A numerical study of flow over a confined backward-facing step

Numerical solutions using the SIMPLE algorithms for laminar flow over a backward-facing step are presented. Five differencing schemes were used: hybrid; quadratic upwind (QUICK); second-order upwind (SOUD); central-differencing and a novel scheme named second-order upwind biased (SOUBD). The SOUBD scheme is shown to be part of a family of schemes which include the central-differencing, SOUD and QUICK schemes for uniform grids. The results of the backward-facing step problem are presented and are compared with other numerical solutions and experimental data to evaluate the accuracy of the differencing schemes. The accuracy of the differencing schemes was ascertained by using uniform grids of various grid densities. The QUICK, SOUBD and SOUD schemes gave very similar accurate results. The hybrid scheme suffered from excessive diffusion except for the finest grids and the central-differencing scheme only converged for the finest grids.     

A residual method of finite differencing for the elliptic transport problem and its application to cavity flow

A residual method of finite differencing the governing differential equation for the elliptic transport problem is presented. The new finite differencing technique is applied to (1) the one-dimensional transport problem and (2) the cavity flow problem for numerical illustrations. The results indicate the validity of the residual method of finite differencing. The usual method of term-by-term finite differencing, and considerations such as central differencing, hybrid differencing and upwind differencing are not needed in the present residual method.     

Numerical aspects of calculation of confined swirling flows with internal recirculation

Predictions were performed for two different confined swirling flows with internal recirculation zones. The convection terms in the elliptic governing equations were discretized using three different finite differencing schemes: hybrid, quadratic upwind interpolation and skew upwind differencing. For each flow case, calculations were carried out with these schemes and successively refined grids were employed. For the turbulent flow case the k-ε turbulence model was used. The predicted cases were a laminar swirling flow investigated by Bornstein and Escudier, and a turbulent low-swirl case studied by Roback and Johnson. In both cases an internal recirculation zone was present. The laminar case is well predicted when account is taken of the estimated radial velocity component at the chosen inlet plane. The quadratic upwind interpolation and skew upwind schemes predict the main features of the internal recirculation zone also with a coarse grid. The turbulent case is well predicted with the coarse as well as the finer grids, the skew upwind and quadratic upwind interpolation schemes yielding results very close to the measurements. It is concluded that the skew upwind scheme reaches grid independence slightly before the quadratic upwind scheme, both considerably earlier than the hybrid scheme.     

Comparison between two finite-difference schemes for computing the flow around a cylinder

Separated flow past a circular cylinder is computed from two finite-difference Navier–Stokes models. Stream functions are calculated using a successive-over-relaxation (SOR) procedure. Alternating-direction-implicil (ADI) and ‘upwind’ directional difference explicit (DDE) numerical schemes for solving the vorticity-transport equation are compared. The ‘upwind’ differencing technique produces artificial viscosity which damps the wake and suppresses vortex shedding. It is shown to be unreliable and so the ADI approach is recommended.     

Insights on a sign‐preserving numerical method for the advection–diffusion equation

In this paper we explore theoretically and numerically the application of the advection transport algorithm introduced by Smolarkiewicz to the one‐dimensional unsteady advection–diffusion equation. The scheme consists of a sequence of upwind iterations, where the initial iteration is the first‐order accurate upwind scheme, while the subsequent iterations are designed to compensate for the truncation error of the preceding step. Two versions of the method are discussed. One, the classical version of the method, regards the second‐order terms of the truncation error and the other considers additionally the third‐order terms. Stability and convergence are discussed and the theoretical considerations are illustrated through numerical tests. The numerical tests will also indicate in which situations are advantageous to use the numerical methods presented. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Developing a physical influence upwind scheme for pressure-based cell-centered finite volume methods

In the framework of a cell-centered finite volume method (FVM), the advection scheme plays the most important role in developing FVMs to solve complicated fluid flow problems for a wide range of Reynolds numbers. Advection schemes have been widely developed for FVMs employing pressure-velocity coupling methodology in the incompressible flow limit. In this regard, the physical influence upwind scheme (PIS) is developed for a cell-centered finite volume coupled solver (FVCS) using a pressure-weighted interpolation method for linking the pressure and velocity fields. The well-known exponential differencing scheme and skew upwind differencing scheme are also deployed in the current FVCS and their numerical results are presented. The accuracy and convergence of the present PIS are evaluated solving flow in a lid-driven square cavity, a lid-driven skewed cavity, and over a backward-facing step (BFS). The flow within the lid-driven square cavity is numerically solved at Reynolds numbers from 400 to 10 000 on a relatively coarse mesh with respect to other reported solutions. The lid-driven skewed cavity test case at Reynolds number of 1000 demonstrates the numerical performance of the present PIS on nonorthogonal grids. The flow over a BFS at Reynolds number of 800 is numerically solved to examine capabilities of current FVCS employing the current PIS in inlet-outlet flow computations. The numerical results obtained by the current PIS are in excellent agreement with those of benchmark solutions of corresponding test cases. Incorporating implicit role of pressure terms in a pressure-weighted interpolation method and development of PIS provides satisfactory solution convergence alongside the numerical accuracy for the current FVCS. A particular numerical verification is performed for the V velocity calculation within the BFS flow field, which confirms the reliability of present PIS.     

A characteristic-based method for incompressible flows

A new characteristic-based method for the solution of the 2D laminar incompressible Navier-Stokes equations is presented. For coupling the continuity and momentum equations, the artificial compressibility formulation is employed. The primitives variables (pressure and velocity components) are defined as functions of their values on the characteristics. The primitives variables on the characteristics are calculated by an upwind diffencing scheme based on the sign of the local eigenvalue of the Jacobian matrix of the convective fluxes. The upwind scheme uses interpolation formulae of third-order accuracy. The time discretization is obtained by the explicit Runge–Kutta method. Validation of the characteristic-based method is performed on two different cases: the flow in a simple cascade and the flow over a backwardfacing step.     

A comparative study of central and upwind difference schemes using the primitive variables

The use of the velocity-pressure formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations for the numerical solution of fluid flow problems is favoured for free-surface problems, more involved flow configurations, and three-dimensional flows. Many engineering problems involve such features in addition to strong inertial effects. The computational instabilities arising from central-difference schemes for the convective terms of the governing equations impose serious limitations on the range of Reynolds numbers that can be investigated by the numerical method. Solutions for higher Reynolds numbers Re > 1000 could be reached using upwind-difference schemes. A comparative study of both schemes using a method based on the primitive variables is presented. The comparison is made for the model problem of the driven flow in a square cavity. Using a central scheme stable solutions of the pressure and velocity fields were obtained for Reynolds numbers up to 5000. The streamfunction and vorticity fields were calculated from the resulting velocity field and compared with previous solutions. It is concluded that total upwind differencing results in a considerable change in the flow pattern due to the false diffusion. For practical calculations, by a proper choice of a small amount of partial upwind differencing the vorticity diffusion near the walls and the global features of the solutions are not sigificantly altered.     

极坐标系下Fourier-Legendre谱元方法与有限差分法数值扩散的比较

提出一种Fourier-Legendre谱元方法用于求解极坐标系下的Navier-Stokes方程,其中极点所在单元的径向采用Gauss-Radau积分点,避免了r=0处的1/r坐标奇异性。时间离散采用时间分裂法,引入数值同位素模型跟踪同位素的输运过程验证数值模拟的精度,分别利用谱元法和有限差分法的迎风差分格式求解匀速和加速坩埚旋转流动中的同位素方程。计算结果表明,有限差分法中的一阶迎风差分格式存在严重的数值假扩散,二阶迎风差分格式的数值结果较精确,增加节点可以有效地缓解数值扩散。然而,谱元法具有以较少节点得到高精度解的优势。     

A Newton/upwind method and numerical study of shock wave/boundary layer interactions

The objective of the paper is twofold. First we describe an upwind/central differencing method for solving the steady Navier–Stokes equations. The symmetric line relaxation method is used to solve the resulting algebraic system to achieve high computational efficiency. The grid spacings used in the calculations are determined from the triple-deck theory, in terms of Mach and Reynolds numbers and other flow parameters. Thus the accuracy of the numerical solutions is improved by comparing them with experimental, analytical and other computational results. Secondly we proceed to study numerically the shock wave/boundary layer interactions in detail, with special attention given to the flow separation. The concept of free interaction is confirmed. Although the separated region varies with Mach and Reynolds numbers, we find that the transverse velocity component behind the incident shock, which has not been identified heretofore, is also an important parameter. A small change of this quantity is sufficient to eliminate the flow separation entirely.     

Assessment of different reconstruction techniques for implementing the NVSF schemes on unstructured meshes

Three new far‐upwind reconstruction techniques, New‐Technique 1, 2, and 3, are proposed in this paper, which localize the normalized variable and space formulation (NVSF) schemes and facilitate the implementation of standard bounded high‐resolution differencing schemes on arbitrary unstructured meshes. By theoretical analysis, it is concluded that the three new techniques overcome two inherent drawbacks of the original technique found in the literature. Eleven classic high‐resolution NVSF schemes developed in the past decades are selected to evaluate performances of the three new techniques relative to the original technique. Under the circumstances of arbitrary unstructured meshes, stretched meshes, and uniform triangular meshes, for each NVSF scheme, the accuracies and convergence properties, when implementing the four aforementioned far‐upwind reconstruction techniques respectively, are assessed by the pure convection of several scalar profiles. The numerical results clearly show that New‐Technique‐2 leads to a better performance in terms of overall accuracy and convergence behavior for the 11 NVSF schemes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of axisymmetric turbulent flow in combustors and diffusers

Numerical studies of turbulent flow in an axisymmetric 45° expansion combustor and bifurcated diffuser are presented. The Navier-Stokes equations incorporating a k–? model were solved in a non-orthogonal curvillinear co-ordinate system. A zonal grid method, wherein the flow field was divided into several subsections, was developed. This approach permitted different computational schemes to be used in the various zones. In addition, grid generation was made a more simple task. However, treatment of the zonal boundaries required special handling. Boundary overlap and interpolating techniques were used and an adjustment of the flow variables was required to assure conservation of mass flux. Three finite differencing methods—hybrid, quadratic upwind and skew upwind—were used to represent the convection terms. Results were compared with existing experimental data. In general, good agreement between predicted and measured values was obtained.     

Development of an Artificial Compressibility Methodology with Implicit LU-SGS Method

A numerical method has been developed to solve the steady and unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in a two-dimensional, curvilinear coordinate system. The solution procedure is based on the method of artificial compressibility and uses a third-order flux-difference splitting upwind differencing scheme for convective terms and second-order center difference for viscous terms. A time-accurate scheme for unsteady incompressible flows is achieved by using an implicit real time discretization and a dual-time approach, which introduces pseudo-unsteady terms into both the mass conservation equation and momentum equations. An efficient fully implicit algorithm LU-SGS, which was originally derived for the compressible Eulur and Navier-Stokes equations by Jameson and Toon [1], is developed for the pseudo-compressibility formulation of the two dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for both steady and unsteady flows. A variety of computed results are presented to validate the present scheme. Numerical solutions for steady flow in a square lid-driven cavity and over a backward facing step and for unsteady flow in a square driven cavity with an oscillating lid and in a circular tube with a smooth expansion are respectively presented and compared with experimental data or other numerical results.     

Higher-order Upwind Distribution-formula Scheme for Structured and Unstructured Adaptive Flow Solvers

The development of inviscid and viscous flow solvers for both structured and unstructured meshes is presented in this paper. The solution method is the distribution-formula scheme. This is an explicit, cell-vertex, finite volume method which is essentially second-order accurate in both space and time. The Euler and Navier-Stokes equations are integrated over each finite volume cell to determine the change in flow properties (e.g. density) for the cell. Distribution formulas are then used to distribute such changes to the surrounding vertices. Increments in each vertex (which is a calculation point) thus consist of contributions from the surrounding cells. The original discretization technique involves central differencing and is simple, robust and computationally efficient. In this work, starting with inviscid flow simulations using the original scheme on structured grids, improvements are subsequently made to the scheme by replacing the central differencing portion with MUSCL type higher-order upwind differencing. Numerical investigations with the improved scheme are performed using inviscid flow simulations on structured grids. Upon establishing improved accuracy, stability and excellent shock capturing properties, further extension to viscous flow computations on unstructured adaptive meshes is implemented. Results are presented for laminar, viscous flow over a NACA 0012 airfoil.     

High‐order compact finite difference schemes for the vorticity–divergence representation of the spherical shallow water equations

This work is devoted to the application of the super compact finite difference method (SCFDM) and the combined compact finite difference method (CCFDM) for spatial differencing of the spherical shallow water equations in terms of vorticity, divergence, and height. The fourth‐order compact, the sixth‐order and eighth‐order SCFDM, and the sixth‐order and eighth‐order CCFDM schemes are used for the spatial differencing. To advance the solution in time, a semi‐implicit Runge–Kutta method is used. In addition, to control the nonlinear instability, an eighth‐order compact spatial filter is employed. For the numerical solution of the elliptic equations in the problem, a direct hybrid method, which consists of a high‐order compact scheme for spatial differencing in the latitude coordinate and a fast Fourier transform in longitude coordinate, is utilized. The accuracy and convergence rate for all methods are verified against exact analytical solutions. Qualitative and quantitative assessments of the results for an unstable barotropic mid‐latitude zonal jet employed as an initial condition are addressed. It is revealed that the sixth‐order and eighth‐order CCFDMs and SCFDMs lead to a remarkable improvement of the solution over the fourth‐order compact method. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New numerical schemes based on a criterion for constructing essentially stable and accurate numerical schemes for convection-dominated equations

In order to obtain stable and accurate numerical solutions for the convection-dominated steady transport equations, we propose a criterion for constructing numerical schemes for the convection term that the roots of the characteristic equation of the resulting difference equation have poles. By imposing this criterion on the difference coefficients of the convection term, we construct two numerical schemes for the convection-dominated equations. One is based on polynomial differencing and the other on locally exact differencing. The former scheme coincides with the QUICK scheme when the mesh Reynolds number (Rm) is $\mathop \[{\textstyle{{\rm 8} \over {\rm 3}}}\] $, which is the critical value for its stability, while it approaches the second-order upwind scheme as Rm goes to infinity. Hence the former scheme interpolates a stable scheme between the QUICK scheme at Rm = $\mathop \[{\textstyle{{\rm 8} \over {\rm 3}}}\] $ and the second-order upwind scheme at Rm = ∞. Numerical solutions with the present new schemes for the one-dimensional, linear, steady convection-diffusion equations showed good results.     

Theory and application of numerical simulation method of capillary force enhanced oil production

A kind of second-order implicit upwind fractional step finite difference methods are presented for the numerical simulation of coupled systems for enhanced(chemical)oil production with capillary force in the porous media.Some techniques,e.g.,the calculus of variations,the energy analysis method,the commutativity of the products of difference operators,the decomposition of high-order difference operators,and the theory of a priori estimate,are introduced.An optimal order error estimate in the l~2 norm is derived.The method is successfully used in the numerical simulation of the enhanced oil production in actual oilfields.The simulation results are satisfactory and interesting.     

Augmented upwind numerical schemes for the groundwater transport advection‐dispersion equation with local operators

When solute transport is advection‐dominated, the advection‐dispersion equation approximates to a hyperbolic‐type partial differential equation, and finite difference and finite element numerical approximation methods become prone to artificial oscillations. The upwind scheme serves to correct these responses to produce a more realistic solution. The upwind scheme is reviewed and then applied to the advection‐dispersion equation with local operators for the first‐order upwinding numerical approximation scheme. The traditional explicit and implicit schemes, as well as the Crank‐Nicolson scheme, are developed and analyzed for numerical stability to form a comparison base. Two new numerical approximation schemes are then proposed, namely, upwind–Crank‐Nicolson scheme, where only for the advection term is applied, and weighted upwind‐downwind scheme. These newly developed schemes are analyzed for numerical stability and compared to the traditional schemes. It was found that an upwind–Crank‐Nicolson scheme is appropriate if the Crank‐Nicolson scheme is only applied to the advection term of the advection‐dispersion equation. Furthermore, the proposed explicit weighted upwind‐downwind finite difference numerical scheme is an improvement on the traditional explicit first‐order upwind scheme, whereas the implicit weighted first‐order upwind‐downwind finite difference numerical scheme is stable under all assumptions when the appropriate weighting factor (θ) is assigned.