Multi‐material closure model for high‐order finite element Lagrangian hydrodynamics

We present a new closure model for single fluid, multi‐material Lagrangian hydrodynamics and its application to high‐order finite element discretizations of these equations 1 . The model is general with respect to the number of materials, dimension and space and time discretizations. Knowledge about exact material interfaces is not required. Material indicator functions are evolved by a closure computation at each quadrature point of mixed cells, which can be viewed as a high‐order variational generalization of the method of Tipton 2 . This computation is defined by the notion of partial non‐instantaneous pressure equilibration, while the full pressure equilibration is achieved by both the closure model and the hydrodynamic motion. Exchange of internal energy between materials is derived through entropy considerations, that is, every material produces positive entropy, and the total entropy production is maximized in compression and minimized in expansion. Results are presented for standard one‐dimensional two‐material problems, followed by two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional multi‐material high‐velocity impact arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian calculations. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

Analysis of fluid–structure interaction by an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian finite element formulation

In this paper, the interaction fluid–rigid body is analysed by a finite element procedure that incorporates the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method into a well‐known two‐step projection scheme. The flow is assumed to be two‐dimensional, incompressible and viscous, with no turbulence models being included. The flow past a circular cylinder at ℛℯ=200 is first analysed, for fixed and oscillating conditions. The dependence of lock‐in upon the shift between the mechanical and the Strouhal frequencies, for a given amplitude of forced vibration, is illustrated. The aerodynamic forces and the wake geometry are compared for locked‐in conditions with different driving frequencies. The behaviour of a rectangular cylinder (B/D=4) at ℛℯ=500 (based on height D) is also analysed. The flutter derivatives associated with aerodynamic damping (H₁* and A₂* in Scanlan's notation) are evaluated by the free oscillation method for several values of reduced flow speed above the Strouhal one (namely for 3≤U*≤8). Torsional flutter was attained at U*≥5, with all the other situations showing stable characteristics. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian finite element approach to non‐steady state turbulent fluid flow with application to mould filling in casting

This paper presents a two‐dimensional Lagrangian–Eulerian finite element approach of non‐steady state turbulent fluid flows with free surfaces. The proposed model is based on a velocity–pressure finite element Navier–Stokes solver, including an augmented Lagrangian technique and an iterative resolution of Uzawa type. Turbulent effects are taken into account with the k–ε two‐equation statistical model. Mesh updating is carried out through an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method in order to describe properly the free surface evolution. Three comparisons between experimental and numerical results illustrate the efficiency of the method. The first one is turbulent flow in an academic geometry, the second one is a mould filling in effective casting conditions and the third one is a precise confrontation to a water model. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation of liquid sloshing in curved‐wall containers with arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method

There are many challenges in the numerical simulation of liquid sloshing in horizontal cylinders and spherical containers using the finite element method of arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) formulation: tracking the motion of the free surface with the contact points, defining the mesh velocity on the curved wall boundary and updating the computational mesh. In order to keep the contact points slipping along the curved side wall, the shape vector in each time advancement is defined to modify the kinematical boundary conditions on the free surface. A special function is introduced to automatically smooth the nodal velocities on the curved wall boundary based on the liquid nodal velocities. The elliptic partial differential equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions can directly rezone the inner nodal velocities in more than a single freedom. The incremental fractional step method is introduced to solve the finite element liquid equations. The numerical results that stemmed from the algorithm show good agreement with experimental phenomena, which demonstrates that the ALE method provides an efficient computing scheme in moving curved wall boundaries. This method can be extended to 3D cases by improving the technique to compute the shape vector. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method based on the adaptive Riemann solvers for general equations of state

Approximate or exact Riemann solvers play a key role in Godunov‐type methods. In this paper, three approximate Riemann solvers, the MFCAV, DKWZ and weak wave approximation method schemes, are investigated through numerical experiments, and their numerical features, such as the resolution for shock and contact waves, are analyzed and compared. Based on the analysis, two new adaptive Riemann solvers for general equations of state are proposed, which can resolve both shock and contact waves well. As a result, an ALE method based on the adaptive Riemann solvers is formulated. A number of numerical experiments show good performance of the adaptive solvers in resolving both shock waves and contact discontinuities. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order fully explicit flux‐form semi‐Lagrangian shallow‐water model

A new approach is proposed for constructing a fully explicit third‐order mass‐conservative semi‐Lagrangian scheme for simulating the shallow‐water equations on an equiangular cubed‐sphere grid. State variables are staggered with velocity components stored pointwise at nodal points and mass variables stored as element averages. In order to advance the state variables in time, we first apply an explicit multi‐step time‐stepping scheme to update the velocity components and then use a semi‐Lagrangian advection scheme to update the height field and tracer variables. This procedure is chosen to ensure consistency between dry air mass and tracers, which is particularly important in many atmospheric chemistry applications. The resulting scheme is shown to be competitive with many existing numerical methods on a suite of standard test cases and demonstrates slightly improved performance over other high‐order finite‐volume models. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Oscillations in high‐order finite difference solutions of stiff problems on non‐uniform grids

This work investigates the mitigation and elimination of scheme‐related oscillations generated in compact and classical fourth‐order finite difference solutions of stiff problems, represented here by the Burgers and Reynolds equations. The regions where severe gradients are anticipated are refined by the use of subdomains where the grid is distributed according to a geometric progression. It is observed that, for multi‐domain solutions, both the classical and compact fourth‐order finite difference schemes can exhibit spurious oscillations. When present, the oscillations are initially generated around the interface between the uniform and non‐uniform grid subdomains. Based on a thorough study of the grid distribution effects, it is shown that the numerical oscillations are caused by inadequate geometric progression ratios within the non‐uniformly discretized subdomains. Indeed, accurate solutions are obtainable if and only if the grid ratios in the non‐uniform subdomains are greater than a critical threshold ratio. It is concluded that high‐order classical and compact schemes can be used with confidence to efficiently solve one‐ or two‐dimensional problems whose solutions exhibit sharp gradients in very thin regions, provided that the numerically generated oscillations are eliminated by an appropriate choice of grid distribution within the non‐uniformly discretized subdomains. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The advantages of using high‐order finite differences schemes in laminar–turbulent transition studies

This paper presents various finite difference schemes and compare their ability to simulate instability waves in a given flow field. The governing equations for two‐dimensional, incompressible flows were solved in vorticity–velocity formulation. Four different space discretization schemes were tested, namely, a second‐order central differences, a fourth‐order central differences, a fourth‐order compact scheme and a sixth‐order compact scheme. A classic fourth‐order Runge–Kutta scheme was used in time. The influence of grid refinement in the streamwise and wall normal directions were evaluated. The results were compared with linear stability theory for the evolution of small‐amplitude Tollmien–Schlichting waves in a plane Poiseuille flow. Both the amplification rate and the wavenumber were considered as verification parameters, showing the degree of dissipation and dispersion introduced by the different numerical schemes. The results confirmed that high‐order schemes are necessary for studying hydrodynamic instability problems by direct numerical simulation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A stabilized finite element formulation for high‐speed inviscid compressible flows using finite calculus

This paper aims at the development of a new stabilization formulation based on the finite calculus (FIC) scheme for solving the Euler equations using the Galerkin FEM on unstructured triangular grids. The FIC method is based on expressing the balance of fluxes in a space–time domain of finite size. It is used to prevent the creation of instabilities typically present in numerical solutions due to the high convective terms and sharp gradients. Two stabilization terms, respectively called streamline term and transverse term, are added via the FIC formulation to the original conservative equations in the space–time domain. An explicit fourth‐order Runge–Kutta scheme is implemented to advance the solution in time. The presented numerical test examples for inviscid flows prove the ability of the proposed stabilization technique for providing appropriate solutions especially near shock waves. Although the derived methodology delivers precise results with a nearly coarse mesh, a mesh refinement technique is coupled to the solution process for obtaining a suitable mesh particularly in the high‐gradient zones. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive Lagrangian–Eulerian computation of propagation and rupture of a liquid plug in a tube

Liquid plug propagation and rupture occurring in lung airways can have a detrimental effect on epithelial cells. In this study, a numerical simulation of a liquid plug in an infinite tube is conducted using an Eulerian–Lagrangian approach and the continuous interface method. A reconstruction scheme is developed to allow topological changes during plug rupture by altering the connectivity information about the interface mesh. Results prior to the rupture are in reasonable agreement with the study of Fujioka et al. in which a Lagrangian method is used. For unity non‐dimensional pressure drop and a Laplace number of 1000, rupture time is shown to be delayed as the initial precursor film thickness increases and rupture is not expected for thicknesses larger than 0.10 of tube radius. During the plug rupture process, a sudden increase of mechanical stresses on the tube wall is recorded, which can cause tissue damage. The peak values of those stresses increase as the initial precursor film thickness is reduced. After rupture, the peaks in mechanical stresses decrease in magnitude as the plug vanishes and the flow approaches a fully developed behavior. Increasing initial pressure drop is shown to linearly increase maximum variations in wall pressure and shear stress. Decreasing the pressure drop and increasing the Laplace number appear to delay rupture because it takes longer for a fluid with large inertial forces to respond to the small pressure drop. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved error and work estimates for high‐order elements

Work estimates for high‐order elements are derived. The comparison of error and work estimates shows that even for relative accuracy in the 0.1% range, which is one order below the typical accuracy of engineering interest (1% range), linear elements may outperform all higher‐order elements. As expected, the estimates also show that the optimal order of element in terms of work and storage demands depends on the desired relative accuracy. The comparison of work estimates for high‐order elements and their finite difference counterparts reveals a work‐ratio of several orders of magnitude. It thus becomes questionable if general geometric flexibility via micro‐unstructured grids is worth such a high cost. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order Petrov–Galerkin finite element method for the classical Boussinesq wave model

A high‐order Petrov–Galerkin finite element scheme is presented to solve the one‐dimensional depth‐integrated classical Boussinesq equations for weakly non‐linear and weakly dispersive waves. Finite elements are used both in the space and the time domains. The shape functions are bilinear in space–time, whereas the weighting functions are linear in space and quadratic in time, with C⁰‐continuity. Dispersion correction and a highly selective dissipation mechanism are introduced through additional streamline upwind terms in the weighting functions. An implicit, conditionally stable, one‐step predictor–corrector time integration scheme results. The accuracy and stability of the non‐linear discrete equations are investigated by means of a local Taylor series expansion. A linear spectral analysis is used for the full characterization of the predictor–corrector inner iterations. Based on the order of the analytical terms of the Boussinesq model and on the order of the numerical discretization, it is concluded that the scheme is fourth‐order accurate in terms of phase velocity. The dissipation term is third order only affecting the shortest wavelengths. A numerical convergence analysis showed a second‐order convergence rate in terms of both element size and time step. Four numerical experiments are addressed and their results are compared with analytical solutions or experimental data available in the literature: the propagation of a solitary wave, the oscillation of a flat bottom closed basin, the oscillation of a non‐flat bottom closed basin, and the propagation of a periodic wave over a submerged bar. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order finite difference method for numerical simulations of supersonic turbulent flows

This paper describes a new class of three‐dimensional finite difference schemes for high‐speed turbulent flows in complex geometries based on the high‐order monotonicity‐preserving (MP) method. Simulations conducted for various 1D, 2D, and 3D problems indicate that the new high‐order MP schemes can preserve sharp changes in the flow variables without spurious oscillations and are able to capture the turbulence at the smallest computed scales. Our results also indicate that the MP method has less numerical dissipation and faster grid convergence than the weighted essentially non‐oscillatory method. However, both of these methods are computationally more demanding than the COMP method and are only used for the inviscid fluxes. To reduce the computational cost for reacting flows, the scalar equations are solved by the COMP method, which is shown to yield similar results to those obtained by the MP in supersonic turbulent flows with strong shock waves. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One‐dimensional shock‐capturing for high‐order discontinuous Galerkin methods

Discontinuous Galerkin methods have emerged in recent years as an alternative for nonlinear conservation equations. In particular, their inherent structure (a numerical flux based on a suitable approximate Riemann solver introduces some stabilization) suggests that they are specially adapted to capture shocks. However, numerical fluxes are not sufficient to stabilize the solution in the presence of shocks. Thus, slope limiter methods, which are extensions of finite volume methods, have been proposed. These techniques require, in practice, mesh adaption to localize the shock structure. This is is more obvious for large elements typical of high‐order approximations. Here, a new approach based on the introduction of artificial diffusion into the original equations is presented. The order is not systematically decreased to one in the presence of the shock, large high‐order elements can be used, and several linear and nonlinear tests demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methodology. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐order compact finite difference schemes for the vorticity–divergence representation of the spherical shallow water equations

This work is devoted to the application of the super compact finite difference method (SCFDM) and the combined compact finite difference method (CCFDM) for spatial differencing of the spherical shallow water equations in terms of vorticity, divergence, and height. The fourth‐order compact, the sixth‐order and eighth‐order SCFDM, and the sixth‐order and eighth‐order CCFDM schemes are used for the spatial differencing. To advance the solution in time, a semi‐implicit Runge–Kutta method is used. In addition, to control the nonlinear instability, an eighth‐order compact spatial filter is employed. For the numerical solution of the elliptic equations in the problem, a direct hybrid method, which consists of a high‐order compact scheme for spatial differencing in the latitude coordinate and a fast Fourier transform in longitude coordinate, is utilized. The accuracy and convergence rate for all methods are verified against exact analytical solutions. Qualitative and quantitative assessments of the results for an unstable barotropic mid‐latitude zonal jet employed as an initial condition are addressed. It is revealed that the sixth‐order and eighth‐order CCFDMs and SCFDMs lead to a remarkable improvement of the solution over the fourth‐order compact method. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order element based adaptive mesh refinement strategy for three‐dimensional unstructured grid

Adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) shows attractive properties in automatically refining the flow region of interest, and with AMR, better prediction can be obtained with much less labor work and cost compared to manually remeshing or the global mesh refinement. Cartesian AMR is well established; however, AMR on hybrid unstructured mesh, which is heavily used in the high‐Reynolds number flow simulation, is less matured and existing methods may result in degraded mesh quality, which mostly happens in the boundary layer or near the sharp geometric features. User intervention or additional constraints, such as freezing all boundary layer elements or refining the whole boundary layer, are required to assist the refinement process. In this work, a novel AMR strategy is developed to handle existing difficulties. In the new method, high‐order unstructured elements are first generated based on the baseline mesh; then the refinement is conducted in the parametric space; at last, the mesh suitable for the solver is output. Generating refined elements in the parametric space with high‐order elements is the key of this method and this helps to guarantee both the accuracy and robustness. With the current method, 3‐dimensional hybrid unstructured mesh of huge size and complex geometry can be automatically refined, without user intervention nor additional constraints. With test cases including the 2‐dimensional airfoil and 3‐dimensional full aircraft, the current AMR method proves to be accurate, simple, and robust.     

Improving Eulerian two‐phase flow finite element approximation with discontinuous gradient pressure shape functions

In this paper we present a problem we have encountered using a stabilized finite element method on fixed grids for flows with interfaces modelled with the level set approach. We propose a solution based on enriching the pressure shape functions on the elements cut by the interface. The enrichment is used to enable the pressure gradient to be discontinuous at the interface, thus improving the ability to simulate the behaviour of fluids with different density under a gravitational force. The additional shape function used is local to each element and the corresponding degree of freedom can therefore be condensed prior to assembly, making the implementation quite simple on any existing finite element code. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A higher‐order unsplit 2D direct Eulerian finite volume method for two‐material compressible flows based on the MOOD paradigms

A higher‐order unsplit multi‐dimensional discretization of the diffuse interface model for two‐material compressible flows proposed by R. Saurel, F. Petitpas and R. A. Berry in 2009 is developed. The proposed higher‐order method is based on the concepts of the Multidimensional Optimal Order Detection (MOOD) method introduced in three recent papers for single‐material flows. The first‐order unsplit multi‐dimensional Finite Volume discretization presented by SPB serves as foundation for the development of the higher‐order unlimited schemes. Specific detection criteria along with a novel decrementing algorithm for the MOOD method are designed in order to deal with the complexity of multi‐material flows. Numerically, we compare errors and computational times on several 1D problems (stringent shock tube and cavitation problems) computed on 2D meshes with the second‐ and fourth‐order MOOD methods using a classical MUSCL method as reference. Several simulations of a 2D shocked R22 bubble in the air are also presented on Cartesian and unstructured meshes with the second‐ and fourth‐order MOOD methods, and qualitative comparisons confirm the conclusions obtained with 1D problems. These numerical results demonstrate the robustness of the MOOD approach and the interest of using more than second‐order methods even for locally singular solutions of complex physics models. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical assessment of a shock‐detecting sensor for low dissipative high‐order simulation of shock–vortex interactions

Considering the importance of high‐order schemes implementation for the simulation of shock‐containing turbulent flows, the present work involves the assessment of a shock‐detecting sensor for filtering of high‐order compact finite‐difference schemes for simulation of this type of flows. To accomplish this, a sensor that controls the amount of numerical dissipation is applied to a sixth‐order compact scheme as well as a fourth‐order two‐register Runge–Kutta method for numerical simulation of various cases including inviscid and viscous shock–vortex and shock–mixing‐layer interactions. Detailed study is performed to investigate the performance of the sensor, that is, the effect of control parameters employed in the sensor are investigated in the long‐time integration. In addition, the effects of nonlinear weighting factors controlling the value of the second‐order and high‐order filters in fine and coarse non‐uniform grids are investigated. The results indicate the accuracy of the nonlinear filter along with the promising performance of the shock‐detecting sensor, which would pave the way for future simulations of turbulent flows containing shocks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.