Evaluation of adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening for the computation of compressible flows on unstructured meshes

The compressible gas flows of interest to aerospace applications often involve situations where shock and expansion waves are present. Decreasing the characteristic dimension of the computational cells in the vicinity of shock waves improves the quality of the computed flows. This reduction in size may be accomplished by the use of mesh adaption procedures. In this paper an analysis is presented of an adaptive mesh scheme developed for an unstructured mesh finite volume upwind computer code. This scheme is tailored to refine or coarsen the computational mesh where gradients of the flow properties are respectively high or low. The refinement and coarsening procedures are applied to the classical gas dynamic problems of the stabilization of shock waves by solid bodies. In particular, situations where oblique shock waves interact with an expansion fan and where bow shocks arise around solid bodies are considered. The effectiveness of the scheme in reducing the computational time, while increasing the solution accuracy, is assessed. It is shown that the refinement procedure alone leads to a number of computational cells which is 20% larger than when alternate passes of refinement and coarsening are used. Accordingly, a reduction of computational time of the same order of magnitude is obtained. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asymptotic behavior of vortices in axisymmetric flow without swirl

We investigate the confinement properties of bounded, nonnegative, compactly supported vortices of axisymmetric incompressible Euler flows without swirl. We show that along one direction of the symmetry axis, its support can grow no faster than O[(t log t)^1/2]. The rate at which it approaches the symmetry axis is also estimated. Together with the result of Maffei–Marchioro on the radial growth rate of the support, it is contained in a slowly expanding tubular region. The techniques of the above‐mentioned authors, Iftimie–Lopes–Nussenzveig and Iftimie–Sideris–Gamblin, are used. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An adaptive cut‐cell method for environmental fluid mechanics

In this work we present a numerical method for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in an environmental fluid mechanics context. The method is designed for the study of environmental flows that are multiscale, incompressible, variable‐density, and within arbitrarily complex and possibly anisotropic domains. The method is new because in this context we couple the embedded‐boundary (or cut‐cell) method for complex geometry with block‐structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) while maintaining conservation and second‐order accuracy. The accurate simulation of variable‐density fluids necessitates special care in formulating projection methods. This variable‐density formulation is well known for incompressible flows in unit‐aspect ratio domains, without AMR, and without complex geometry, but here we carefully present a new method that addresses the intersection of these issues. The methodology is based on a second‐order‐accurate projection method with high‐order‐accurate Godunov finite‐differencing, including slope limiting and a stable differencing of the nonlinear convection terms. The finite‐volume AMR discretizations are based on two‐way flux matching at refinement boundaries to obtain a conservative method that is second‐order accurate in solution error. The control volumes are formed by the intersection of the irregular embedded boundary with Cartesian grid cells. Unlike typical discretization methods, these control volumes naturally fit within parallelizable, disjoint‐block data structures, and permit dynamic AMR coarsening and refinement as the simulation progresses. We present two‐ and three‐dimensional numerical examples to illustrate the accuracy of the method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An accurate finite element scheme with moving meshes for computing 3D‐axisymmetric interface flows

An accurate finite element scheme for computing 3D‐axisymmetric incompressible free surface and interface flows is proposed. It is based on the arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) approach using free surface/interface‐resolved moving meshes. Key features like the surface force, consisting of surface tension and the local curvature, and jumps in the density and viscosity over different fluid phases are precisely incorporated in the finite element formulation. The local curvature is approximated by using the Laplace–Beltrami operator technique combined with a boundary approximation by isoparametric finite elements. A new approach is used to derive the 3D‐axisymmetric form from the variational form in 3D‐Cartesian coordinates. Several test examples show the high accuracy and the robustness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shear viscosity of polymer and surfactant monolayers

The surface shear viscosity of monolayers formed at the surface of water by adsorbed polyethyl- eneoxyde and by stearic acid is measured as a function of the surface pressure of the monolayer using a new surface viscometer. The principle of the viscometer is the measurement of the drag force on a circular disk undergoing a uniform translation at the water surface: a hydrodynamic model based on the lubrication approximation allows a calculation of the surface viscosities from the absolute measurement of the drag forces. Received: 26 August 1999     

A numerical technique for laminar swirling flow at the interface between porous and homogenous fluid domains

There have been a few recent numerical implementations of the stress‐jump condition at the interface of conjugate flows, which couple the governing equations for flows in the porous and homogenous fluid domains. These previous demonstration cases were for two‐dimensional, planar flows with simple geometries, for example, flow over a porous layer or flow through a porous plug. The present study implements the interfacial stress‐jump condition for a non‐planar flow with three velocity components, which is more realistic in terms of practical flow applications. The steady, laminar, Newtonian flow in a stirred micro‐bioreactor with a porous scaffold inside was investigated. It is shown how to implement the interfacial jump condition on the radial, axial, and swirling velocity components. To avoid a full three‐dimensional simulation, the flow is assumed to be independent of the azimuthal direction, which makes it an axisymmetric flow with a swirling velocity. The present interface treatment is suitable for non‐flat surfaces, which is achieved by applying the finite volume method based on body‐fitted and multi‐block grids. The numerical simulations show that a vortex breakdown bubble, attached to the free surface, occurs above a certain Reynolds number. The presence of the porous scaffold delays the onset of vortex breakdown and confines it to a region above the scaffold. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic simulation of the hydrodynamic interaction among immersed particles in Stokes flow

A numerical method for the dynamic simulation of the hydrodynamic interaction among particles in Stokes flow is developed. The method couples the quasi-static Stokes equations for the fluid with the equilibrium equations for the particles. The boundary element method is used to represent the velocity at a general field point in terms of surface velocities and stresses. However, neither the stresses nor the velocities are assumed to be known on the surface of the particles. Kinematic equations relating the linear and angular velocities at the centroids of the particles to the surface velocities are combined with the discretized boundary element equations and the equilibrium equations to generate a system of linear equations. The associated coefficient matrix is correspondent to the grand resistance matrix which relates the velocities of the particles to a given geometry.     

Transition to chaos in lid-driven square cavity flow

To date, there are very few studies on the transition beyond second Hopf bifurcation in a lid-driven square cavity, due to the difficulties in theoretical analysis and numerical simulations. In this paper, we study the characteristics of the third Hopf bifurcation in a driven square cavity by applying a consistent fourth-order compact finite difference scheme rectently developed by us. We numerically identify the critical Reynolds number of the third Hopf bifurcation located in the interval of (13944.7021,13946.5333) by the method of bisection. Through Fourier analysis, it is discovered that the flow becomes chaotic with a characteristic of period-doubling bifurcation when the Reynolds number is beyond the third bifurcation critical interval. Nonlinear time series analysis further ascertains the flow chaotic behaviors via the phase diagram, Kolmogorov entropy and maximal Lyapunov exponent. The phase diagram changes interestingly from a closed curve with self-intersection to an unclosed curve and the attractor eventually becomes strange when the flow becomes chaotic.     

Similarity solutions for the flow behind an exponential shock in a non-ideal gas

Similarity solutions for the flow of a non-ideal gas behind a strong exponential shock driven out by a piston (cylindrical or spherical) moving with time according to an exponential law are obtained. Similarity solutions exist only when the surrounding medium is of constant density. Solutions are obtained, in both the cases, when the flow between the shock and the piston is isothermal or adiabatic. It is found that the assumption of zero temperature gradient brings a profound change in the density distribution as compare to that of the adiabatic case. Effects of the non-idealness of the gas on the flow-field between the shock and the piston are investigated. The variations of density-ratio across the shock and the location of the piston with the parameter of non-idealness of the gas are also obtained.