Interface‐fitted moving mesh method for axisymmetric two‐phase flow in microchannels

A boundary‐fitted moving mesh scheme is presented for the simulation of two‐phase flow in two‐dimensional and axisymmetric geometries. The incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations are solved using the finite element method, and the mini element is used to satisfy the inf‐sup condition. The interface between the phases is represented explicitly by an interface adapted mesh, thus allowing a sharp transition of the fluid properties. Surface tension is modelled as a volume force and is discretized in a consistent manner, thus allowing to obtain exact equilibrium (up to rounding errors) with the pressure gradient. This is demonstrated for a spherical droplet moving in a constant flow field. The curvature of the interface, required for the surface tension term, is efficiently computed with simple but very accurate geometric formulas. An adaptive moving mesh technique, where smoothing mesh velocities and remeshing are used to preserve the mesh quality, is developed and presented. Mesh refinement strategies, allowing tailoring of the refinement of the computational mesh, are also discussed. Accuracy and robustness of the present method are demonstrated on several validation test cases. The method is developed with the prospect of being applied to microfluidic flows and the simulation of microchannel evaporators used for electronics cooling. Therefore, the simulation results for the flow of a bubble in a microchannel are presented and compared to experimental data.     

A cost‐effective curvature calculation approach for interfacial flows on unstructured meshes

We present a simple and cost‐effective curvature calculation approach for simulations of interfacial flows on structured and unstructured grids. The interface is defined using volume fractions, and the interface curvature is obtained as a function of the gradients of volume fractions. The gradient computation is based on a recently proposed gradient recovery method that mimicks the least squares approach without the need to solve a system of equations and is quite easy to implement on arbitrary polygonal meshes. The resulting interface curvature is used in a continuum surface force formulation within the framework of a well‐balanced finite‐volume algorithm to simulate multiphase flows dominated by surface tension. We show that the proposed curvature calculation is at least as accurate as some of the existing approaches on unstructured meshes while being straightforward to implement on any mesh topology. Numerical investigations also show that spurious currents in stationary problems that are dependent on the curvature calculation methodology are also acceptably low using the proposed approach. Studies on capillary waves and rising bubbles in viscous flows lend credence to the ability of the proposed method as an inexpensive, robust, and reasonably accurate approach for curvature calculation and numerical simulation of multiphase flows.     

An efficient edge based data structure for the compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations on hybrid unstructured meshes

An efficient edge based data structure has been developed in order to implement an unstructured vertex based finite volume algorithm for the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations on hybrid meshes. In the present approach, the data structure is tailored to meet the requirements of the vertex based algorithm by considering data access patterns and cache efficiency. The required data are packed and allocated in a way that they are close to each other in the physical memory. Therefore, the proposed data structure increases cache performance and improves computation time. As a result, the explicit flow solver indicates a significant speed up compared to other open-source solvers in terms of CPU time. A fully implicit version has also been implemented based on the PETSc library in order to improve the robustness of the algorithm. The resulting algebraic equations due to the compressible Navier–Stokes and the one equation Spalart–Allmaras turbulence equations are solved in a monolithic manner using the restricted additive Schwarz preconditioner combined with the FGMRES Krylov subspace algorithm. In order to further improve the computational accuracy, the multiscale metric based anisotropic mesh refinement library PyAMG is used for mesh adaptation. The numerical algorithm is validated for the classical benchmark problems such as the transonic turbulent flow around a supercritical RAE2822 airfoil and DLR-F6 wing-body-nacelle-pylon configuration. The efficiency of the data structure is demonstrated by achieving up to an order of magnitude speed up in CPU times.     

Characteristic behaviour of plasma fluctuations inside a plasma bubble in presence of a magnetic field due to the formation of a potential well

Experiments were carried out to observe the effect of a magnetic field and grid biasing voltage in presence of a plasma bubble in a magnetized, filamentary discharge plasma system. A spherical mesh grid of 80% optical transparency was negatively biased and introduced into the plasma for creating a plasma bubble. Diagnostics via an electrical Langmuir probe and a hot emissive probe were extensively used for scanning the plasma bubble. Plasma floating potential fluctuations were measured at three different positions of the plasma bubble. The instability in the pattern showed the dynamic transition from periodic to chaotic for increasing magnetic fields. Time scale analysis using continuous wavelet transform was carried out to identify the presence of non‐linearity from the contour plots. The mechanisms of the low‐frequency instabilities along with the transition to chaos could be qualitatively explained. Non‐linear techniques such as fast Fourier transform, phase space plot, and recurrence plot were used to explore the dynamics of the system appearing during plasma fluctuations. In order to demonstrate the observed chaotic phenomena in this study, characteristics of chaos such as the Lyapunov exponent were obtained from experimental time series data. The experimentally observed potential structure is confirmed with numerical analysis based on fluid hydrodynamics.     

An adaptive multilevel wavelet framework for scale‐selective WENO reconstruction schemes

We put forth a dynamic computing framework for scale‐selective adaptation of weighted essential nonoscillatory (WENO) schemes for the simulation of hyperbolic conservation laws exhibiting strong discontinuities. A multilevel wavelet‐based multiresolution procedure, embedded in a conservative finite volume formulation, is used for a twofold purpose. (i) a dynamic grid adaptation of the solution field for redistributing grid points optimally (in some sense) according to the underlying flow structures, and (ii) a dynamic minimization of the in built artificial dissipation of WENO schemes. Taking advantage of the structure detection properties of this multiresolution algorithm, the nonlinear weights of the conventional WENO implementation are selectively modified to ensure lower dissipation in smoother areas. This modification is implemented through a linear transition from the fifth‐order upwind stencil at the coarsest regions of the adaptive grid to a fully nonlinear fifth‐order WENO scheme at areas of high irregularity. Therefore, our computing algorithm consists of a dynamic grid adaptation strategy, a scale‐selective state reconstruction, a conservative flux calculation, and a total variation diminishing Runge‐Kutta scheme for time advancement. Results are presented for canonical examples drawn from the inviscid Burgers, shallow water, Euler, and magnetohydrodynamic equations. Our findings represent a novel direction for providing a scale‐selective dissipation process without a compromise on shock capturing behavior for conservation laws, which would be a strong contender for dynamic implicit large eddy simulation approaches.     

A Runge-Kutta–based WENO reconstruction on moving mesh for compressible fluids

In this paper, we construct a high-order moving mesh method based on total variation diminishing Runge-Kutta and weighted essential nonoscillatory reconstruction for compressible fluid system. Beginning with the integral form of fluid system, we get the semidiscrete system with an arbitrary mesh velocity. We use weighted essential nonoscillatory reconstruction to get the space accuracy on moving meshes, and the time accuracy is obtained by modified Runge-Kutta method; the mesh velocity is determined by moving mesh method. One- and two-dimensional numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficient and accurate performance of the scheme.     

A framework to perform high-order deconvolution for finite-volume method on simplicial meshes

In this article, a new framework to design high-order approximations in the context of node-centered finite volumes on simplicial meshes is proposed. The major novelty of this method is that it relies on very simple and compact differential operators, which is a critical point to achieve good performances in the High-performance computing context. This method is based on deconvolution between nodal and volume-average values, which can be conducted to any order. The interest of the new method is illustrated through three different applications: mesh-to-mesh interpolation, levelset curvature computation, and numerical scheme for convection. Higher order can also be achieved within the present framework by introducing high-rank tensors. Although these tensors feature much symmetries, their manipulation can quickly become an overwhelming task. For this reason and without loss of generality, the present articles are limited to third-order expansion. This method, although tightly connected to the k-exact schemes theory, does not rely on successive corrections: the high-order property is obtained in a single operation, which makes them more attractive in terms of performances.     

Evolution of vortices in the wake of an ARJ21 airplane: Application of the lift-drag model

Wake separation is crucial to aircraft landing safety and is an important factor in airport operational efficiency. The near-ground evolution characteristics of wake vortices form the foundation of the wake separation system design. In this study, we analysed the near-ground evolution of vortices in the wake of a domestic aircraft ARJ21 initialised by the lift-drag model using large eddy simulations based on an adaptive mesh. Evolution of wake vortices formed by the main wing, flap and horizontal tail was discussed in detail. The horizontal tail vortices are the weakest and dissipate rapidly, whereas the flap vortices are the strongest and induce the tip vortex to merge with them. The horizontal tail and flap of an ARJ21 do not significantly influence the circulation evolution, height change and movement trajectory of the wake vortices. The far-field evolution of wake vortices can therefore be analysed using the conventional wake vortex model.     

Modified Lagrangian vortex method with improved boundary conditions for water waves past a thin bottom‐standing barrier

Herein, the modified Lagrangian vortex method (LVM), a hybrid analytical‐numerical algorithm per se, is devised to simulate the process of vortex formation and shedding from the sharp edge of a zero‐thickness vertical plate under linear water‐wave attack. Application of the Helmholtz decomposition facilitates a convenient switch between the inviscid‐ and viscous‐flow models, thereby enabling easy incorporation of vorticity effects into the potential‐flow calculations for the viscous‐dominated region. In evaluating the potential‐flow component, making good use of the quickly convergent technique with singular basis functions, correctly capturing the singular behavior in velocity fields near the tip of the plate, leads to a considerable reduction of computational burdens and to 12‐decimal‐place accuracy. The viscous correction is carried out via the meshless LVM with improved boundary conditions. Comparisons with previously published results show good agreement. Simulations of vortex generation and evolution illuminate the ability of the present method, and provide a supplement to pertinent experimental works. The hybrid scheme proposed herein allows flexibility for the former LVM and convenience in the code development. Such a compromise fits particularly well for the high‐resolution modeling of sharp‐edged vortex shedding without heavy numerical developments. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A 3D mesh deformation technique for irregular in‐flight ice accretion

Aircraft holding around busy airports may be requested to sustain as much as 45 min of icing before landing or being diverted to another airport. In this paper, a three‐dimensional mesh deformation scheme, based on a structural frame analogy, is proposed for the numerical simulation of ice accretion during extended exposure to adverse weather conditions. The goal is to provide an approach that is robust and efficient enough to delay or altogether avoid re‐meshing while preserving (enforcing) nearly orthogonal elements at the highly distorted ice surface. Robustness is achieved by suitably modifying the axial and torsional stiffness components of the frame elements in order to handle large and irregular grid displacements typical of in‐flight icing. Computational efficiency is obtained by applying the mesh displacement to an automatically selected small subset of the entire computational domain. The methodology is validated first in the case of deformations typical of fluid‐structure interaction problems, including wing bending, a helicopter rotor in forward flight, and the twisting of a high‐lift wing configuration. The approach is then assessed for aero‐icing on two swept wings and compared against experimental measurements where available. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.