A coupled continuous and discontinuous finite element method for the incompressible flows

In this paper, we develop a coupled continuous Galerkin and discontinuous Galerkin finite element method based on a split scheme to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. In order to use the equal order interpolation functions for velocity and pressure, we decouple the original Navier–Stokes equations and obtain three distinct equations through the split method, which are nonlinear hyperbolic, elliptic, and Helmholtz equations, respectively. The hybrid method combines the merits of discontinuous Galerkin (DG) and finite element method (FEM). Therefore, DG is concerned to accomplish the spatial discretization of the nonlinear hyperbolic equation to avoid using the stabilization approaches that appeared in FEM. Moreover, FEM is utilized to deal with the Poisson and Helmholtz equations to reduce the computational cost compared with DG. As for the temporal discretization, a second‐order stiffly stable approach is employed. Several typical benchmarks, namely, the Poiseuille flow, the backward‐facing step flow, and the flow around the cylinder with a wide range of Reynolds numbers, are considered to demonstrate and validate the feasibility, accuracy, and efficiency of this coupled method. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anisotropic adaptive stabilized finite element solver for RANS models

Aerodynamic characteristics of various geometries are predicted using a finite element formulation coupled with several numerical techniques to ensure stability and accuracy of the method. First, an edge‐based error estimator and anisotropic mesh adaptation are used to detect automatically all flow features under the constraint of a fixed number of elements, thus controlling the computational cost. A variational multiscale‐stabilized finite element method is used to solve the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations. Finally, the Spalart‐Allmaras turbulence model is solved using the streamline upwind Petrov‐Galerkin method. This paper is meant to show that the combination of anisotropic unsteady mesh adaptation with stabilized finite element methods provides an adequate framework for solving turbulent flows at high Reynolds numbers. The proposed method was validated on several test cases by confrontation with literature of both numerical and experimental results, in terms of accuracy on the prediction of the drag and lift coefficients as well as their evolution in time for unsteady cases.     

Penalty finite element method for Navier–Stokes equations with nonlinear slip boundary conditions

The penalty finite element method for Navier–Stokes equations with nonlinear slip boundary conditions is investigated in this paper. Since this class of nonlinear slip boundary conditions include the subdifferential property, the weak variational formulation is a variational inequality problem of the second kind. Using the penalty finite element approximation, we obtain optimal error estimates between the exact solution and the finite element approximation solution. Finally, we show the numerical results which are in full agreement with the theoretical results. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A design of residual error estimates for a high order BDF‐DGFE method applied to compressible flows

We deal with the numerical solution of the non‐stationary compressible Navier–Stokes equations with the aid of the backward difference formula – discontinuous Galerkin finite element method. This scheme is sufficiently stable, efficient and accurate with respect to the space as well as time coordinates. The nonlinear algebraic systems arising from the backward difference formula – discontinuous Galerkin finite element discretization are solved by an iterative Newton‐like method. The main benefit of this paper are residual error estimates that are able to identify the computational errors following from the space and time discretizations and from the inexact solution of the nonlinear algebraic systems. Thus, we propose an efficient algorithm where the algebraic, spatial and temporal errors are balanced. The computational performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by a list of numerical experiments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical comparison of hybridized discontinuous Galerkin and finite volume methods for incompressible flow

In this study, a hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method is presented for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equation. In our formulation, the convective part is linearized using a Picard iteration, for which there exists a necessary criterion for convergence. We show that our novel hybridized implementation can be used as an alternative method for solving a range of problems in the field of incompressible fluid dynamics. We demonstrate this by comparing the performance of our method with standard finite volume solvers, specifically the well‐established finite volume method of second order in space, such as the icoFoam and simpleFoam of the OpenFOAM package for three typical fluid problems. These are the Taylor–Green vortex, the 180‐degree fence case and the DFG benchmark. Our careful comparison yields convincing evidence for the use of hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method as a competitive alternative because of their high accuracy and better stability properties. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Augmented mixed finite element methods for a vorticity‐based velocity–pressure–stress formulation of the Stokes problem in 2D

In this paper, we consider an augmented velocity–pressure–stress formulation of the 2D Stokes problem, in which the stress is defined in terms of the vorticity and the pressure, and then we introduce and analyze stable mixed finite element methods to solve the associated Galerkin scheme. In this way, we further extend similar procedures applied recently to linear elasticity and to other mixed formulations for incompressible fluid flows. Indeed, our approach is based on the introduction of the Galerkin least‐squares‐type terms arising from the corresponding constitutive and equilibrium equations, and from the Dirichlet boundary condition for the velocity, all of them multiplied by stabilization parameters. Then, we show that these parameters can be suitably chosen so that the resulting operator equation induces a strongly coercive bilinear form, whence the associated Galerkin scheme becomes well posed for any choice of finite element subspaces. In particular, we can use continuous piecewise linear velocities, piecewise constant pressures, and rotated Raviart–Thomas elements for the stresses. Next, we derive reliable and efficient residual‐based a posteriori error estimators for the augmented mixed finite element schemes. In addition, several numerical experiments illustrating the performance of the augmented mixed finite element methods, confirming the properties of the a posteriori estimators, and showing the behavior of the associated adaptive algorithms are reported. The present work should be considered as a first step aiming finally to derive augmented mixed finite element methods for vorticity‐based formulations of the 3D Stokes problem. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

FEM‐BEM coupling for the exterior Stokes problem with non‐conforming finite elements and an application to small droplet deformation dynamics

A non‐conforming, discontinuous Galerkin finite element–boundary element coupling procedure is presented for the exterior planar Stokes problem. The novel coupled formulation is developed using that for the conforming case as a guide to the introduction of extra mortar variables used to couple a discontinuous interior finite element solution with a continuous exterior boundary element solution. Convergence results for the new scheme are presented, for a range of different interior penalties, on computational domains discretized with regular structured meshes. To illustrate an application, the excitations required to model two‐phase droplet deformations in an extensional flow, under simple surface tension, with the new scheme are also presented. For a selection of different drop viscocities and exterior flows, with and without a rotational component, the progression to a steady‐state deformation of initially undeformed circular drops is calculated and the results compared with those from both a conforming FEM‐BEM equivalent scheme and from a small perturbation analysis where available. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the discontinuous Galerkin method for the numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations

The paper deals with the use of the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method (DGFEM) for the numerical solution of viscous compressible flows. We start with a scalar convection–diffusion equation and present a discretization with the aid of the non‐symmetric variant of DGFEM with interior and boundary penalty terms. We also mention some theoretical results. Then we extend the scheme to the system of the Navier–Stokes equations and discuss the treatment of stabilization terms. Several numerical examples are presented. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐order implicit time integration for unsteady incompressible flows

The spatial discretization of unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is stated as a system of differential algebraic equations, corresponding to the conservation of momentum equation plus the constraint due to the incompressibility condition. Asymptotic stability of Runge–Kutta and Rosenbrock methods applied to the solution of the resulting index‐2 differential algebraic equations system is analyzed. A critical comparison of Rosenbrock, semi‐implicit, and fully implicit Runge–Kutta methods is performed in terms of order of convergence and stability. Numerical examples, considering a discontinuous Galerkin formulation with piecewise solenoidal approximation, demonstrate the applicability of the approaches and compare their performance with classical methods for incompressible flows. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficiency of high‐performance discontinuous Galerkin spectral element methods for under‐resolved turbulent incompressible flows

The present paper addresses the numerical solution of turbulent flows with high‐order discontinuous Galerkin methods for discretizing the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations. The efficiency of high‐order methods when applied to under‐resolved problems is an open issue in the literature. This topic is carefully investigated in the present work by the example of the three‐dimensional Taylor‐Green vortex problem. Our implementation is based on a generic high‐performance framework for matrix‐free evaluation of finite element operators with one of the best realizations currently known. We present a methodology to systematically analyze the efficiency of the incompressible Navier‐Stokes solver for high polynomial degrees. Due to the absence of optimal rates of convergence in the under‐resolved regime, our results reveal that demonstrating improved efficiency of high‐order methods is a challenging task and that optimal computational complexity of solvers and preconditioners as well as matrix‐free implementations are necessary ingredients in achieving the goal of better solution quality at the same computational costs already for a geometrically simple problem such as the Taylor‐Green vortex. Although the analysis is performed for a Cartesian geometry, our approach is generic and can be applied to arbitrary geometries. We present excellent performance numbers on modern cache‐based computer architectures achieving a throughput for operator evaluation of 3·10⁸ up to 1·10⁹ DoFs/s (degrees of freedom per second) on one Intel Haswell node with 28 cores. Compared to performance results published within the last five years for high‐order discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of the compressible Navier‐Stokes equations, our approach reduces computational costs by more than one order of magnitude for the same setup.     

A mixed finite element method for the generalized Stokes problem

We present and analyse a new mixed finite element method for the generalized Stokes problem. The approach, which is a natural extension of a previous procedure applied to quasi‐Newtonian Stokes flows, is based on the introduction of the flux and the tensor gradient of the velocity as further unknowns. This yields a two‐fold saddle point operator equation as the resulting variational formulation. Then, applying a slight generalization of the well known Babu?ka–Brezzi theory, we prove that the continuous and discrete formulations are well posed, and derive the associated a priori error analysis. In particular, the finite element subspaces providing stability coincide with those employed for the usual Stokes flows except for one of them that needs to be suitably enriched. We also develop an a posteriori error estimate (based on local problems) and propose the associated adaptive algorithm to compute the finite element solutions. Several numerical results illustrate the performance of the method and its capability to localize boundary layers, inner layers, and singularities. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element methods for a class of continuum models for immiscible flows with moving contact lines

In this paper, we present a finite element method for two‐phase incompressible flows with moving contact lines. We use a sharp interface Navier–Stokes model for the bulk phase fluid dynamics. Surface tension forces, including Marangoni forces and viscous interfacial effects, are modeled. For describing the moving contact lines, we consider a class of continuum models that contains several special cases known from the literature. For the whole model, describing bulk fluid dynamics, surface tension forces, and contact line forces, we derive a variational formulation and a corresponding energy estimate. For handling the evolving interface numerically, the level‐set technique is applied. The discontinuous pressure is accurately approximated by using a stabilized extended finite element space. We apply a Nitsche technique to weakly impose the Navier slip conditions on the solid wall. A unified approach for discretization of the (different types of) surface tension forces and contact line forces is introduced. Results of numerical experiments are presented, which illustrate the performance of the solver. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

H 1 space-time discontinuous finite element method for convection-diffusion equations

An H~1 space-time discontinuous Galerkin (STDG) scheme for convectiondiffusion equations in one spatial dimension is constructed and analyzed. This method is formulated by combining the H~1 Galerkin method and the space-time discontinuous finite element method that is discontinuous in time and continuous in space. The existence and the uniqueness of the approximate solution are proved. The convergence of the scheme is analyzed by using the techniques in the finite difference and finite element methods. An optimal a-priori error estimate in the L~∞ (H~1 ) norm is derived. The numerical exper- iments are presented to verify the theoretical results.     

Numerical Analysis of Coupled Stokes/Darcy Flows in Industrial Filtrations

Free flow channel confined by porous walls is a feature of many of the natural and industrial settings. Viscous flows adjacent to saturated porous medium occur in cross-flow and dead-end filtrations employed primarily in pharmaceutical and chemical industries for solid–liquid or gas–solid separations. Various mathematical models have been put forward to describe the conjugate flow dynamics based on theoretical grounds and experimental evidence. Despite this fact, there still exists a wide scope for extensive research in numerical solutions of these coupled models when applied to problems with industrial relevance. The present work aims towards the numerical analysis of coupled free/porous flow dynamics in the context of industrial filtration systems. The free flow dynamics has been expressed by the Stokes equations for the creeping, laminar flow regime whereas the flow behaviour in very low permeability porous media has been represented by the conventional Darcy equation. The combined free/porous fluid dynamical behaviour has been simulated using a mixed finite element formulation based on the standard Galerkin technique. A nodal replacement technique has been developed for the direct linking of Stokes and Darcy flow regimes which alleviates specification of any additional constraint at the free/porous interface. The simulated flow and pressure fields have been found for flow domains with different geometries which represent prototypes of actual industrial filtration equipment. Results have been obtained for varying values of permeability of the porous medium for generalised Newtonian fluids obeying the power law model. A series of numerical experiments has been performed in order to validate the coupled flow model. The developed model has been examined for its flexibility in dealing with complex geometrical domains and found to be generic in delivering convergent, stable and theoretically consistent results. The validity and accuracy of the simulated results has been affirmed by comparing with available experimental data.     

A stabilized finite element method for the Stokes problem based on polynomial pressure projections

A new stabilized finite element method for the Stokes problem is presented. The method is obtained by modification of the mixed variational equation by using local L² polynomial pressure projections. Our stabilization approach is motivated by the inherent inconsistency of equal‐order approximations for the Stokes equations, which leads to an unstable mixed finite element method. Application of pressure projections in conjunction with minimization of the pressure–velocity mismatch eliminates this inconsistency and leads to a stable variational formulation. Unlike other stabilization methods, the present approach does not require specification of a stabilization parameter or calculation of higher‐order derivatives, and always leads to a symmetric linear system. The new method can be implemented at the element level and for affine families of finite elements on simplicial grids it reduces to a simple modification of the weak continuity equation. Numerical results are presented for a variety of equal‐order continuous velocity and pressure elements in two and three dimensions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coupling of finite element method and discontinuous Galerkin method to simulate viscoelastic flows

In this paper, a numerical method, which is about the coupling of continuous and discontinuous Galerkin method based on the splitting scheme, is presented for the calculation of viscoelastic flows of the Oldroyd‐B fluid. The momentum equation is discretized in time by using the Adams‐Bashforth second‐order algorithm, and then decoupled via the splitting approach. Considering the Oldroyd‐B constitutive equation, the second‐order Runge‐Kutta approach is selected to complete the temporal discretization. As for the spatial discretizations, the fundamental purpose is to make the best of finite element method (FEM) and discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method to handle different types of equations. Specifically speaking, for the subequations, FEM is chosen to treat the Poisson and Helmholtz equations, and DG is employed to deal with the nonlinear convective term. In addition, because of the hyperbolic nature, DG is also utilized to discretize the Oldroyd‐B constitutive equation spatially. This coupled method avoids resorting to extra stabilization technique occurred in standard FEM framework even for moderately high values of Weissenberg number and also reduces the complexity compared with unified DG scheme. The Oldroyd‐B model is applied to investigate several typical and challenging benchmarks, such as the 4:1 planar contraction flow and the lid‐driven cavity flow, with a wide range of Weissenberg number to illustrate the feasibility, robustness, and validity of our coupled method.     

Explicit reduced‐order models for the stabilized finite element approximation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

In this paper, we present an explicit formulation for reduced‐order models of the stabilized finite element approximation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The basic idea is to build a reduced‐order model based on a proper orthogonal decomposition and a Galerkin projection and treat all the terms in an explicit way in the time integration scheme, including the pressure. This is possible because the reduced model snapshots do already fulfill the continuity equation. The pressure field is automatically recovered from the reduced‐order basis and solution coefficients. The main advantage of this explicit treatment of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is that it allows for the easy use of hyper‐reduced order models, because only the right‐hand side vector needs to be recovered by means of a gappy data reconstruction procedure. A method for choosing the optimal set of sampling points at the discrete level in the gappy procedure is also presented. Numerical examples show the performance of the proposed strategy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development and validation of a SUPG finite element scheme for the compressible Navier–Stokes equations using a modified inviscid flux discretization

This paper considers the streamline‐upwind Petrov–Galerkin (SUPG) method applied to the unsteady compressible Navier–Stokes equations in conservation‐variable form. The spatial discretization, including a modified approach for interpolating the inviscid flux terms in the SUPG finite element formulation, and the second‐order accurate time discretization are presented. The numerical method is discussed in detail. The performance of the algorithm is then investigated by considering inviscid flow past a circular cylinder. Validation of the finite element formulation via comparisons with experimental data for high‐Mach number perfect gas laminar flows is presented, with a specific focus on comparisons with experimentally measured skin friction and convective heat transfer on a 15° compression ramp. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A second‐order time accurate finite element method for quasi‐incompressible viscous flows

A finite element method for quasi‐incompressible viscous flows is presented. An equation for pressure is derived from a second‐order time accurate Taylor–Galerkin procedure that combines the mass and the momentum conservation laws. At each time step, once the pressure has been determined, the velocity field is computed solving discretized equations obtained from another second‐order time accurate scheme and a least‐squares minimization of spatial momentum residuals. The terms that stabilize the finite element method (controlling wiggles and circumventing the Babuska–Brezzi condition) arise naturally from the process, rather than being introduced a priori in the variational formulation. A comparison between the present second‐order accurate method and our previous first‐order accurate formulation is shown. The method is also demonstrated in the computation of the leaky‐lid driven cavity flow and in the simulation of a crossflow past a circular cylinder. In both cases, good agreement with previously published experimental and computational results has been obtained. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.