A comparative study of direct‐forcing immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann methods for stationary complex boundaries

In this study, we assess several interface schemes for stationary complex boundary flows under the direct‐forcing immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann methods (IB‐LBM) based on a split‐forcing lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE). Our strategy is to couple various interface schemes, which were adopted in the previous direct‐forcing immersed boundary methods (IBM), with the split‐forcing LBE, which enables us to directly use the direct‐forcing concept in the lattice Boltzmann calculation algorithm with a second‐order accuracy without involving the Navier–Stokes equation. In this study, we investigate not only common diffuse interface schemes but also a sharp interface scheme. For the diffuse interface scheme, we consider explicit and implicit interface schemes. In the calculation of velocity interpolation and force distribution, we use the 2‐ and 4‐point discrete delta functions, which give the second‐order approximation. For the sharp interface scheme, we deal with the exterior sharp interface scheme, where we impose the force density on exterior (solid) nodes nearest to the boundary. All tested schemes show a second‐order overall accuracy when the simulation results of the Taylor–Green decaying vortex are compared with the analytical solutions. It is also confirmed that for stationary complex boundary flows, the sharper the interface scheme, the more accurate the results are. In the simulation of flows past a circular cylinder, the results from each interface scheme are comparable to those from other corresponding numerical schemes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A ghost-cell immersed boundary method for large-eddy simulations of compressible turbulent flows

A methodology to perform a ghost-cell-based immersed boundary method (GCIBM) is presented for simulating compressible turbulent flows around complex geometries. In this method, the boundary condition on the immersed boundary is enforced through the use of ‘ghost cells’ that are located inside the solid body. The computations of variables on these ghost cells are achieved using linear interpolation schemes. The validity and applicability of the proposed method is verified using a three-dimensional (3D) flow over a circular cylinder, and a large-eddy simulation of fully developed 3D turbulent flow in a channel with a wavy surface. The results agree well with the previous numerical and experimental results, given that the grid resolution is reasonably fine. To demonstrate the capability of the method for higher Mach numbers, supersonic turbulent flow over a circular cylinder is presented. While more work still needs to be done to demonstrate higher robustness and accuracy, the present work provides interesting insights using the GCIBM for the compressible flows.     

An immersed boundary method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in complex geometry

A nodally exact convection–diffusion–reaction scheme developed in Cartesian grids is applied to solve the flow equations in irregular domains within the framework of immersed boundary (IB) method. The artificial momentum forcing term applied at certain points in the flow and inside the body of any shape allows the imposition of no‐slip velocity condition to account for the body of complex boundary. Development of an interpolation scheme that can accurately lead to no‐slip velocity condition along the IB is essential since Cartesian grid lines generally do not coincide with the IB. The results simulated from the proposed IB method agree well with other numerical and experimental results for several chosen benchmark problems. The accuracy and fidelity of the IB flow solver to predict flows with irregular IBs are therefore demonstrated. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High-order ghost-point immersed boundary method for viscous compressible flows based on summation-by-parts operators

A high-order immersed boundary method is devised for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations by employing high-order summation-by-parts difference operators. The immersed boundaries are treated as sharp interfaces by enforcing the solid wall boundary conditions via flow variables at ghost points. Two different interpolation schemes are tested to compute values at the ghost points and a hybrid treatment is used. The first method provides the bilinearly interpolated flow variables at the image points of the corresponding ghost points and the second method applies the boundary condition at the immersed boundary by using the weighted least squares method with high-order polynomials. The approach is verified and validated for compressible flow past a circular cylinder at moderate Reynolds numbers. The tonal sound generated by vortex shedding from a circular cylinder is also investigated. In order to demonstrate the capability of the solver to handle complex geometries in practical cases, flow in a cross-section of a human upper airway is simulated.     

An Immersed Boundary Method for Complex Flow and Heat Transfer

The need to predict flow and heat transfer problems requires a flexible and fast tool able to simulate complex geometries without increasing the complexity of the flow solver architecture. Here we use a finite volume code that uses a direct solver with pressure correction. A new immersed boundary method (IBM) is used for a geometry consisting of a square body in a flow. The method is applied to flow cases with and without heat transfer. The obstacle simulated in the domain is implemented by local forcing of the flow with a procedure that adjusts locally the shear stress at the position of the object in conjunction with a non-penetration condition on the body walls. This approach has already been successfully applied by Breugem and Boersma (Phys. Fluids 17:15, 2005). We extend it for the case of heat transfer between body and flow. Comparison with other methods has been carried out as well. However, the proposed method can not be simply extended to immersed boundaries not aligned with the grid.     

Numerical analysis of conservative unstructured discretisations for low Mach flows

Unstructured meshes allow easily representing complex geometries and to refine in regions of interest without adding control volumes in unnecessary regions. However, numerical schemes used on unstructured grids have to be properly defined in order to minimise numerical errors. An assessment of a low Mach algorithm for laminar and turbulent flows on unstructured meshes using collocated and staggered formulations is presented. For staggered formulations using cell‐centred velocity reconstructions, the standard first‐order method is shown to be inaccurate in low Mach flows on unstructured grids. A recently proposed least squares procedure for incompressible flows is extended to the low Mach regime and shown to significantly improve the behaviour of the algorithm. Regarding collocated discretisations, the odd–even pressure decoupling is handled through a kinetic energy conserving flux interpolation scheme. This approach is shown to efficiently handle variable‐density flows. Besides, different face interpolations schemes for unstructured meshes are analysed. A kinetic energy‐preserving scheme is applied to the momentum equations, namely, the symmetry‐preserving scheme. Furthermore, a new approach to define the far‐neighbouring nodes of the quadratic upstream interpolation for convective kinematics scheme is presented and analysed. The method is suitable for both structured and unstructured grids, either uniform or not. The proposed algorithm and the spatial schemes are assessed against a function reconstruction, a differentially heated cavity and a turbulent self‐igniting diffusion flame. It is shown that the proposed algorithm accurately represents unsteady variable‐density flows. Furthermore, the quadratic upstream interpolation for convective kinematics scheme shows close to second‐order behaviour on unstructured meshes, and the symmetry‐preserving is reliably used in all computations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation of three‐dimensional flows over moving objects by an improved immersed boundary–lattice Boltzmann method

An improved immersed boundary–lattice Boltzmann method (IB–LBM) developed recently [28] was applied in this work to simulate three‐dimensional (3D) flows over moving objects. By enforcing the non‐slip boundary condition, the method could avoid any flow penetration to the wall. In the developed IB–LBM solver, the flow field is obtained on the non‐uniform mesh by the efficient LBM that is based on the second‐order one‐dimensional interpolation. As a consequence, its coefficients could be computed simply. By simulating flows over a stationary sphere and torus [28] accurately and efficiently, the proposed IB–LBM showed its ability to handle 3D flow problems with curved boundaries. In this paper, we further applied this method to simulate 3D flows around moving boundaries. As a first example, the flow over a rotating sphere was simulated. The obtained results agreed very well with the previous data in the literature. Then, simulation of flow over a rotating torus was conducted. The capability of the improved IB–LBM for solving 3D flows over moving objects with complex geometries was demonstrated via the simulations of fish swimming and dragonfly flight. The numerical results displayed quantitative and qualitative agreement with the date in the literature. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An immersed boundary method for unstructured meshes in depth averaged shallow water models

The representation of geometries as buildings, flood barriers or dikes in free surface flow models implies tedious and time‐consuming operations in order to define accurately the shape of these objects when using a body fitted numerical mesh. The immersed boundary method is an alternative way to define solid bodies inside the computational domain without the need of fitting the mesh boundaries to the shape of the object. In the direct forcing immersed boundary method, a solid body is represented by a grid of Lagrangian markers, which define its shape and which are independent from the fluid Eulerian mesh. This paper presents a new implementation of the immersed boundary method in an unstructured finite volume solver for the 2D shallow water equations. Moving least‐squares is used to transmit information between the grid of Lagrangian markers and the fluid Eulerian mesh. The performance of the proposed implementation is analysed in three test cases involving different flow conditions: the flow around a spur dike, a dam break flow with an isolated obstacle and the flow around an array of obstacles. A very good agreement between the classic body fitted approach and the immersed boundary method was found. The differences between the results obtained with both methods are less relevant than the errors because of the intrinsic shallow water assumptions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of highly accurate interpolation method for mesh‐free flow simulations II. Application of CIVA method to incompressible flow simulations

This is the second report on the development of a highly accurate interpolation method, which is called cubic interpolation with volume/area (CIVA) co‐ordinates, for mesh‐free flow simulations. In this paper, the method of determining the c‐parameter of CIVA using a constant curvature condition is first considered for the two‐ and three‐dimensional cases. A computation of a three‐dimensional passive scalar advection problem is performed for accuracy verification and for comparison with widely used methods. Then, an application algorithm of the CIVA method respecting incompressible fluid simulation is presented. As the incompressible condition based on Lagrangian approaches causes problems, in this paper we consider the condition based on the conventional Eulerian approach. The CIVA‐based incompressible flow simulation algorithm enables a highly accurate simulation of many kinds of problems that have complicated geometries and involve complicated phenomena. To confirm the facts, numerical analyzes are executed for some benchmark problems, namely flow in a square cavity, free surface sloshing and moving boundary problems in complex geometries. The results show that the method achieves high accuracy and has high flexibility, even for the flows involving high Reynolds number, complicated geometries, moving boundaries and free surfaces. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improvement of mass source/sink for an immersed boundary method

An improved immersed boundary method using a mass source/sink as well as momentum forcing is developed for simulating flows over or inside complex geometries. The present method is based on the Navier–Stokes solver adopting the fractional step method and a staggered Cartesian grid system. A more accurate formulation of the mass source/sink is derived by considering mass conservation of the virtual cells in the fluid crossed by the immersed boundary. Two flow problems (the decaying vortex problem and uniform flow past a circular cylinder) are used to validate the proposed formulation. The results indicate that the accuracy near the immersed boundary is improved by introducing the accurate mass source/sink. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation of dynamic fluid–solid interactions with an improved direct-forcing immersed boundary method

Dynamic fluid–solid interactions are widely found in chemical engineering, such as in particle-laden flows, which usually contain complex moving boundaries. The immersed boundary method (IBM) is a convenient approach to handle fluid–solid interactions with complex geometries. In this work, Uhlmann's direct-forcing IBM is improved and implemented on a supercomputer with CPU–GPU hybrid architecture. The direct-forcing IBM is modified as follows: the Poisson's equation for pressure is solved before evaluation of the body force, and the force is only distributed to the Cartesian grids inside the immersed boundary. A multidirect forcing scheme is used to evaluate the body force. These modifications result in a divergence-free flow field in the fluid domain and the no-slip boundary condition at the immersed boundary simultaneously. This method is implemented in an explicit finite-difference fractional-step scheme, and validated by 2D simulations of lid-driven cavity flow, Couette flow between two concentric cylinders and flow over a circular cylinder. Finally, the method is used to simulate the sedimentation of two circular particles in a channel. The results agree very well with previous experimental and numerical data, and are more accurate than the conventional direct-forcing method, especially in the vicinity of a moving boundary.     

A methodology for high performance computation of fully inhomogeneous turbulent flows

A large‐eddy simulation methodology for high performance parallel computation of statistically fully inhomogeneous turbulent flows on structured grids is presented. Strategies and algorithms to improve the memory efficiency as well as the parallel performance of the subgrid‐scale model, the factored scheme, and the Poisson solver on shared‐memory parallel platforms are proposed and evaluated. A novel combination of one‐dimensional red–black/line Gauss–Seidel and two‐dimensional red–black/line Gauss–Seidel methods is shown to provide high efficiency and performance for multigrid relaxation of the Poisson equation. Parallel speedups are measured on various shared‐distributed memory systems. Validations of the code are performed in large‐eddy simulations of turbulent flows through a straight channel and a square duct. Results obtained from the present solver employing a Lagrangian dynamic subgrid‐scale model show good agreements with other available data. The capability of the code for more complex flows is assessed by performing a large‐eddy simulation of the tip‐leakage flow in a linear cascade. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A sharp‐interface immersed boundary framework for simulations of high‐speed inviscid compressible flows

A new finite‐volume flow solver based on the hybrid Cartesian immersed boundary (IB) framework is developed for the solution of high‐speed inviscid compressible flows. The IB method adopts a sharp‐interface approach, wherein the boundary conditions are enforced on the body geometry itself. A key component of the present solver is a novel reconstruction approach, in conjunction with inverse distance weighting, to compute the solutions in the vicinity of the solid‐fluid interface. We show that proposed reconstruction leads to second‐order spatial accuracy while also ensuring that the discrete conservation errors diminish linearly with grid refinement. Investigations of supersonic and hypersonic inviscid flows over different geometries are carried out for an extensive validation of the proposed flow solver. Studies on cylinder lift‐off and shape optimisation in supersonic flows further demonstrate the efficacy of the flow solver for computations with moving and shape‐changing geometries. These studies conclusively highlight the capability of the proposed IB methodology as a promising alternative for robust and accurate computations of compressible fluid flows on nonconformal Cartesian meshes.     

A new modification of the immersed‐boundary method for simulating flows with complex moving boundaries

In this paper, a new immersed‐boundary method for simulating flows over complex immersed, moving boundaries is presented. The flow is computed on a fixed Cartesian mesh and the solid boundaries are allowed to move freely through the mesh. The present method is based on a finite‐difference approach on a staggered mesh together with a fractional‐step method. It must be noted that the immersed boundary is generally not coincident with the position of the solution variables on the grid, therefore, an appropriate strategy is needed to construct a relationship between the curved boundary and the grid points nearby. Furthermore, a momentum forcing is added on the body boundaries and also inside the body to satisfy the no‐slip boundary condition. The immersed boundary is represented by a series of interfacial markers, and the markers are also used as Lagrangian forcing points. A linear interpolation is then used to scale the Lagrangian forcing from the interfacial markers to the corresponding grid points nearby. This treatment of the immersed‐boundary is used to simulate several problems, which have been validated with previous experimental results in the open literature, verifying the accuracy of the present method. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two‐dimensional compact finite difference immersed boundary method

We present a compact finite differences method for the calculation of two‐dimensional viscous flows in biological fluid dynamics applications. This is achieved by using body‐forces that allow for the imposition of boundary conditions in an immersed moving boundary that does not coincide with the computational grid. The unsteady, incompressible Navier–Stokes equations are solved in a Cartesian staggered grid with fourth‐order Runge–Kutta temporal discretization and fourth‐order compact schemes for spatial discretization, used to achieve highly accurate calculations. Special attention is given to the interpolation schemes on the boundary of the immersed body. The accuracy of the immersed boundary solver is verified through grid convergence studies. Validation of the method is done by comparison with reference experimental results. In order to demonstrate the application of the method, 2D small insect hovering flight is calculated and compared with available experimental and computational results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Upstream monotonic interpolation for scalar transport with application to complex turbulent flows

A new monotonic scheme for the approximation of steady scalar transport is formulated and implemented within a collocated finite-volume/pressure-correction algorithm for general turbulent flows in complex geometries. The scheme is essentially a monotonic implementation of the quadratic QUICK interpolation and uses a continuous and compact limiter to secure monotonicity. The principal purpose is to allow an accurate and fully bounded, hence stable, approximation of turbulence convection in the context of two-equation eddy viscosity and Reynolds stress transport modelling of two- and three-dimensional flows, both subsonic and transonic. Among other benefits, this capability permits an assessment to be made of the adequacy of approximating turbulence convection with first-order upwind schemes in conjunction with higher-order formulations for mean-flow properties—a widespread practice. The performance characteristics of the bounded scheme are illustrated by reference to computations for scalar transport, for a transonic flow in a Laval nozzle, for one separated laminar flow and for two separated turbulent flows computed with a non-linear RNG model and full Reynolds stress closure.     

On the immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann simulations of incompressible flows with freely moving objects

For simulating freely moving problems, conventional immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann methods encounter two major difficulties of an extremely large flow domain and the incompressible limit. To remove these two difficulties, this work proposes an immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann flux solver (IB‐LBFS) in the arbitrary Lagragian–Eulerian (ALE) coordinates and establishes a dynamic similarity theory. In the ALE‐based IB‐LBFS, the flow filed is obtained by using the LBFS on a moving Cartesian mesh, and the no‐slip boundary condition is implemented by using the boundary condition‐enforced immersed boundary method. The velocity of the Cartesian mesh is set the same as the translational velocity of the freely moving object so that there is no relative motion between the plate center and the mesh. This enables the ALE‐based IB‐LBFS to study flows with a freely moving object in a large open flow domain. By normalizing the governing equations for the flow domain and the motion of rigid body, six non‐dimensional parameters are derived and maintained to be the same in both physical systems and the lattice Boltzmann framework. This similarity algorithm enables the lattice Boltzmann equation‐based solver to study a general freely moving problem within the incompressible limit. The proposed solver and dynamic similarity theory have been successfully validated by simulating the flow around an in‐line oscillating cylinder, single particle sedimentation, and flows with a freely falling plate. The obtained results agree well with both numerical and experimental data. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

不可压粘性流体浸入边界直接力法及软件实现

浸入边界法通过在N-S方程中施加体积力模拟不可滑移固壁边界及动边界,避免生成复杂贴体网格及动网格,极大地节省了网格建模时间及动网格计算消耗。本文提出一种新型附加体积力简化计算方法,将简化附加体积力以源项形式嵌入动量方程迭代中,通过用户自定义函数对CFD软件FLUENT二次开发,实现了浸入边界法和通用流体力学求解器的耦合计算。通过静止圆柱和动圆柱绕流数值模拟进行了验证,并探讨了插值函数对计算精度的影响。研究表明,通过引入浸入边界模型,能够提高计算效率,并实现结构网格背景下复杂边界和动边界的高效建模。     

Iterative and multigrid methods in the finite element solution of incompressible and turbulent fluid flow

Multigrid and iterative methods are used to reduce the solution time of the matrix equations which arise from the finite element (FE) discretisation of the time‐independent equations of motion of the incompressible fluid in turbulent motion. Incompressible flow is solved by using the method of reduce interpolation for the pressure to satisfy the Brezzi–Babuska condition. The k–l model is used to complete the turbulence closure problem. The non‐symmetric iterative matrix methods examined are the methods of least squares conjugate gradient (LSCG), biconjugate gradient (BCG), conjugate gradient squared (CGS), and the biconjugate gradient squared stabilised (BCGSTAB). The multigrid algorithm applied is based on the FAS algorithm of Brandt, and uses two and three levels of grids with a ‘V‐cycling’ schedule. These methods are all compared to the non‐symmetric frontal solver. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved Rhie–Chow interpolation scheme for the smoothed‐interface immersed boundary method

Rhie–Chow interpolation is a commonly used method in CFD calculations on a co‐located mesh in order to suppress non‐physical pressure oscillations arising from chequerboard effects. A fully parallelized smoothed‐interface immersed boundary method on a co‐located grid is described in this paper. We discuss the necessity of modifications to the original Rhie–Chow interpolation in order to deal with a locally refined mesh. Numerical simulation with the modified scheme of Choi shows that numerical dissipation due to Rhie–Chow interpolation introduces significant errors at the immersed boundary. To address this issue, we develop an improved Rhie–Chow interpolation scheme that is shown to increase the accuracy in resolving the flow near the immersed boundary. We compare our improved scheme with the modified scheme of Choi by parallel simulations of benchmark flows: (i) flow past a stationary cylinder; (ii) flow past an oscillating cylinder; and (iii) flow past a stationary elliptical cylinder, where Reynolds numbers are tested in the range 10–200. Our improved scheme is significantly more accurate and compares favourably with a staggered grid algorithm. We also develop a scheme to compute the boundary force for the direct‐forcing immersed boundary method efficiently. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.