Assessment of a high-order accurate Discontinuous Galerkin method for turbomachinery flows

In this work the capabilities of a high-order Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method applied to the computation of turbomachinery flows are investigated. The Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations coupled with the two equations k-ω turbulence model are solved to predict the flow features, either in a fixed or rotating reference frame, to simulate the fluid flow around bodies that operate under an imposed steady rotation. To ensure, by design, the positivity of all thermodynamic variables at a discrete level, a set of primitive variables based on pressure and temperature logarithms is used. The flow fields through the MTU T106A low-pressure turbine cascade and the NASA Rotor 37 axial compressor have been computed up to fourth-order of accuracy and compared to the experimental and numerical data available in the literature.     

Application of the PITM Method Using Inlet Synthetic Turbulence Generation for the Simulation of the Turbulent Flow in a Small Axisymmetric Contraction

We investigate the turbulence modeling of second moment closure used both in RANS and PITM methodologies from a fundamental point of view and its capacity to predict the flow in a low turbulence wind tunnel of small axisymmetric contraction designed by Uberoi and Wallis. This flow presents a complex phenomenon in physics of fluid turbulence. The anisotropy ratio of the turbulent stresses τ ₁₁/τ ₂₂ initially close to 1.4 returns to unity through the contraction, but surprisingly, this ratio gradually increases to its pre-contraction value in the uniform section downstream the contraction. This point constitutes the interesting paradox of the Uberoi and Wallis experiment. We perform numerical simulations of the turbulent flow in this wind tunnel using both a Reynolds stress model developed in RANS modeling and a subfilter scale stress model derived from the partially integrated transport modeling method. With the aim of reproducing the experimental grid turbulence resulting from the effects of the square-mesh biplane grid on the uniform wind tunnel stream, we develop a new analytical spectral method of generation of pseudo-random velocity fields in a cubic box. These velocity fields are then introduced in the channel using a matching numerical technique. Both RANS and PITM simulations are performed on several meshes to study the effects of the contraction on the mean velocity and turbulence. As a result, it is found that the RANS computation using the Reynolds stress model fails to reproduce the increase of anisotropy in the centerline of the channel after passing the contraction. In the contrary, the PITM simulation predicts fairly well this turbulent flow according to the experimental data, and especially, the “return to anisotropy” in the straight section of the channel downstream the contraction. This work shows that the PITM method used in conjunction with an analytical synthetic turbulence generation as inflow is well suited for simulating this flow, while allowing a drastic reduction of the computational resources.     

A volume-agglomeration multirate time advancing for high Reynolds number flow simulation

A frequent configuration in computational fluid mechanics combines an explicit time advancing scheme for accuracy purposes and a computational grid with a very small portion of much smaller elements than in the remaining mesh. Two examples of such situations are the travel of a discontinuity followed by a moving mesh, and the large eddy simulation of high Reynolds number flows around bluff bodies where together very thin boundary layers and vortices of much more important size need to be captured. For such configurations, multistage explicit time advancing schemes with global time stepping are very accurate but very CPU consuming. In order to reduce this problem, the multirate (MR) time stepping approach represents an interesting improvement. The objective of such schemes, which allow to use different time steps in the computational domain, is to avoid penalizing the computational cost of the time advancement of unsteady solutions that would become large due to the use of small global time steps imposed by the smallest elements such as those constituting the boundary layers. In the present work, a new MR scheme based on control volume agglomeration is proposed for the solution of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations equipped with turbulence models. The method relies on a prediction step where large time steps are performed with an evaluation of the fluxes on macrocells for the smaller elements for stability purpose and a correction step in which small time steps are employed. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are evaluated on several benchmarks flows: the problem of a moving contact discontinuity (inviscid flow), the computation with a hybrid turbulence model of flows around bluff bodies like a flow around a space probe model at Reynolds number 10⁶, a circular cylinder at Reynolds number 8.4 × 10⁶, and two tandem cylinders at Reynolds number 1.66 × 10⁵ and 1.4 × 10⁵.     

Computation of conjugate heat transfer in the turbulent mixed convection regime in a vertical channel with multiple heat sources

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive numerical study to analyze conjugate, turbulent mixed convection heat transfer from a vertical channel with four heat sources, uniformly flush-mounted to one of the channel walls. The results are presented to study the effect of various parameters like thermal conductivity of wall material (k _s), thermal conductivity of flush-mounted discrete heat source (k _c), Reynolds number of fluid flow (Re _s), modified Richardson number (Ri ⁺) and aspect ratio (AR) of the channel. The standard k-ε turbulence model, modified by including buoyancy effects with physical boundary conditions, i.e. without wall functions, has been used for the analysis. Semi-staggered, non-uniform grids are used to discretise the two dimensional governing equations, using finite volume method. A correlation, encompassing a wide range of parameters, is developed for the non-dimensional maximum temperature (T ^*) using the asymptotic computational fluid dynamics (ACFD) technique.     

Closely coupled fluid-solid interface method with moving-average for LES based conjugate heat transfer solution

Fluid–solid coupled Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) simulations are relevant to many practical problems. Most existing interfacing methods have been developed for Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes solvers. For high fidelity turbulence scale-resolved flow solvers however, the CHT interface methods face significant challenges arisen from a wide frequency spectrum of unsteady disturbances to be dealt with, compounded by the huge time scale disparity between fluid and solid domains.In this paper, a closely coupled non-partitioned (monolithic) CHT method is presented. The main issues of interest are the prohibitive time costs of direct time domain CHT methods and an extra mesh dependency in the solid domain when resolving high frequency turbulence disturbances. Based on a temporal Fourier spectral framework, the present CHT interface method entails a moving-average for the time-mean flow and a discrete Fourier transform on-the-fly at each time step. Taking advantage of a semi-analytical transfer function and harmonic balancing for the CHT interface, we can achieve solving the solid domain completely in its own time step (3–5 orders of magnitude larger than that of the fluid domain). The present interface method can effectively circumvent aliasing errors and extra solid domain mesh-dependence encountered by other time-domain coupling methods when applied to turbulence scale-resolved CHT solutions. Illustrative stability analyses also show that the numerical stability of the present CHT interface should require no more stringent conditions than that in either fluid or solid domain. The computational results and analyses highlight the advantages of the present methodology in terms of both the computational efficiency and accuracy, in comparison with a conventional directly coupled interface method. Furthermore, a case study aided by a simple interface response analysis highlights much augmented wall temperature fluctuations and higher sensitivity to the interface treatment when a low conductivity protection layer (Thermal Barrier Coating, TBC) is added. The present study underlines the relevance of accounting for fluid disturbances over a range of frequencies in an effective and accurate CHT interface treatment.     

L2Roe: a low dissipation version of Roe's approximate Riemann solver for low Mach numbers

A modification of the Roe scheme called L²Roe for low dissipation low Mach Roe is presented. It reduces the dissipation of kinetic energy at the highest resolved wave numbers in a low Mach number test case of decaying isotropic turbulence. This is achieved by scaling the jumps in all discrete velocity components within the numerical flux function. An asymptotic analysis is used to show the correct pressure scaling at low Mach numbers and to identify the reduced numerical dissipation in that regime. Furthermore, the analysis allows a comparison with two other schemes that employ different scaling of discrete velocity jumps, namely, LMRoe and a method of Thornber et al. To this end, we present for the first time an asymptotic analysis of the last method. Numerical tests on cases ranging from low Mach number (M_∞=0.001) to hypersonic (M_∞=5) viscous flows are used to illustrate the differences between the methods and to show the correct behavior of L²Roe. No conflict is observed between the reduced numerical dissipation and the accuracy or stability of the scheme in any of the investigated test cases. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An internal penalty discontinuous Galerkin method for simulating conjugate heat transfer in a closed cavity

Using the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method for conjugate heat transfer problems can provide improved accuracy close to the fluid‐solid interface, localizing the data exchange process, which may further enhance the convergence and stability of the entire computation. This paper presents a framework for the simulation of conjugate heat transfer problems using DG methods on unstructured grids. Based on an existing DG solver for the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equation, the fluid advection‐diffusion equation, Boussinesq term, and solid heat equation are introduced using an explicit DG formulation. A Dirichlet‐Neumann partitioning strategy has been implemented to achieve the data exchange process via the numerical flux of interface quadrature points in the fluid‐solid interface. Formal h and p convergence studies employing the method of manufactured solutions demonstrate that the expected order of accuracy is achieved. The algorithm is then further validated against 3 existing benchmark cases, including a thermally driven cavity, conjugate thermally driven cavity, and a thermally driven cavity with conducting solid, at Rayleigh numbers from 1000 to 100 000. The computational effort is documented in detail demonstrating clearly that, for all cases, the highest‐order accurate algorithm has several magnitudes lower error than first‐ or second‐order schemes for a given computational effort.     

An embedded boundary framework for compressible turbulent flow and fluid–structure computations on structured and unstructured grids

The finite volume method with exact two‐phase Riemann problems (FIVER) is a two‐faceted computational method for compressible multi‐material (fluid–fluid, fluid–structure, and multi‐fluid–structure) problems characterized by large density jumps, and/or highly nonlinear structural motions and deformations. For compressible multi‐phase flow problems, FIVER is a Godunov‐type discretization scheme characterized by the construction and solution at the material interfaces of local, exact, two‐phase Riemann problems. For compressible fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problems, it is an embedded boundary method for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) capable of handling large structural deformations and topological changes. Originally developed for inviscid multi‐material computations on nonbody‐fitted structured and unstructured grids, FIVER is extended in this paper to laminar and turbulent viscous flow and FSI problems. To this effect, it is equipped with carefully designed extrapolation schemes for populating the ghost fluid values needed for the construction, in the vicinity of the fluid–structure interface, of second‐order spatial approximations of the viscous fluxes and source terms associated with Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS)‐based turbulence models and large eddy simulation (LES). Two support algorithms, which pertain to the application of any embedded boundary method for CFD to the robust, accurate, and fast solution of FSI problems, are also presented in this paper. The first one focuses on the fast computation of the time‐dependent distance to the wall because it is required by many RANS‐based turbulence models. The second algorithm addresses the robust and accurate computation of the flow‐induced forces and moments on embedded discrete surfaces, and their finite element representations when these surfaces are flexible. Equipped with these two auxiliary algorithms, the extension of FIVER to viscous flow and FSI problems is first verified with the LES of a turbulent flow past an immobile prolate spheroid, and the computation of a series of unsteady laminar flows past two counter‐rotating cylinders. Then, its potential for the solution of complex, turbulent, and flexible FSI problems is also demonstrated with the simulation, using the Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model, of the vertical tail buffeting of an F/A‐18 aircraft configuration and the comparison of the obtained numerical results with flight test data. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CFD–DEM simulation of turbulence modulation in horizontal pneumatic conveying

A study is presented to evaluate the capabilities of the standard k–ε turbulence model and the k–ε turbulence model with added source terms in predicting the experimentally measured turbulence modulation due to the presence of particles in horizontal pneumatic conveying, in the context of a CFD–DEM Eulerian–Lagrangian simulation. Experiments were performed using a 6.5-m long, 0.075-m diameter horizontal pipe in conjunction with a laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) system. Spherical glass beads with two sizes, 1.5 and 2 mm, were used. Simulations were performed using the commercial discrete element method software EDEM, coupled with the computational fluid dynamics package FLUENT. Hybrid source terms were added to the conventional k–ε turbulence model to take into account the influence of the dispersed phase on the carrier phase turbulence intensity. The simulation results showed that the turbulence modulation depends strongly on the model parameter C_ε3. Both the standard k–ε turbulence model and the k–ε turbulence model with the hybrid source terms could predict the gas phase turbulence intensity trend only generally. A noticeable discrepancy in all cases between simulation and experimental results was observed, particularly for the regions close to the pipe wall. It was also observed that in some cases the addition of the source terms to the k–ε turbulence model did not improve the simulation results when compared with those of the standard k–ε turbulence model. Nonetheless, in the lower part of the pipe where particle loading was greater due to gravitational effects, the model with added source terms performed somewhat better.     

Incompact3d: A powerful tool to tackle turbulence problems with up to O(105) computational cores

Understanding the nature of complex turbulent flows remains one of the most challenging problems in classical physics. Significant progress has been made recently using high performance computing, and computational fluid dynamics is now a credible alternative to experiments and theories in order to understand the rich physics of turbulence. In this paper, we present an efficient numerical tool called Incompact3d that can be coupled with massive parallel platforms in order to simulate turbulence problems with as much complexity as possible, using up to O(10⁵) computational cores by means of direct numerical simulation (DNS). DNS is the simplest approach conceptually to investigate turbulence, featuring the highest temporal and spatial accuracy and it requires extraordinary powerful resources. This paper is an extension of Laizet et al.(Comput. Fluids 2010; 39 (3):471–484) where the authors proposed a strategy to run DNS with up to 1024 computational cores. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

无网格动力分析的循环卷积神经网络代理模型

在无网格动力分析中,除了无网格形函数本身构造复杂引入的计算成本,还需要逐步递推求解每个时间步的动力响应,因而计算效率较为低下.本文通过研究无网格离散数据与机器学习训练样本、无网格动力分析递推计算过程与循环卷积神经网络序列信息传递模式之间的本征联系,构建了与无网格法相匹配的循环卷积神经网络设计方法,进而提出了一种无网格动...     

Spectral entropy as a flow state indicator

In many practical applications, the flow state (laminar, transitional, turbulent) might vary in space and/or in time for a given configuration. The aim of the current study is to show that the spectral entropy S_d, obtained from solving the eigenvalue problem for the temporal autocorrelation function, can be used in order to uniquely quantify the flow state and differentiate between laminar, transitional, or turbulent regimes; as such, it delivers a direct measure of turbulence level. Therefore, this quantity might support hybrid numerical simulations by determining the local flow state, identifying in this way the most suitable computational model and switching, e.g., from RANS to LES. The first test of the suggested approach relies on Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) for decaying Homogeneous Isotropic Turbulence (HIT) performed for ten different Taylor Reynolds numbers. Results obtained by analyzing DNS indicate that S_d is an excellent candidate to quantify turbulence level and transition. To check the robustness of the corresponding analysis, the impact of different resolutions has been investigated, revealing that a correct state estimate is still obtained with a coarser spatial or temporal resolution. Finally, to check the generality of the approach, the entropy thresholds obtained from the DNS analysis have been used with the same algorithm to analyze 1) DNS results obtained for the Taylor-Green vortex benchmark at Re=1600 as well as 2) results obtained through Large Eddy Simulations in a blood nozzle, revealing in both cases a perfect agreement with a traditional, user-based analysis of the flow conditions. Hence, S_d appears to be an excellent quantitative indicator of laminar, transitional, or turbulent flow, allowing an automatic, user-independent analysis of the flow state for a variety of conditions. In principle, it could be used without modification to analyze experimental measurements as well.     

Fast computation of the wall distance in unsteady Eulerian fluid-structure computations

Highly nonlinear, turbulent, dynamic, fluid-structure interaction problems characterized by large structural displacements and deformations, as well as self-contact and topological changes, are encountered in many applications. For such problems, the Eulerian computational framework, which is often equipped with an embedded (or immersed) boundary method for computational fluid dynamics, is often the most appropriate framework. In many circumstances, it requires the computation of the time-dependent distance from each active mesh vertex of the embedding mesh to the nearest embedded discrete surface. Such circumstances include, for example, modeling turbulence using the Spalart-Allmaras or detached eddy simulation turbulence models and performing adaptive mesh refinement in order to track the boundary layer. Evaluating at each time step the distance to the wall is computationally prohibitive, particularly in the context of explicit-explicit fluid-structure time-integration schemes. Hence, this paper presents two complementary approaches for reducing this computational cost. The first one recognizes that many quantities depending on the wall distance are relatively insensitive to its inaccurate evaluation in the far field. Therefore, it simplifies a state-of-the-art algorithm for computing the wall distance accordingly. The second approach relies on an effective wall distance error estimator to update the evaluation of the wall distance function only when otherwise, a quantity of interest that depends on it would become tainted by an unacceptable level of error. The potential of combining both approaches for dramatically accelerating the computation of the wall distance is demonstrated with the Eulerian simulation of the inflation of a disk-gap-band parachute system in a supersonic airstream.     

Numerical prediction of turbulent thermocapillary convection in superposed fluid layers with a free interface

The present paper introduces a new numerical method for predicting the characteristics of thermocapillary turbulent convection in a differentially-heated rectangular cavity with two superposed and immiscible fluid layers. The unsteady Reynolds form of the Navier–Stokes equations and energy equation are solved by using the control volume approach on a staggered grid system using SIMPLE algorithm. The turbulence quantities are predicted by applying the standard k–ε turbulence model. The level set formulation is applied for predicting the topological changes of the interface separating the two fluid layers and to provide an accurate and robust modeling of the interfacial normal and tangential stresses. The computational results obtained showed good agreement when compared with the previous experimental, numerical and analytical benchmark data for different validation cases in both laminar and turbulent regimes. The present numerical method is then applied to predict the velocity and temperature distribution in two immiscible liquid layers with undeformable interface for a wide range of Marangoni numbers. The laminar-turbulent transition is demonstrated by obtaining the turbulence features at high interfacial temperature gradient which is characterized by high Marangoni number. The effect of increasing Marangoni number on the interface dynamics in turbulent regime is also investigated.     

On the performance of WENO/TENO schemes to resolve turbulence in DNS/LES of high‐speed compressible flows

High‐speed compressible turbulent flows typically contain discontinuities and have been widely modeled using Weighted Essentially Non‐Oscillatory (WENO) schemes due to their high‐order accuracy and sharp shock capturing capability. However, such schemes may damp the small scales of turbulence and result in inaccurate solutions in the context of turbulence‐resolving simulations. In this connection, the recently developed Targeted Essentially Non‐Oscillatory (TENO) schemes, including adaptive variants, may offer significant improvements. The present study aims to quantify the potential of these new schemes for a fully turbulent supersonic flow. Specifically, DNS of a compressible turbulent channel flow with M = 1.5 and Re_τ = 222 is conducted using OpenSBLI, a high‐order finite difference computational fluid dynamics framework. This flow configuration is chosen to decouple the effect of flow discontinuities and turbulence and focus on the capability of the aforementioned high‐order schemes to resolve turbulent structures. The effect of the spatial resolution in different directions and coarse grid implicit LES are also evaluated against the WALE LES model. The TENO schemes are found to exhibit significant performance improvements over the WENO schemes in terms of the accuracy of the statistics and the resolution of the three‐dimensional vortical structures. The sixth‐order adaptive TENO scheme is found to produce comparable results to those obtained with nondissipative fourth‐ and sixth‐order central schemes and reference data obtained with spectral methods. Although the most computationally expensive scheme, it is shown that this adaptive scheme can produce satisfactory results if used as an implicit LES model.     

Efficient computation of mean drag for the subcritical flow past a circular cylinder using general Galerkin G2

General Galerkin (G2) is a new computational method for turbulent flow, where a stabilized Galerkin finite element method is used to compute approximate weak solutions to the Navier–Stokes equations directly, without any filtering of the equations as in a standard approach to turbulence simulation, such as large eddy simulation, and thus no Reynolds stresses are introduced, which need modelling. In this paper, G2 is used to compute the drag coefficient c_D for the flow past a circular cylinder at Reynolds number Re=3900, for which the flow is turbulent. It is found that it is possible to approximate c_D to an accuracy of a few percent, corresponding to the accuracy in experimental results for this problem, using less than 10⁵ mesh points, which makes the simulations possible using a standard PC. The mesh is adaptively refined until a stopping criterion is reached with respect to the error in a chosen output of interest, which in this paper is c_D. Both the stopping criterion and the mesh‐refinement strategy are based on a posteriori error estimates, in the form of a space–time integral of residuals times derivatives of the solution of a dual problem, linearized at the approximate solution, and with data coupling to the output of interest. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A postprocessing mixed finite element method for the Navier–Stokes equations

A fully discrete postprocessing mixed finite element scheme is considered for solving the time-dependent Navier–Stokes equations. In the PP method, we only consider a non-linear equation in the coarse-level subspace and a linear problem in the fine-level subspace. The analysis shows that the PP scheme can reach the same accuracy as the standard Galerkin method with a very fine mesh size h by an appropriate choice of H. Numerical examples are provided that confirm both the theoretical analysis and the corresponding improvement in computational efficiency.     

Numerical prediction of turbulent thermocapillary convection in superposed fluid layers with a free interface

The present paper introduces a new numerical method for predicting the characteristics of thermocapillary turbulent convection in a differentially-heated rectangular cavity with two superposed and immiscible fluid layers. The unsteady Reynolds form of the Navier–Stokes equations and energy equation are solved by using the control volume approach on a staggered grid system using SIMPLE algorithm. The turbulence quantities are predicted by applying the standard k–ε turbulence model. The level set formulation is applied for predicting the topological changes of the interface separating the two fluid layers and to provide an accurate and robust modeling of the interfacial normal and tangential stresses. The computational results obtained showed good agreement when compared with the previous experimental, numerical and analytical benchmark data for different validation cases in both laminar and turbulent regimes. The present numerical method is then applied to predict the velocity and temperature distribution in two immiscible liquid layers with undeformable interface for a wide range of Marangoni numbers. The laminar-turbulent transition is demonstrated by obtaining the turbulence features at high interfacial temperature gradient which is characterized by high Marangoni number. The effect of increasing Marangoni number on the interface dynamics in turbulent regime is also investigated.     

High-order strand grid methods for shock turbulence interaction

ABSTRACT

In this work, we examine the flux correction method for three-dimensional transonic turbulent flows on strand grids. Building upon previous work, we treat flux derivatives along strands with high-order summation-by-parts operators and penalty-based boundary conditions. A finite-volume like limiting strategy is implemented in the flux correction algorithm in order to sharply capture shocks. To achieve turbulence closure in the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations, a robust version of the Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model is employed that accommodates negative values of the turbulence working variable. Validation studies are considered which demonstrate the flux correction method achieves a high degree of accuracy for turbulent shock interaction flows.