Simulation of viscous water column collapse using adapting hierarchical grids

An adaptive hierarchical grid‐based method for predicting complex free surface flows is used to simulate collapse of a water column. Adapting quadtree grids are combined with a high‐resolution interface‐capturing approach and pressure‐based coupling of the Navier–Stokes equations. The Navier–Stokes flow solution scheme is verified for simulation of flow in a lid‐driven cavity at Re=1000. Two approaches to the coupling of the Navier–Stokes equations are investigated as are alternative face velocity and hanging node interpolations. Collapse of a water column as well as collapse of a water column and its subsequent interaction with an obstacle are simulated. The calculations are made on uniform and adapting quadtree grids, and the accuracy of the quadtree calculations is shown to be the same as those made on the equivalent uniform grids. Results are in excellent agreement with experimental and other numerical data. A sharp interface is maintained at the free surface. The new adapting quadtree‐based method achieves a considerable saving in the size of the computational grid and CPU time in comparison with calculations made on equivalent uniform grids. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A parallel cell‐based DSMC method on unstructured adaptive meshes

A parallel DSMC method based on a cell‐based data structure is developed for the efficient simulation of rarefied gas flows on PC‐clusters. Parallel computation is made by decomposing the computational domain into several subdomains. Dynamic load balancing between processors is achieved based on the number of simulation particles and the number of cells allocated in each subdomain. Adjustment of cell size is also made through mesh adaptation for the improvement of solution accuracy and the efficient usage of meshes. Applications were made for a two‐dimensional supersonic leading‐edge flow, the axi‐symmetric Rothe's nozzle, and the open hollow cylinder flare flow for validation. It was found that the present method is an efficient tool for the simulation of rarefied gas flows on PC‐based parallel machines. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A time‐accurate pseudo‐compressibility approach based on an unstructured hybrid finite volume technique applied to unsteady turbulent premixed flame propagation

A preconditioning approach based on the artificial compressibility formulation is extended to solve the governing equations for unsteady turbulent reactive flows with heat release, at low Mach numbers, on an unstructured hybrid grid context. Premixed reactants are considered and a flamelet approach for combustion modelling is adopted using a continuous quenched mean reaction rate. An overlapped cell‐vertex finite volume method is adopted as a discretisation scheme. Artificial dissipation terms for hybrid grids are explicitly added to ensure a stable, discretised set of equations. A second‐order, explicit, hybrid Runge–Kutta scheme is applied for the time marching in pseudo‐time. A time derivative of the dependent variable is added to recover the time accuracy of the preconditioned set of equations. This derivative is discretised by an implicit, second‐order scheme. The resulting scheme is applied to the calculation of an infinite planar (one‐dimensional) turbulent premixed flame propagating freely in reactants whose turbulence is supposed to be frozen, homogeneous and isotropic. The accuracy of the results obtained with the proposed method proves to be excellent when compared to the data available in the literature. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sparse-grid finite-volume multigrid for 3D-problems

We introduce a multigrid algorithm for the solution of a second order elliptic equation in three dimensions. For the approximation of the solution we use a partially ordered hierarchy of finite-volume discretisations. We show that there is a relation with semicoarsening and approximation by more-dimensional Haar wavelets. By taking a proper subset of all possible meshes in the hierarchy, a sparse grid finite-volume discretisation can be constructed.The multigrid algorithm consists of a simple damped point-Jacobi relaxation as the smoothing procedure, while the coarse grid correction is made by interpolation from several coarser grid levels.The combination of sparse grids and multigrid with semi-coarsening leads to a relatively small number of degrees of freedom,N, to obtain an accurate approximation, together with anO(N) method for the solution. The algorithm is symmetric with respect to the three coordinate directions and it is fit for combination with adaptive techniques.To analyse the convergence of the multigrid algorithm we develop the necessary Fourier analysis tools. All techniques, designed for 3D-problems, can also be applied for the 2D case, and — for simplicity — we apply the tools to study the convergence behaviour for the anisotropic Poisson equation for this 2D case.     

Solution of the hyperbolic mild‐slope equation using the finite volume method

A finite volume solver for the 2D depth‐integrated harmonic hyperbolic formulation of the mild‐slope equation for wave propagation is presented and discussed. The solver is implemented on unstructured triangular meshes and the solution methodology is based upon a Godunov‐type second‐order finite volume scheme, whereby the numerical fluxes are computed using Roe's flux function. The eigensystem of the mild‐slope equations is derived and used for the construction of Roe's matrix. A formulation that updates the unknown variables in time implicitly is presented, which produces a more accurate and reliable scheme than hitherto available. Boundary conditions for different types of boundaries are also derived. The agreement of the computed results with analytical results for a range of wave propagation/transformation problems is very good, and the model is found to be virtually paraxiality‐free. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementation of some higher-order convection schemes on non-uniform grids

A generalized formulation is applied to implement the quadratic upstream interpolation (QUICK) scheme, the second-order upwind (SOU) scheme and the second-order hybrid scheme (SHYBRID) on non-uniform grids. The implementation method is simple. The accuracy and efficiency of these higher-order schemes on non-uniform grids are assessed. Three well-known bench mark convection-diffusion problems and a fluid flow problem are revisited using non-uniform grids. These are: (1) transport of a scalar tracer by a uniform velocity field; (2) heat transport in a recirculating flow; (3) two-dimensional non-linear Burgers equations; and (4) a two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes flow which is similar to the classical lid-driven cavity flow. The known exact solutions of the last three problems make it possible to thoroughly evaluate accuracies of various uniform and non-uniform grids. Higher accuracy is obtained for fewer grid points on non-uniform grids. The order of accuracy of the examined schemes is maintained for some tested problems if the distribution of non-uniform grid points is properly chosen.     

The combination technique and some generalisations

The combination technique has repeatedly been shown to be an effective tool for the approximation with sparse grid spaces. Little is known about the reasons of this effectiveness and in some cases the combination technique can even break down. It is known, however, that the combination technique produces an exact result in the case of a projection into a sparse grid space if the involved partial projections commute.

The performance of the combination technique is analysed using a projection framework and the C/S decomposition. Error bounds are given in terms of angles between the spanning subspaces or the projections onto these subspaces. Based on this analysis modified combination coefficients are derived which are optimal in a certain sense and which can substantially extend the applicability and performance of the combination technique.     

Interpolation on spherical geodesic grids: A comparative study

Most operational models in atmospheric physics, meteorology and climatology nowadays adopt spherical geodesic grids and require “ad hoc” developed interpolation procedures. The author does a comparison between chosen representatives of linear, distance-based and cubic interpolation schemes outlining their advantages and drawbacks in this specific application field. Numerical experiments on a standard test problem, while confirming a good performance of linear and distance-based schemes in a single interpolation step, also show their minor accuracy with respect to the cubic scheme in the more realistic simulation of advection of a meteorological field.     

Difference schemes on uniform grids performed by general discrete operators

Our aim is to set the foundations of a discrete vectorial calculus on uniform n-dimensional grids, that can be easily reformulated on general irregular grids. As a key tool we first introduce the notion of tangent space to any grid node. Then we define the concepts of vector field, field of matrices and inner products on the space of grid functions and on the space of vector fields, mimicking the continuous setting. This allows us to obtain the discrete analogous of the basic first order differential operators, gradient and divergence, whose composition define the fundamental second order difference operator. As an application, we show that all difference schemes, with constant coefficients, for first and second order differential operators with constant coefficients can be seen as difference operators of the form for suitable choices of q, and  . In addition, we characterize special properties of the difference scheme, such as consistency, symmetry and positivity in terms of q, and  .