quasi-uniform sampling and neighboring information for meshless particles. The key idea in the current paper is to represent and to track end-points of the open curve and boundary-points of the open surface explicitly and consistently with interior particles. We apply our algorithms to several applications including spiral crystal growth modeling and image segmentation using active contours.     

An accurate and efficient method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using the projection method as a preconditioner

The projection method is a widely used fractional-step algorithm for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Despite numerous improvements to the methodology, however, imposing physical boundary conditions with projection-based fluid solvers remains difficult, and obtaining high-order accuracy may not be possible for some choices of boundary conditions. In this work, we present an unsplit, linearly-implicit discretization of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on a staggered grid along with an efficient solution method for the resulting system of linear equations. Since our scheme is not a fractional-step algorithm, it is straightforward to specify general physical boundary conditions accurately; however, this capability comes at the price of having to solve the time-dependent incompressible Stokes equations at each timestep. To solve this linear system efficiently, we employ a Krylov subspace method preconditioned by the projection method. In our implementation, the subdomain solvers required by the projection preconditioner employ the conjugate gradient method with geometric multigrid preconditioning. The accuracy of the scheme is demonstrated for several problems, including forced and unforced analytic test cases and lid-driven cavity flows. These tests consider a variety of physical boundary conditions with Reynolds numbers ranging from 1 to 30000. The effectiveness of the projection preconditioner is compared to an alternative preconditioning strategy based on an approximation to the Schur complement for the time-dependent incompressible Stokes operator. The projection method is found to be a more efficient preconditioner in most cases considered in the present work.     

Numerical approximation of the Vlasov–Poisson–Fokker–Planck system in two dimensions

A numerical method is developed for approximating the solution to the Vlasov–Poisson–Fokker–Planck system in two spatial dimensions. The method generalizes the approximation for the system in one dimension given in [S. Wollman, E. Ozizmir, Numerical approximation of the Vlasov–Poisson–Fokker–Planck system in one dimension, J. Comput. Phys. 202 (2005) 602–644]. The numerical procedure is based on a change of variables that puts the convection–diffusion equation into a form so that finite difference methods for parabolic type partial differential equations can be applied. The computational cycle combines a type of deterministic particle method with a periodic interpolation of the solution along particle trajectories onto a fixed grid. computational work is done to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the approximation method. Parts of the numerical procedure are adapted to run on a parallel computer.     

Nested Cartesian grid method in incompressible viscous fluid flow

In this work, the local grid refinement procedure is focused by using a nested Cartesian grid formulation. The method is developed for simulating unsteady viscous incompressible flows with complex immersed boundaries. A finite-volume formulation based on globally second-order accurate central-difference schemes is adopted here in conjunction with a two-step fractional-step procedure. The key aspects that needed to be considered in developing such a nested grid solver are proper imposition of interface conditions on the nested-block boundaries, and accurate discretization of the governing equations in cells that are with block-interface as a control-surface. The interpolation procedure adopted in the study allows systematic development of a discretization scheme that preserves global second-order spatial accuracy of the underlying solver, and as a result high efficiency/accuracy nested grid discretization method is developed. Herein the proposed nested grid method has been widely tested through effective simulation of four different classes of unsteady incompressible viscous flows, thereby demonstrating its performance in the solution of various complex flow–structure interactions. The numerical examples include a lid-driven cavity flow and Pearson vortex problems, flow past a circular cylinder symmetrically installed in a channel, flow past an elliptic cylinder at an angle of attack, and flow past two tandem circular cylinders of unequal diameters. For the numerical simulations of flows past bluff bodies an immersed boundary (IB) method has been implemented in which the solid object is represented by a distributed body force in the Navier–Stokes equations. The main advantages of the implemented immersed boundary method are that the simulations could be performed on a regular Cartesian grid and applied to multiple nested-block (Cartesian) structured grids without any difficulty. Through the numerical experiments the strength of the solver in effectively/accurately simulating various complex flows past different forms of immersed boundaries is extensively demonstrated, in which the nested Cartesian grid method was suitably combined together with the fractional-step algorithm to speed up the solution procedure.     

A class of Cartesian grid embedded boundary algorithms for incompressible flow with time-varying complex geometries

We present a class of numerical algorithms for simulating viscous fluid problems of incompressible flow interacting with moving rigid structures. The proposed Cartesian grid embedded boundary algorithms employ a slightly different idea from the traditional direct-forcing immersed boundary methods: the proposed algorithms calculate and apply the force density in the extended solid domain to uphold the solid velocity and hence the boundary condition at the rigid-body surface. The principle of the embedded boundary algorithm allows us to solve the fluid equations on a Cartesian grid with a set of external forces spread onto the grid points occupied by the rigid structure. The proposed algorithms use the MAC (marker and cell) algorithm to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Unlike projection methods, the MAC scheme incorporates the gradient of the force density in solving the pressure Poisson equation, so that the dipole force, due to the jump of pressure across the solid-fluid interface, is directly balanced by the gradient of the force density. We validate the proposed algorithms via the classical benchmark problem of flow past a cylinder. Our numerical experiments show that numerical solutions of the velocity field obtained by using the proposed algorithms are smooth across the solid-fluid interface. Finally, we consider the problem of a cylinder moving between two parallel plane walls. Numerical solutions of this problem obtained by using the proposed algorithms are compared with the classical asymptotic solutions. We show that the two solutions are in good agreement.     

A full Eulerian finite difference approach for solving fluid–structure coupling problems

A new simulation method for solving fluid–structure coupling problems has been developed. All the basic equations are numerically solved on a fixed Cartesian grid using a finite difference scheme. A volume-of-fluid formulation [Hirt, Nichols, J. Comput. Phys. 39 (1981) 201], which has been widely used for multiphase flow simulations, is applied to describing the multi-component geometry. The temporal change in the solid deformation is described in the Eulerian frame by updating a left Cauchy-Green deformation tensor, which is used to express constitutive equations for nonlinear Mooney–Rivlin materials. In this paper, various verifications and validations of the present full Eulerian method, which solves the fluid and solid motions on a fixed grid, are demonstrated, and the numerical accuracy involved in the fluid–structure coupling problems is examined.     

A high order kinetic flux-vector splitting method for the reduced five-equation model of compressible two-fluid flows

We present a high order kinetic flux-vector splitting (KFVS) scheme for the numerical solution of a conservative interface-capturing five-equation model of compressible two-fluid flows. This model was initially introduced by Wackers and Koren (2004) [21]. The flow equations are the bulk equations, combined with mass and energy equations for one of the two fluids. The latter equation contains a source term in order to account for the energy exchange. We numerically investigate both one- and two-dimensional flow models. The proposed numerical scheme is based on the direct splitting of macroscopic flux functions of the system of equations. In two space dimensions the scheme is derived in a usual dimensionally split manner. The second order accuracy of the scheme is achieved by using MUSCL-type initial reconstruction and Runge–Kutta time stepping method. For validation, the results of our scheme are compared with those from the high resolution central scheme of Nessyahu and Tadmor [14]. The accuracy, efficiency and simplicity of the KFVS scheme demonstrate its potential for modeling two-phase flows.     

A high-order cell-centered Lagrangian scheme for compressible fluid flows in two-dimensional cylindrical geometry

The goal of this paper is to present high-order cell-centered schemes for solving the equations of Lagrangian gas dynamics written in cylindrical geometry. A node-based discretization of the numerical fluxes is obtained through the computation of the time rate of change of the cell volume. It allows to derive finite volume numerical schemes that are compatible with the geometric conservation law (GCL). Two discretizations of the momentum equations are proposed depending on the form of the discrete gradient operator. The first one corresponds to the control volume scheme while the second one corresponds to the so-called area-weighted scheme. Both formulations share the same discretization for the total energy equation. In both schemes, fluxes are computed using the same nodal solver which can be viewed as a two-dimensional extension of an approximate Riemann solver. The control volume scheme is conservative for momentum, total energy and satisfies a local entropy inequality in its first-order semi-discrete form. However, it does not preserve spherical symmetry. On the other hand, the area-weighted scheme is conservative for total energy and preserves spherical symmetry for one-dimensional spherical flow on equi-angular polar grid. The two-dimensional high-order extensions of these two schemes are constructed employing the generalized Riemann problem (GRP) in the acoustic approximation. Many numerical tests are presented in order to assess these new schemes. The results obtained for various representative configurations of one and two-dimensional compressible fluid flows show the robustness and the accuracy of our new schemes.     

A high order moving boundary treatment for compressible inviscid flows

We develop a high order numerical boundary condition for compressible inviscid flows involving complex moving geometries. It is based on finite difference methods on fixed Cartesian meshes which pose a challenge that the moving boundaries intersect the grid lines in an arbitrary fashion. Our method is an extension of the so-called inverse Lax–Wendroff procedure proposed in [17] for conservation laws in static geometries. This procedure helps us obtain normal spatial derivatives at inflow boundaries from Lagrangian time derivatives and tangential derivatives by repeated use of the Euler equations. Together with high order extrapolation at outflow boundaries, we can impose accurate values of ghost points near the boundaries by a Taylor expansion. To maintain high order accuracy in time, we need some special time matching technique at the two intermediate Runge–Kutta stages. Numerical examples in one and two dimensions show that our boundary treatment is high order accurate for problems with smooth solutions. Our method also performs well for problems involving interactions between shocks and moving rigid bodies.     

An explicit algorithm for imbedding solid boundaries in Cartesian grids for the reactive Euler equations

We present a local and point-wise scheme for imposing reflective boundary conditions to stationary internal boundaries for solving the reactive Euler equations on Cartesian grids. The scheme is presented in two and three dimensions and can run efficiently on parallel machines while still maintaining the same advantages over other methods for enforcing internal boundary conditions. Level sets are used to represent internal solid regions along with a new local node sorting algorithm that decouples internal boundary nodes by establishing their connectivity to other internal boundary nodes. This approach allows us to enforce boundary conditions via a direct procedure, removing the need to solve a coupled system of equations numerically. We examine the accuracy and fidelity of our internal boundary algorithm by simulating flows past various solid boundaries in two and three dimensions, showing good agreement between our numerical results and experimental data.     

A numerical simulation method for dissolution in porous and fractured media

We describe an algorithm for simulating reactive flows in porous media, in which the pore space is mapped explicitly. Chemical reactions at the solid–fluid boundaries lead to dissolution (or precipitation), which makes it necessary to track the movement of the solid–fluid interface during the course of the simulation. We have developed a robust algorithm for constructing a piecewise continuous (C₁) surface, which enables a rapid remapping of the surface to the grid lines. The key components of the physics are the Navier–Stokes equations for fluid flow in the pore space, the convection–diffusion equation to describe the transport of chemical species, and rate equations to model the chemical kinetics at the solid surfaces. A lattice-Boltzmann model was used to simulate fluid flow in the pore space, with linear interpolation at the solid boundaries. A finite-difference scheme for the concentration field was developed, taking derivatives along the direction of the local fluid velocity. When the flow is not aligned with the grid this leads to much more accurate convective fluxes and surface concentrations than a standard Cartesian template. A robust algorithm for the surface reaction rates has been implemented, avoiding instabilities when the surface is close to a grid point. We report numerical tests of different aspects of the algorithm and assess the overall convergence of the method.     

粘性不可压流体流动问题用直角坐标网格的贴体解法

研究一种新的全贴体的求解粘性不可压流体流动问题的非结构化直角坐标网格方法.该方法在于利用直角坐标网格但通过在边界附近保留不规则控制体,使得算法是完全贴体的.这有别于目前流行的各种非结构化直角坐标网格方法.通过对两个典型流动问题的计算对该数值方法进行验证.对比结果表明,本方法计算的结果与精确解和STAR-CD的结果在一定Re数和网格数时是很接近的,可以满足一定的精度要求,说明该数值计算方法是可行的.还对二维钝头体周围的流场进行了计算,计算的流场与STAR-CD的结果相当吻和,说明该算法还可计算较复杂的流动现象.     

Modelling two-phase flow in porous media at the pore scale using the volume-of-fluid method

We present a stable numerical scheme for modelling multiphase flow in porous media, where the characteristic size of the flow domain is of the order of microns to millimetres. The numerical method is developed for efficient modelling of multiphase flow in porous media with complex interface motion and irregular solid boundaries. The Navier–Stokes equations are discretised using a finite volume approach, while the volume-of-fluid method is used to capture the location of interfaces. Capillary forces are computed using a semi-sharp surface force model, in which the transition area for capillary pressure is effectively limited to one grid block. This new formulation along with two new filtering methods, developed for correcting capillary forces, permits simulations at very low capillary numbers and avoids non-physical velocities. Capillary forces are implemented using a semi-implicit formulation, which allows larger time step sizes at low capillary numbers. We verify the accuracy and stability of the numerical method on several test cases, which indicate the potential of the method to predict multiphase flow processes.     

应用笛卡尔非结构切割网格进行外挂物投放的数值模拟

描述了一种新的网格生成技术,即笛卡尔非结构切割网格技术,采用叉树数据结构,完成了几种单段和多段翼型以及三维机翼的网格生成.应用中心有限体积法,对其绕流问题进行Euler方程数值模拟,并将计算结果与实验数据进行对比.在机翼绕流数值模拟的基础上,求解出机翼带外挂物的分离投放的流场计算问题.     

Analysis and applications of the Voronoi Implicit Interface Method

We analyze a new mathematical and numerical framework, the “Voronoi Implicit Interface Method” (“VIIM”), first introduced in Saye and Sethian (2011) [R.I. Saye, J.A. Sethian, The Voronoi Implicit Interface Method for computing multiphase physics, PNAS 108 (49) (2011) 19498–19503] for tracking multiple interacting and evolving regions (“phases”) whose motion is determined by complex physics (fluids, mechanics, elasticity, etc.). From a mathematical point of view, the method provides a theoretical framework for moving interface problems that involve multiple junctions, defining the motion as the formal limit of a sequence of related problems. Discretizing this theoretical framework provides a numerical methodolology which automatically handles multiple junctions, triple points and quadruple points in two dimensions, as well as triple lines, etc. in higher dimensions. Topological changes in the system occur naturally, with no surgery required. In this paper, we present the method in detail, and demonstrate several new extensions of the method to different physical phenomena, including curvature flow with surface energy densities defined on a per-phase basis, as well as multiphase fluid flow in which density, viscosity and surface tension can be defined on a per-phase basis.We test this method in a variety of ways. We perform rigorous analysis and demonstrate convergence in both two and three dimensions for a variety of evolving interface problems, including verification of von Neumann–Mullins’ law in two dimensions (and its analog in three dimensions), as well as normal driven flow and curvature flow with and without constraints, demonstrating topological change and the effects of different boundary conditions. We couple the method to a second order projection method solver for incompressible fluid flow, and study the effects of membrane permeability and impermeability, large shearing torsional forces, and the effects of varying density, viscosity and surface tension on a per-phase basis. Finally, we demonstrate convergence in both space and time of a topological change in a multiphase foam.     

Compact local integrated-RBF approximations for second-order elliptic differential problems

This paper presents a new compact approximation method for the discretisation of second-order elliptic equations in one and two dimensions. The problem domain, which can be rectangular or non-rectangular, is represented by a Cartesian grid. On stencils, which are three nodal points for one-dimensional problems and nine nodal points for two-dimensional problems, the approximations for the field variable and its derivatives are constructed using integrated radial basis functions (IRBFs). Several pieces of information about the governing differential equation on the stencil are incorporated into the IRBF approximations by means of the constants of integration. Numerical examples indicate that the proposed technique yields a very high rate of convergence with grid refinement.