Spatial decay estimates for the Brinkman and Darcy flows in a semi-infinite cylinder

The flow of a fluid through a porous medium is often modeled by the Brinkman or the Darcy system. In this paper we investigate Saint-Venant type decay of solutions for both systems when the medium is confined to a semi-infinite cylinder and appropriate homogeneous initial and boundary values are assumed. Received: February 1, 1997     

Exact solution for the rotational flow of a generalized second grade fluid in a circular cylinder

This paper deals with the rotational flow of a generalized second grade fluid, within a circular cylinder, due to a torsional shear stress. The fractional calculus approach in the constitutive relationship model of a second grade fluid is introduced. The velocity field and the resulting shear stress are determined by means of the Laplace and finite Hankel transforms to satisfy all imposed initial and boundary conditions. The solutions corresponding to second grade fluids as well as those for Newtonian fluids are obtained as limiting cases of our general solutions. The influence of the fractional coefficient on the velocity of the fluid is also analyzed by graphical illustrations.     

Application of Boundary-Fitted Coordinate Transformations to groundwater flow modeling

The Boundary-Fitted Coordinate (BFC) Transformation method is a very powerful, efficient and accurate method of modeling heat or fluid flow in two- or three-dimensional domains with complex boundary shapes and abrupt changes in internal properties. Since the late 1970's it has become the modeling method of choice among many aerodynamicists and heat-flow modelers. It is being presented here for the first time as a new approach to modeling groundwater flow, based on successful research results in two dimensions. The BFC transformation method was employed to simulate two hypothetical well-flow scenarios in isotropic and anisotropic domains, and actual groundwater flows in the area of West Lafayette, Indiana. The numerical solutions in those cases were at least as accurate as and/or consistent with those obtained by purely finite difference and finite element methods, but with the added advantage of more accurate representation and implementation of the boundary condition in the region of great sensitivity. The BFC method successfully applied to two-dimensional simulations should be easily extended to simulations of three-dimensional flow and transport and thus, this research is continuing in that direction.     

Synthetic method in thermal boundary layer transition

The problem of a general incompressible viscous fluid flow past a flat plate with heat transfer due to forced convection is considered in this paper. The synthetic method developed by Seth is applied to the Navier-Stokes equations and the equation of energy governing the flow to obtain the dynamic and thermal boundary layer solutions as asymptotic limits of an extended field. As a result, new formulas are derived for both the dynamic and thermal boundary layer thicknesses. Also, algorithms for estimating all the parameters involved in the analysis are provided and boundary layer functions based on the new solutions are determined.     

Analysis of Nonlinear Poro-Elastic and Poro-Visco-Elastic Models

We consider the initial and boundary value problem for a system of partial differential equations describing the motion of a fluid–solid mixture under the assumption of full saturation. The ability of the fluid phase to flow within the solid skeleton is described by the permeability tensor, which is assumed here to be a multiple of the identity and to depend nonlinearly on the volumetric solid strain. In particular, we study the problem of the existence of weak solutions in bounded domains, accounting for non-zero volumetric and boundary forcing terms. We investigate the influence of viscoelasticity on the solution functional setting and on the regularity requirements for the forcing terms. The theoretical analysis shows that different time regularity requirements are needed for the volumetric source of linear momentum and the boundary source of traction depending on whether or not viscoelasticity is present. The theoretical results are further investigated via numerical simulations based on a novel dual mixed hybridized finite element discretization. When the data are sufficiently regular, the simulations show that the solutions satisfy the energy estimates predicted by the theoretical analysis. Interestingly, the simulations also show that, in the purely elastic case, the Darcy velocity and the related fluid energy might become unbounded if indeed the data do not enjoy the time regularity required by the theory.     

An effective approach for modeling fluid flow in heterogeneous media using numerical manifold method

A major challenge of modeling fluid flow in heterogeneous media is to model the material interfaces, which may be arbitrarily oriented or intersected with Dirichlet, Neumann, or other boundaries, making it difficult to mesh and accurately satisfy the boundary constraints. In order to solve these problems, we derived a new continuous approach in the numerical manifold method (NMM). NMM is an ideal method to handle boundaries, considering its flexibility and efficiency with fixed mathematical mesh and its integration precision. With the two‐cover‐meshing system, we construct physical covers containing gradient jump terms defined as extended degrees of freedom to realize the refraction law across material interfaces. In the global equilibrium equations, the jump terms are naturally considered with the energy‐work seepage model. In this approach, high accuracy is expected from the newly constructed jump function together with simplex integration. Moreover, high mesh efficiency is realized by fixed triangular mathematical mesh with algorithms fully considering interfaces intersecting with Dirichlet, Neumann, or other boundaries and simplex integration on elements in arbitrary shapes. The new approach was coded into our NMM fluid flow model. We calculated examples involving fluid flow through a domain including (1) a single interface, (2) an idealized fault represented by multiple material interfaces, (3) intersected interfaces, and (4) an octagonal inclusion. We compared the simulated results to analytical solutions or results with denser mesh to test precision and efficiency and thereby proved that the new approach is accurate, efficient, and flexible, especially when considering intense geometric change or intersections. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An ALE approach to mechano‐chemical processes in fluid–structure interactions

Mathematical modeling and simulation of fluid–structure interaction problems are in the focus of research already for a longer period. However, taking into account also chemical reactions, leading to structural changes, including changes of mechanical properties of the solid phase, is rather new but for many applications is highly important area. This paper formulates a model system for reactive flow and transport in a vessel system, the penetration of chemical substances into the solid wall. Inside the wall, reactions take place that lead to changes of volume and of the mechanical properties of the wall. Numerical algorithms are developed and used to simulate the dynamics of such a mechano‐chemical fluid–structure interaction problem. As a proof of concept scenario, plaque formation in blood vessels is chosen. The arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian approach (ALE) is chosen to solve the systems numerically. Temporal discretization of the fully coupled monolithic model is accomplished by backward Euler scheme and spatial discretization by stabilized finite elements. The numerical approach is verified by numerical tests, and effective methods to maintain mesh qualities under large deformations are described. For realistic system parameters, the simulations show that the plaque formation in blood vessel is a long‐time effect. The time scale of the formation is in the simulation of comparable order as in reality. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An immersed boundary method for fluid flows around rigid objects

In this paper, we present an immersed boundary method for solving fluid flow problems in the presence of static and moving rigid objects. A FEM is used starting from a base mesh that does not represent exactly rigid objects (non?body?conforming mesh). At each time step, the base mesh is locally modified to provide a new mesh fitting the boundary of the rigid objects. The mesh is also locally improved using edge swapping to enhance the quality of the elements. The Navier–Stokes equations are then solved on this new mesh. The velocity of moving objects is imposed through standard Dirichlet boundary conditions. We consider a number of test problems and compare the numerical solutions with those obtained on classical body?fitted meshes whenever possible. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Legendre wavelet spectral collocation technique resolving anomalies associated with velocity in some boundary layer flows of Walter-B liquid

A Legendre wavelet spectral collocation method is proposed here to solve three boundary layer flow problems of Walter-B fluid namely the stagnation point flow, Blasius flow and Sakiadis flow. In the proposed method, we first transform the boundary value problems into initial value problems using shooting method. We then split the semi infinite domain into subintervals and the governing initial value problems are transformed to system of algebraic equations in each subinterval. The solutions of these algebraic equations yield an approximate solution of the differential equation in each subinterval. The overshoot in the velocity profile associated with the stagnation point and Blasius flows and undershoot in the Sakiadis flow is controlled. Physically realistic solutions are presented for both weakly and strongly viscoelastic parameters. The residual error validates the correctness, convergence and accuracy of the obtained solutions.     

On unsteady motions of a second-order fluid over a plane wall

In this paper, three types of unsteady flows of second-order fluids are considered, namely, flow caused by impulsive motion of a flat plate, flow induced by a constantly accelerating plane and flow imposed by a flat plate that applies a constant tangential stress to the fluid. The previous attempts made regarding these problems, by using the Laplace transform, have failed. In this paper, the sine and the cosine transforms are used to solve these problems and exact solutions for the velocity distributions are found in terms of definite integrals. It is shown that these exact solutions satisfy the initial and the boundary conditions and the governing equation.     

Meshless Galerkin analysis of Stokes slip flow with boundary integral equations

This paper presents a novel meshless Galerkin scheme for modeling incompressible slip Stokes flows in 2D. The boundary value problem is reformulated as boundary integral equations of the first kind which is then converted into an equivalent variational problem with constraint. We introduce a Lagrangian multiplier to incorporate the constraint and apply the moving least‐squares approximations to generate trial and test functions. In this boundary‐type meshless method, boundary conditions can be implemented exactly and system matrices are symmetric. Unlike the domain‐type method, this Galerkin scheme requires only a nodal structure on the bounding surface of a body for approximation of boundary unknowns. The convergence and abstract error estimates of this new approach are given. Numerical examples are also presented to show the efficiency of the method. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reactive Constrained Mixtures for Modeling the Solid Matrix of Biological Tissues

This article illustrates our approach for modeling the solid matrix of biological tissues using reactive constrained mixtures. Several examples are presented to highlight the potential benefits of this approach, showing that seemingly disparate fields of mechanics and chemical kinetics are actually closely interrelated and may be elegantly expressed in a unified framework. Thus, constrained mixture models recover classical theories for fibrous materials with bundles oriented in different directions or having different reference configurations, that produce characteristic fiber recruitment patterns under loading. Reactions that exchange mass among various constituents of a mixture may be used to describe tissue growth and remodeling, which may also alter the material’s anisotropy. Similarly, reactions that describe the breaking and reforming of bonds may be used to model free energy dissipation in a viscoelastic material. Therefore, this framework is particularly well suited for modeling biological tissues.     

Interactive boundary layer models for channel flow

In this paper, the aim is to present the results of a new approach for the asymptotic modeling of two-dimensional steady, incompressible, laminar flows in a channel. More precisely, for high Reynolds numbers, the walls of the channel are deformed in such a way that separation is possible. Of course, numerical solutions of Navier–Stokes equations can be calculated but it is believed that an asymptotic analysis helps in the understanding of the flow structure. Numerical solutions of Navier–Stokes equations are compared with solutions of asymptotic models included in a more general model called global interactive boundary layer.     

A note on sinusoidal motion of a viscoelastic non-Newtonian fluid

In this note, the exact solutions of velocity field and associated shear stress corresponding to the flow of second-grade fluid in a cylindrical pipe, subject to a sinusoidal shear stress, are determined by means of Laplace and finite Hankel transform. These solutions are written as sum of steady-state and transient solutions, and they satisfy governing equations and all imposed initial and boundary conditions. The corresponding solutions for the Newtonian fluid, performing the same motion, can be obtained from our general solutions. At the end of this note, the effects of different parameters are presented and discussed by showing flow profiles graphically.     

一种力-电协同驱动的细胞微流控培养腔理论模型

细胞培养液在微流控生物反应器中受到外界物理场（如压力梯度或者电场）作用流动而产生流体剪应力,并进一步刺激种子细胞调控其内部基因的表达,从而促进细胞的分化和生长,这个过程在自然生命组织内的微管中亦是如此。考虑到细胞培养微腔隙中液体流动行为很难实验量化测定,理论建模分析是目前可行的研究手段。因此建立了矩形截面的细胞微流控培养腔理论模型,将外部的物理驱动场（压力梯度与电场）与培养腔内液体的流速、切应力和流率联系起来,分别得到了压力梯度驱动（Pressure gradient driven,PGD）、电场驱动（Electric field driven,EFD）及力-电协同驱动（Pressure-electricity synergic driven,P-ESD）三种驱动方式下的液体流动理论模型。结果表明该理论模型与现有的实验结果基本一致,具体地:力-电协同作用下的解答为压力梯度驱动和电场驱动结果的叠加。细胞培养腔内的流体流速、剪应力及流率幅值均正比于外部物理场强幅值,但随着压力梯度驱动载荷频率的增大而减小,随着电场驱动频率的变化不明显。在压力梯度驱动作用下,细胞贴壁处的切应力随着腔高的增大而线性增大,流率则随着腔高的增大而非线性增大,而电场驱动下的结果不受腔高的影响。生理范围内的温度场变化对压力和电场驱动的结果影响不大。另外,在引起细胞响应的流体切应力水平,电场驱动能提供较大的切应力幅值而压力梯度驱动则能提供较大的流率幅值。该理论模型的建立为细胞微流控生物反应器实验系统的设计及参数优化提供理论参考,同时也为力-电刺激细胞生长、分化机理的研究的提供基础。      

Gravity-driven laminar film flow of power-law fluids along vertical walls

A theoretical analysis is presented which brings steady laminar film flow of power-law fluids within the framework of classical boundary layer theory. The upper part of the film, which consists of a developing viscous boundary layer and an external inviscid freestream, is treated separately from the viscous dominated part of the flow, thereby taking advantage of the distinguishing features of each flow region. It is demonstrated that the film boundary layer developing along a vertical wall can be described by a generalized Falkner-Skan type equation originally developed for wedge flow. An exact similarity solution for the velocity field in the film boundary layer is thus made available.Downstream of the boundary layer flow regime the fluid flow is completely dominated by the action of viscous shear, and fairly accurate solutions are obtained by the Von Karman integral method approach. A new form of the velocity profile is assumed, which reduces to the exact analytic solution for the fully-developed film. By matching the downstream integral method solution to the upstream generalized Falkner-Skan similarity solution, accurate estimates for the hydrodynamic entrance length are obtained. It is also shown that the flow development in the upstream region predicted by the approximate integral method closely corresponds to the exact similarity solution for that flow regime. An analytical solution of the resulting integral equation for the Newtonian case is compared with previously published results.     

Diffusion of a fluid through an elastic solid undergoing large deformation

This paper is concerned with the modeling of slow diffusion of a fluid into a swelling solid undergoing large deformation. Both the stress in the solid as well as the diffusion rates are predicted. The approach presented here, based on the balance laws of a single continuum with mass diffusion, overcomes the difficulties inherent in the theory of mixtures in specifying boundary conditions. A “natural” boundary condition based upon the continuity of the chemical potential is derived by the use of a variational approach, based on maximizing the rate of dissipation. It is shown that, in the absence of inertial effects, the differential equations resulting from the use of mixture theory can be recast into a form that is identical to the equations obtained in our approach. The boundary value problem of the steady flow of a solvent through a gum rubber membrane is solved and the results show excellent agreement with the experimental data of Paul and Ebra-Lima (J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 14 (1970) 2201) for a variety of solvents.     

An extended study of the hydrodynamics of gravity-driven film flow of power-law fluids

A new similarity transformation has been devised for extensive studies of accelerating non-Newtonian film flow. The partial differential equations governing the hydrodynamics of the flow of a power-law fluid down along an inclined plane surface are transformed into a set of two ordinary differential equations by means of the dimensionless velocity component approach. Although the analysis is applicable for any angle of inclination (0<π/2), the resulting one-parameter problem involves only the power-law index n. Nevertheless, physically essential quantities, like the velocity components and the skin-friction coefficient, do depend on and relevant relationships are deduced between the vertical and inclined cases. Accurate numerical similarity solutions are provided for n in the range from 0.1 to 2.0. The present method enables solutions to be obtained also for highly pseudo-plastic films, i.e. for n below 0.5. The mass flow rate entrained into the momentum boundary layer from the inviscid freestream is expressed in terms of a dimensionless mass flux parameter Φ, which depends on the dimensionless boundary layer thickness and the velocity components at the edge of the viscous boundary layer. Φ, which is thus an integral part of the similarity solution, turns out to decrease monotonically with n. This parameter is of particular relevance in the determination of the streamwise position at which the entire freestream has been entrained and viscous stresses prevail all the way to the free surface of the film. A short-cut method to facilitate rapid and yet accurate estimates of the mass flux parameter is developed to this end.     

Numerical modeling of flow past a volumeless and thin rigid body using direct forcing immersed boundary method

The new capability has been added as the numerical method for modeling volumeless and thin rigid bodies to the direct forcing immersed boundary (DFIB) method. The DFIB approach is based on adding a virtual force to the Navier–Stokes equations of incompressible flow to account for the interaction between the fluid and structures. The volume of a solid function (VOS) identifies the stationary or moving solid structures in a given fluid domain. A new VOS-based algorithm was developed to identify thin, rigid structure boundary points in fluid flow and ensure that the fluid cannot cross through the boundary of a thin rigid structure while moving or stationary. The DFIB method was first validated in a three-dimensional (3D) turbulent flow over a circular cylinder. The large-eddy simulation simulated the turbulent flow scales. The proposed algorithm was tested using a 3D turbulent flow past a stationary and rotating Savonius wind turbine that functions as a thin, rigid body. The validation results showed that the selected DFIB approach, combined with the novel algorithm, could simulate a thin, volumeless, rigid structure that is stationary and rotating in incompressible turbulent flows. The current method is also applicable for two-way fluid-structure interaction problems.