Spectrally-accurate algorithm for moving boundary problems for the Navier–Stokes equations

A spectral algorithm based on the immersed boundary conditions (IBC) concept is developed for simulations of viscous flows with moving boundaries. The algorithm uses a fixed computational domain with flow domain immersed inside the computational domain. Boundary conditions along the edges of the time-dependent flow domain enter the algorithm in the form of internal constraints. Spectral spatial discretization uses Fourier expansions in the stream-wise direction and Chebyshev expansions in the normal-to-the-wall direction. Up to fourth-order implicit temporal discretization methods have been implemented. It has been demonstrated that the algorithm delivers the theoretically predicted accuracy in both time and space. Performances of various linear solvers employed in the solution process have been evaluated and a new class of solver that takes advantage of the structure of the coefficient matrix has been proposed. The new solver results in a significant acceleration of computations as well as in a substantial reduction in memory requirements.     

Artificial boundary conditions for the numerical solution of the Euler equations by the discontinuous galerkin method

We present artificial boundary conditions for the numerical simulation of compressible flows using high-order accurate discretizations with the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element method. The construction of the proposed boundary conditions is based on characteristic analysis and applied for boundaries with arbitrary shape and orientation. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed boundary treatment enables to convect out of the computational domain complex flow features with little distortion. In addition, it is shown that small-amplitude acoustic disturbances could be convected out of the computational domain, with no significant deterioration of the overall accuracy of the method. Furthermore, it was found that application of the proposed boundary treatment for viscous flow over a cylinder yields superior performance compared to simple extrapolation methods.     

On the accuracy of direct forcing immersed boundary methods with projection methods

Direct forcing methods are a class of methods for solving the Navier–Stokes equations on nonrectangular domains. The physical domain is embedded into a larger, rectangular domain, and the equations of motion are solved on this extended domain. The boundary conditions are enforced by applying forces near the embedded boundaries. This raises the question of how the flow outside the physical domain influences the flow inside the physical domain. This question is particularly relevant when using a projection method for incompressible flow. In this paper, analysis and computational tests are presented that explore the performance of projection methods when used with direct forcing methods. Sufficient conditions for the success of projection methods on extended domains are derived, and it is shown how forcing methods meet these conditions. Bounds on the error due to projecting on the extended domain are derived, and it is shown that direct forcing methods are, in general, first-order accurate in the max-norm. Numerical tests of the projection alone confirm the analysis and show that this error is concentrated near the embedded boundaries, leading to higher-order accuracy in integral norms. Generically, forcing methods generate a solution that is not smooth across the embedded boundaries, and it is this lack of smoothness which limits the accuracy of the methods. Additional computational tests of the Navier–Stokes equations involving a direct forcing method and a projection method are presented, and the results are compared with the predictions of the analysis. These results confirm that the lack of smoothness in the solution produces a lower-order error. The rate of convergence attained in practice depends on the type of forcing method used.     

High-order compact schemes for incompressible flows: A simple and efficient method with quasi-spectral accuracy

In this paper, a finite difference code for Direct and Large Eddy Simulation (DNS/LES) of incompressible flows is presented. This code is an intermediate tool between fully spectral Navier–Stokes solvers (limited to academic geometry through Fourier or Chebyshev representation) and more versatile codes based on standard numerical schemes (typically only second-order accurate). The interest of high-order schemes is discussed in terms of implementation easiness, computational efficiency and accuracy improvement considered through simplified benchmark problems and practical calculations. The equivalence rules between operations in physical and spectral spaces are efficiently used to solve the Poisson equation introduced by the projection method. It is shown that for the pressure treatment, an accurate Fourier representation can be used for more flexible boundary conditions than periodicity or free-slip. Using the concept of the modified wave number, the incompressibility can be enforced up to the machine accuracy. The benefit offered by this alternative method is found to be very satisfactory, even when a formal second-order error is introduced locally by boundary conditions that are neither periodic nor symmetric. The usefulness of high-order schemes combined with an immersed boundary method (IBM) is also demonstrated despite the second-order accuracy introduced by this wall modelling strategy. In particular, the interest of a partially staggered mesh is exhibited in this specific context. Three-dimensional calculations of transitional and turbulent channel flows emphasize the ability of present high-order schemes to reduce the computational cost for a given accuracy. The main conclusion of this paper is that finite difference schemes with quasi-spectral accuracy can be very efficient for DNS/LES of incompressible flows, while allowing flexibility for the boundary conditions and easiness in the code development. Therefore, this compromise fits particularly well for very high-resolution simulations of turbulent flows with relatively complex geometries without requiring heavy numerical developments.     

Some theoretical aspects of elastic wave modeling with a recently developed spectral element method

A spectral element method has been recently developed for solving elastodynamic problems. The numerical solutions are obtained by using the weak formulation of the elastodynamic equation for heterogeneous media, based on the Galerkin approach applied to a partition, in small subdomains, of the original physical domain. In this work, some mathematical aspects of the method and the associated algorithm implementation are systematically investigated. Two kinds of orthogonal basis functions, constructed with Legendre and Chebyshev polynomials, and their related Gauss-Lobatto collocation points are introduced. The related integration formulas are obtained. The standard error estimations and expansion convergence are discussed. An element-by-element pre-conditioned conjugate gradient linear solver in the space domain and a staggered predictor/multi-corrector algorithm in the time integration are used for strong heterogeneous elastic media. As a consequence, neither the global matrices nor the effective force vector is assembled. When analytical formulas are used for the element quadrature, there is even no need for forming element matrix in order to further save memory without losing much in computational efficiency. The element-by-element algorithm uses an optimal tensor product scheme which makes this method much more efficient than finite-element methods from the point of view of both memory storage and computational time requirements. This work is divided into two parts. The first part mainly focuses on theoretical studies with a simple numerical result for the Che-byshev spectral element, and the second part, mainly with the Legendre spectral element, will give the algorithm implementation, numerical accuracy and efficiency analyses, and then the detailed modeling example comparisons of the proposed spectral element method with a pseudo-spectral method, which will be seen in another work by Lin, Wang and Zhang.     

Two transparent boundary conditions for the electromagnetic scattering from two-dimensional overfilled cavities

We consider electromagnetic scattering from two-dimensional (2D) overfilled cavities embedded in an infinite ground plane. The unbounded computational domain is truncated to a bounded one by using a transparent boundary condition (TBC) proposed on a semi-ellipse. For overfilled rectangular cavities with homogeneous media, another TBC is introduced on the cavity apertures, which produces a smaller computational domain. The existence and uniqueness of the solutions of the variational formulations for the transverse magnetic and transverse electric polarizations are established. In the exterior domain, the 2D scattering problem is solved in the elliptic coordinate system using the Mathieu functions. In the interior domain, the problem is solved by a finite element method. Numerical experiments show the efficiency and accuracy of the new boundary conditions.     

A finite difference scheme for fractional sub-diffusion equations on an unbounded domain using artificial boundary conditions

One-dimensional fractional anomalous sub-diffusion equations on an unbounded domain are considered in our work. Beginning with the derivation of the exact artificial boundary conditions, the original problem on an unbounded domain is converted into mainly solving an initial-boundary value problem on a finite computational domain. The main contribution of our work, as compared with the previous work, lies in the reduction of fractional differential equations on an unbounded domain by using artificial boundary conditions and construction of the corresponding finite difference scheme with the help of method of order reduction. The difficulty is the treatment of Neumann condition on the artificial boundary, which involves the time-fractional derivative operator. The stability and convergence of the scheme are proven using the discrete energy method. Two numerical examples clarify the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method.     

A shifted Jacobi collocation algorithm for wave type equations with non-local conservation conditions

In this paper, we propose an efficient spectral collocation algorithm to solve numerically wave type equations subject to initial, boundary and non-local conservation conditions. The shifted Jacobi pseudospectral approximation is investigated for the discretization of the spatial variable of such equations. It possesses spectral accuracy in the spatial variable. The shifted Jacobi-Gauss-Lobatto (SJ-GL) quadrature rule is established for treating the non-local conservation conditions, and then the problem with its initial and non-local boundary conditions are reduced to a system of second-order ordinary differential equations in temporal variable. This system is solved by two-stage forth-order A-stable implicit RK scheme. Five numerical examples with comparisons are given. The computational results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is more accurate than finite difference method, method of lines and spline collocation approach     

An efficient differential quadrature methodology for free vibration analysis of arbitrary straight-sided quadrilateral thin plates

In this paper, a new differential quadrature (DQ) methodology is employed to study free vibration of irregular quadrilateral straight-sided thin plates. A four-nodded super element is used to map the irregular physical domain into a square domain in the computational domain. Second order transformation schemes with relative ease and less computation are employed to transform the fourth order governing equation of thin plates between the two domains. The only degree of freedom within the domain is the displacement, whereas along the boundaries, the displacement as well as the second order derivative of the displacement with respect to associated normal co-ordinate variable in computational domain are the two degrees of freedom. Implementing the method, the formulation for the DQ method for the free vibration analysis of plates of straight-sided shapes was presented together with the implementation procedure for the different boundary conditions. To demonstrate the accuracy, convergency and stability of the new methodology, detail studies are made on isotropic plates at acute angles with different geometries, boundary and loading conditions including DQ free-edge boundary condition implementations. Accurate results even with fewer degrees of freedom than for those of comparable numerical algorithms were achieved.     

Exact boundary condition for time-dependent wave equation based on boundary integral

An exact non-reflecting boundary conditions based on a boundary integral equation or a modified Kirchhoff-type formula is derived for exterior three-dimensional wave equations. The Kirchhoff-type non-reflecting boundary condition is originally proposed by L. Ting and M.J. Miksis [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 80 (1986) 1825] and numerically tested by D. Givoli and D. Cohen [J. Comput. Phys. 117 (1995) 102] for a spherically symmetric problem. The computational advantage of Ting–Miksis boundary condition is that its temporal non-locality is limited to a fixed amount of past information. However, a long-time instability is exhibited in testing numerical solutions by using a standard non-dissipative finite-difference scheme. The main purpose of this work is to present a new exact boundary condition and to eliminate the long-time instability. The proposed exact boundary condition can be considered as a limit case of Ting–Miksis boundary condition when the two artificial boundaries used in their method approach each other. Our boundary condition is actually a boundary integral equation on a single artificial boundary for wave equations, which is to be solved in conjunction with the interior wave equation. The new boundary condition needs only one artificial boundary, which can be of any shape, i.e., sphere, cubic surface, etc. It keeps all merits of the original Kirchhoff boundary condition such as restricting the temporal non-locality, free of numerical evaluation of any special functions and so on. Numerical approximation to the artificial boundary condition on cubic surface is derived and three-dimensional numerical tests are carried out on the cubic computational domain.     

Stability of travelling wave solutions for coupled surface and grain boundary motion

We investigate the spectral stability of the travelling wave solution for the coupled motion of a free surface and grain boundary that arises in materials science. In this problem a grain boundary, which separates two materials that are identical except for their crystalline orientation, evolves according to mean curvature. At a triple junction, this boundary meets the free surfaces of the two crystals, which move according to surface diffusion. The model is known to possess a unique travelling wave solution. We study the linearization about the wave, which necessarily includes a free boundary at the location of the triple junction. This makes the analysis more complex than that of standard travelling waves, and we discuss how existing theory applies in this context. Furthermore, we compute numerically the associated point spectrum by restricting the problem to a finite computational domain with appropriate physical boundary conditions. Numerical results strongly suggest that the two-dimensional wave is stable with respect to both two- and three-dimensional perturbations.     

The research of space-time coupled spectral element method for acoustic wave equations

A space-time coupled spectral element method based on Chebyshev polynomials is presented for solving time-dependent wave equations.Acoustic propagation problems in1+1,2+1,3+1 dimensions with the Dirichlet boundary conditions are simulated via space-time coupled spectral element method using quadrilateral,hexahedral and tesseractic elements respectively.Space-time coupled spectral element method can obtain high-order precision over time.With the same total number of nodes,higher numerical precision is obtained if the higher-order Chebyshev polynomials in space directions and lower-order Chebyshev polynomials in time direction are adopted.Numerical illustrations have indicated that the space-time algorithm provides higher precision than the semi-discretization.When space-time coupled spectral element method is used,time subdomain-by-subdomain approach is more economical than time domain approach.     

A kernel-free boundary integral method for elliptic boundary value problems

This paper presents a class of kernel-free boundary integral (KFBI) methods for general elliptic boundary value problems (BVPs). The boundary integral equations reformulated from the BVPs are solved iteratively with the GMRES method. During the iteration, the boundary and volume integrals involving Green’s functions are approximated by structured grid-based numerical solutions, which avoids the need to know the analytical expressions of Green’s functions. The KFBI method assumes that the larger regular domain, which embeds the original complex domain, can be easily partitioned into a hierarchy of structured grids so that fast elliptic solvers such as the fast Fourier transform (FFT) based Poisson/Helmholtz solvers or those based on geometric multigrid iterations are applicable. The structured grid-based solutions are obtained with standard finite difference method (FDM) or finite element method (FEM), where the right hand side of the resulting linear system is appropriately modified at irregular grid nodes to recover the formal accuracy of the underlying numerical scheme. Numerical results demonstrating the efficiency and accuracy of the KFBI methods are presented. It is observed that the number of GMRES iterations used by the method for solving isotropic and moderately anisotropic BVPs is independent of the sizes of the grids that are employed to approximate the boundary and volume integrals. With the standard second-order FEMs and FDMs, the KFBI method shows a second-order convergence rate in accuracy for all of the tested Dirichlet/Neumann BVPs when the anisotropy of the diffusion tensor is not too strong.     

Exact solution for the fractional cable equation with nonlocal boundary conditions

The fractional cable equation is studied on a bounded space domain. One of the prescribed boundary conditions is of Dirichlet type, the other is of a general form, which includes the case of nonlocal boundary conditions. In real problems nonlocal boundary conditions are prescribed when the data on the boundary can not be measured directly. We apply spectral projection operators to convert the problem to a system of integral equations in any generalized eigenspace. In this way we prove uniqueness of the solution and give an algorithm for constructing the solution in the form of an expansion in terms of the generalized eigenfunctions and three-parameter Mittag-Leffler functions. Explicit representation of the solution is given for the case of double eigenvalues. We consider some examples and as a particular case we recover a recent result. The asymptotic behavior of the solution is also studied.     

A new family of high-order compact upwind difference schemes with good spectral resolution

This paper presents a new family of high-order compact upwind difference schemes. Unknowns included in the proposed schemes are not only the values of the function but also those of its first and higher derivatives. Derivative terms in the schemes appear only on the upwind side of the stencil. One can calculate all the first derivatives exactly as one solves explicit schemes when the boundary conditions of the problem are non-periodic. When the proposed schemes are applied to periodic problems, only periodic bi-diagonal matrix inversions or periodic block-bi-diagonal matrix inversions are required. Resolution optimization is used to enhance the spectral representation of the first derivative, and this produces a scheme with the highest spectral accuracy among all known compact schemes. For non-periodic boundary conditions, boundary schemes constructed in virtue of the assistant scheme make the schemes not only possess stability for any selective length scale on every point in the computational domain but also satisfy the principle of optimal resolution. Also, an improved shock-capturing method is developed. Finally, both the effectiveness of the new hybrid method and the accuracy of the proposed schemes are verified by executing four benchmark test cases.     

A new family of high-order compact upwind difference schemes with good spectral resolution

This paper presents a new family of high-order compact upwind difference schemes. Unknowns included in the proposed schemes are not only the values of the function but also those of its first and higher derivatives. Derivative terms in the schemes appear only on the upwind side of the stencil. One can calculate all the first derivatives exactly as one solves explicit schemes when the boundary conditions of the problem are non-periodic. When the proposed schemes are applied to periodic problems, only periodic bi-diagonal matrix inversions or periodic block-bi-diagonal matrix inversions are required. Resolution optimization is used to enhance the spectral representation of the first derivative, and this produces a scheme with the highest spectral accuracy among all known compact schemes. For non-periodic boundary conditions, boundary schemes constructed in virtue of the assistant scheme make the schemes not only possess stability for any selective length scale on every point in the computational domain but also satisfy the principle of optimal resolution. Also, an improved shock-capturing method is developed. Finally, both the effectiveness of the new hybrid method and the accuracy of the proposed schemes are verified by executing four benchmark test cases.     

Prediction of wall-pressure fluctuation in turbulent flows with an immersed boundary method

The objective of this paper is to assess the accuracy and efficiency of the immersed boundary (IB) method to predict the wall pressure fluctuations in turbulent flows, where the flow dynamics in the near-wall region is fundamental to correctly predict the overall flow. The present approach achieves sufficient accuracy at the immersed boundary and overcomes deficiencies in previous IB methods by introducing additional constraints – a compatibility for the interpolated velocity boundary condition related to mass conservation and the formal decoupling of the pressure on this surfaces. The immersed boundary-approximated domain method (IB-ADM) developed in the present study satisfies these conditions with an inexpensive computational overhead. The IB-ADM correctly predicts the near-wall velocity, pressure and scalar fields in several example problems, including flows around a very thin solid object for which incorrect results were obtained with previous IB methods. In order to have sufficient near-wall mesh resolution for LES and DNS computations, the present approach uses local mesh refinement. The present method has been also successfully applied to computation of the wall-pressure space–time correlation in DNS of turbulent channel flow on grids not aligned with the boundaries. When applied to a turbulent flow around an airfoil, the computed flow statistics – the mean/RMS flow field and power spectra of the wall pressure – are in good agreement with experiment.     

A parallel Vlasov solver based on local cubic spline interpolation on patches

A method for computing the numerical solution of Vlasov type equations on massively parallel computers is presented. In contrast with Particle In Cell methods which are known to be noisy, the method is based on a semi-Lagrangian algorithm that approaches the Vlasov equation on a grid of phase space. As this kind of method requires a huge computational effort, the simulations are carried out on parallel machines. To that purpose, we present a local cubic splines interpolation method based on a domain decomposition, e.g. devoted to a processor. Hermite boundary conditions between the domains, using ad hoc reconstruction of the derivatives, provide a good approximation of the global solution. The method is applied on various physical configurations which show the ability of the numerical scheme.     

基于表面阻抗边界条件的等离子体薄涂层电磁散射的时域有限差分分析

基于表面阻抗边界条件时域有限差分(FDTD)方法研究了一维斜入射情况下非磁化等离子体薄涂层涂敷金属材料的电磁散射特性, 该方法忽略对薄层背景材料进行网格剖分, 大大减少了计算量. 首先推导了理想导体涂敷等离子体薄涂层的表面阻抗频域表达式, 然后代入边界条件并变换到时域, 再用分段线性递推卷积方法将时域表达式离散得到FDTD迭代式. 编程计算了垂直及斜入射情形下的平行极化和垂直极化反射系数, 通过验证算例与解析解对比, 结果表明该方法的准确性和有效性. 最后利用该方法分析了不同入射角对反射系数的影响.     

Fourier spectral embedded boundary solution of the Poisson’s and Laplace equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions

A Fourier spectral embedded boundary method, for solution of the Poisson’s equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions and arbitrary forcing functions (including zero forcing function), is presented in this paper. This iterative method begins by transformation of the Dirichlet boundary conditions from the physical boundaries to some corresponding regular grid points (which are called the numerical boundaries), using a second order interpolation method. Then the transformed boundary conditions and the forcing function are extended to a square, smoothly and periodically, via multiplying them by some suitable error functions. Instead of direct solution of the resulting extended Poisson’s problem, it is suggested to define and solve an equivalent transient diffusion problem on the regular domain, until achievement of the steady solution (which is considered as the solution of the original problem). Without need of any numerical time integration method, time advancement of the solution is obtained directly, from the exact solution of the transient problem in the Fourier space. Consequently, timestep sizes can be chosen without stability limitations, which it means higher rates of convergence in comparison with the classical relaxation methods. The method is presented in details for one- and two-dimensional problems, and a new emerged phenomenon (which is called the saturation state) is illustrated both in the physical and spectral spaces. The numerical experiments have been performed on the one- and two-dimensional irregular domains to show the accuracy of the method and its superiority (from the rate of convergence viewpoint) to the other classical relaxation methods. Capability of the method, in dealing with complex geometries, and in presence of discontinuity at the boundaries, has been shown via some numerical experiments on a four-leaf shape geometry.