Solution of three-dimensional viscous incompressible flows by a multi-grid method

The three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations for viscous incompressible fluids are discretized on staggered or non-staggered grids. The system of finite-difference equations is solved by a multi-grid method. The method and some possible sources of difficulties and their remedies are described. The numerical algorithm has been applied to the computations of flows in ducts for a range of Reynolds numbers up to 2000. As outflow boundary conditions, either the fully developed flow profile (Dirichlet condition) or parabolic conditions have been applied. The multi-grid method has a fast rate of convergence (with both types of boundary conditions), and it is not sensitive to the number of mesh points and the Reynolds number. The numerical solution, using parabolic boundary conditions, is insensitive to the location of the outflow boundary, even for large Reynolds numbers, in contrast to the solution with Dirichlet boundary conditions.     

Algorithm for analysis of flows in ribbed annuli

Spectral methods for analyses of steady flows in annuli bounded by walls with either axi‐symmetric or longitudinal ribs are developed. The physical boundary conditions are enforced using the immersed boundary conditions concept. In the former case, the Stokes stream function is used to eliminate pressure and to reduce system of field equations to a single fourth‐order partial differential equation. The ribs are assumed to be periodic in the axial direction and this permits representation of the solution in terms of the Fourier expansion. In the latter case, the problem is reduced to the Laplace equations for the flow modifications that can be expressed in terms of the Fourier expansions. The modal functions, which are functions of the radial coordinate, are discretized using Chebyshev polynomials. The problem formulations are closed using either the fixed volume flow rate constraint or the fixed pressure gradient constraint. Various tests have been carried out in order to demonstrate the spectral accuracy of the discretizations, as well as the spectral accuracy of the enforcement of the flow boundary conditions at the ribbed walls using the immersed boundary conditions concept. Special linear solver that takes advantage of the matrix structure has been implemented in order to reduce computational time and memory requirements. It is shown that the algorithm has superior performance when one is interested in the analysis of a large number of geometries, as part of the coefficient matrix that corresponds to the field equation is always the same and one needs to change only the part of the matrix that corresponds to the boundary relations when changing geometry of the flow domain. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element,stream function-vorticity solution of secondary flow in the channels of a rod bundle

A finite element method has been applied to predict the overall features of the fully developed turbulent flow in the non-circular channels of a rod bundle. The finite element discretization is based on the conventional Galerkin method using an isoparametric quadrilateral element with mixed interpolation. The primary axial flow and turbulent kinetic energy distributions have been predicted for fully developed turbulent flow conditions right up to the wall. The secondary velocity is represented by the stream function-vorticity formulation and the no-slip boundary conditions are explicitly introduced in the nonlinear equations by a boundary vorticity formula. The Newton-Raphson method is applied to the stream function-vorticity equations and solved simultaneously by the frontal solution technique. A one-equation eddy viscosity model of turbulence and an algebraic stress transport model have been used to predict primary axial velocity, secondary velocities and turbulent kinetic energy. The predictions obtained for a central subchannel of an equilateral-triangular rod array with p/d= 1.3 are in reasonable agreement with experimental data.     

AN ARTIFICIAL BOUNDARY CONDITION FOR TWO-DIMENSIONAL INCOMPRESSIBLE VISCOUS FLOWS USING THE METHOD OF LINES

We design an artificial boundary condition for the steady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in streamfunction–vorticity formulation in a flat channel with slip boundary conditions on the wall. The new boundary condition is derived from the Oseen equations and the method of lines. A numerical experiment for the non-linear Navier–Stokes equations is presented. The artificial boundary condition is compared with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions for the flow past a rectangular cylinder in a flat channel. The numerical results show that our boundary condition is more accurate.     

The influence of normal flow boundary conditions on spurious modes in finite element solutions to the shallow water equations

Finite element solutions of the primitive equation (PE) form of the shallow water equations are notorious for the severe spurious 2Δx modes which appear. Wave equation (WE) solutions do not exhibit these numerical modes. In this paper we show that the severe spurious modes in PE solutions are strongly influenced by essential normal flow boundary conditions in the coupled continuity-momentum system of equations. This is demonstrated through numerical examples that avoid the use of essential normal flow boundary conditions either by specifying elevation values over the entire boundary or by implementing natural flow boundary conditions in the weak weighted residual form of the continuity equation. Results from a series of convergence tests show that PE solutions are of nearly the same quality as WE solutions when spurious modes are suppressed by alternative specification of the boundary conditions. Network intercomparisons indicate that varying nodal support does not excite spurious modes in a solution, although it does enhance the spurious modes introduced when an essential normal flow boundary condition is used. Dispersion analysis of discrete equations for interior and boundary nodes offers an explanation of the observed solution behaviour. For certain PE algorithms a mixed situation can arise where the boundary nodes exhibit a monotonic (noise-free) dispersion relationship and the interior nodes exhibit a folded (noisy) dispersion relationship. We have found that the mixed situation occurs when all boundary nodes are specified elevation nodes (which are enforced as essential conditions in the continuity equation) or when specified flow boundary nodes are treated as natural boundary conditions in the continuity equation. In either case the effect is to generate a solution that is essentially free of noise. Apparently, the monotonic dispersion behaviour at the boundaries suppresses the otherwise noisy behaviour caused by the folded dispersion relation on the interior.     

Analytic results for viscoelastic flow in a porous tube

We consider the problem of an upper-convected Maxwell fluid that is injected into or sucked from a cylindrical tube with porous walls. Many salient features of the flow are revealed by solving for the stresses assuming Newtonian kinematics. It is thereby found that the stress components have eigensolutions that in suction are eliminated by boundary conditions imposed on the centerline, which is the upstream boundary for suction. For injection, the centerline is the downstream boundary; boundary conditions applied at the centerline then do not eliminate the eigensolutions. As a result, numerical integration of the differential equations starting at the centerline is stable for suction, unstable for injection. This conclusion applies whether or not Newtonian kinematics are assumed. It is shown here that the eigensolution in injection is eliminated, and the integration stabilized, if integration is started at a position of zero radial flow outside the tube wall, in the region of “pre-history”, and carried out in the direction of flow, towards the centerline of the tube. The solution obtained in this way shows steep stress gradients that are driven by a biaxial extensional near-singularity in the region of pre-history.     

Heat transfer in a radiating, nonsteady, three-dimensional stagnation flow

A similar solution has been obtained to the problem of simultaneous radiation and convection for nonsteady stagnation point flow over a three-dimensional blunt body with both boundary layer suction and injection. The diffusion approximation is used to characterize the radiative heat flux. The three-dimensional, time-dependent equations of motion and the energy equation have been transformed into a set of ordinary differential equations by the similarity transformation and the resulting ordinary differential equations have been solved numerically. The effects of accelerating and decelerating flow, the three-dimensional geometry, injection and suction, hot and cold wall conditions, and the conduction-to-radiation parameter on the temperature distribution within the flow have been investigated.     

Uniqueness of the self-similar solutions of three-dimensional laminar boundary-layer equations

The equations of the three-dimensional laminar boundary layer on lines of flow outflow and inflow are studied for conical outer flow under the assumption that the Prandtl number and the productρμ are constant. It is shown that in the case of a positive velocity gradient of the secondary flow (α₁>0) the additional conditions which result from the physical flow pattern determine a unique solution of the system of boundary-layer equations. For a negative velocity gradient of the secondary flow (α₁≤0) these conditions are satisfied by two solutions. An approximate solution is obtained for the boundary layer equations which is in rather good agreement with the numerical integration results. Compressible gas flow in a three-dimensional laminar boundary layer is described by a system of nonlinear differential equations whose solution is not unique for given boundary conditions. Therefore additional conditions resulting from the physical pattern of the gas flow are imposed on the resulting solution. In the solution of problems with a negative pressure gradient these additional conditions are sufficient for a unique selection of the solution of the boundary-layer equations. However, in the case of a positive pressure gradient the solution of the boundary-layer equations satisfying the boundary and additional conditions may not be unique. In particular, in [1] in a study of a three-dimensional laminar boundary layer in the vicinity of the stagnation point it was shown that for $$c = {{\frac{{\partial v_e }}{{\partial y}}} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\frac{{\partial v_e }}{{\partial y}}} {\frac{{\partial u_e }}{{\partial x}}}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\frac{{\partial u_e }}{{\partial x}}}} > 0$$ the solution is unique, while for c<0 there are two solutions. In the present paper we study the question of the uniqueness of the self-similar solution of the three-dimensional laminar boundary-layer equations on lines of flow outflow and inflow for a conical outer flow.     

Finite element,stream function–vorticity solution of steady laminar natural convection

Stream function–vorticity finite element solution of two-dimensional incompressible viscous flow and natural convection is considered. Steady state solutions of the natural convection problem have been obtained for a wide range of the two independent parameters. Use of boundary vorticity formulae or iterative satisfaction of the no-slip boundary condition is avoided by application of the finite element discretization and a displacement of the appropriate discrete equations. Solution is obtained by Newton–Raphson iteration of all equations simultaneously. The method then appears to give a steady solution whenever the flow is physically steady, but it does not give a steady solution when the flow is physically unsteady. In particular, no form of asymmetric differencing is required. The method offers a degree of economy over primitive variable formulations. Physical results are given for the square cavity convection problem. The paper also reports on earlier work in which the most commonly used boundary vorticity formula was found not to satisfy the no-slip condition, and in which segregated solution procedures were attempted with very minimal success.     

Computing axisymmetric,laminar internal flows

A simple computational scheme is developed to compute laminar flows inside axisymmetric ducts. It is based on the Keller box method where the equations are approximated at the centre of the downstream face of each computational box. The coupling between the pressure gradient and the velocities for internal flow has been observed to introduce stability problems for the Keller box method that are not present for external, boundary layer flow problems. The difference scheme for the velocities is coupled to an iterative scheme to solve for the pressure gradient at each axial step. Example results for developing flow in a pipe and in a 2° conical diffuser are presented.     

Singularities of the boundary layer equations and the structure of the flow in the vicinity of the convergence plane on conical bodies

The singularities of the boundary layer equations and the laminar viscous gas flow structure in the vicinity of the convergence plane on sharp conical bodies at incidence are analyzed. In the outer part of the boundary layer the singularities are obtained in explicit form. It is shown that in the vicinity of a singularity a boundary domain, in which the flow is governed by the shortened Navier-Stokes equations, is formed; their regular solutions are obtained. The viscous-inviscid interaction effect predominates in a region whose extent is of the order of the square root of the boundary layer thickness, in which the flow is described by a two-layer model, namely, the Euler equations in the slender-body approximation for the outer region and the three-dimensional boundary layer equations; the pressure is determined from the interaction conditions. On the basis of an analysis of the solutions for the outer part of the boundary layer it is shown that interaction leads to attenuation of the singularities and the dependence of the nature of the flow on the longitudinal coordinate, but does not make it possible to eliminate the singularities completely.     

Memory effects in a non-uniform flow: A study of the behaviour of a tubular film of viscoelastic fluid

Summary Formal use of constitutive equations such as that ofOldroyd in the mathematical model of a flow leads, in general, to a higher order differential equation than is obtained for a purely viscous fluid, and so we expect to need more boundary conditions in order to specify the problem completely. (These extra boundary conditions may be thought of as arising from the need to specify what the fluid remembers of the flow outside the region of interest.) In flows which are uniform spatially, or uniform with time for a material element, the uniformity will provide the extra information and so no extra conditions are needed. Similarly for confined flows, where no new fluid enters the region of interest, no information about flow outside this region is needed.Here the steady flow of a tubular film of a viscoelastic fluid is studied with the particular aim of examining the effect of these extra boundary conditions in a situation where they may be expected to have some significant influence on the flow as a whole. The flow, while being geometrically complex, is essentially an elongational free-surface flow involving the biaxial stretching of a thin axisymmetric tubular film. Features of the constitutive equations studied are the presence of a non-zero relaxation time and the possibility of a variable viscosity. One effect of the non-zero relaxation time is that a tube of constant radius (possible but unstable for aNewtonian fluid) is not dynamically possible. Preliminary computational results suggest that the effect of the extra upstream boundary conditions is not large, and also have failed to show any major difference between the two generalisations of theMaxwell model which have been used.With 1 figure     

边界约束刚度不确定的结构振动特征值

利用摄动法 ,将随机的微分方程和边界条件化为一系列的确定性微分方程和边界条件。运用有限元离散方法 ,推导了统计特征值的二阶摄动近似表达 ,用算例对本文方法进行了说明并和 Monte-Carlo模拟法结果进行了比较     

Jump-reduced immersed boundary method for compressible flow

The main challenge of the immersed boundary approach is the proper enforcement of boundary conditions on the body interface without any spurious oscillations, which are induced by the nongrid-conforming boundary configuration. In this study, a new sharp interface ghost-cell immersed boundary method (IBM) is proposed for obtaining solutions near the immersed boundary with a high order of accuracy. The main idea is “jump-reduction” instead of jump-correction across the boundary interface by combining the ghost-cell method with the flow reconstruction method. In the proposed IBM, the unknown values at the three points, that is, boundary points, ghost cell, and flow field reconstruction point are solved simultaneously using equations formulated by the moving least-squares interpolation method. It is a hybrid of ghost-cell and flow reconstruction methods, correlated with interface values, which result in a reduced jump-discontinuity. In addition, a discontinuity-distinguishing algorithm is introduced so that the low-order method is applied only to the discontinuous or non smooth region, while the current high-order method is applied elsewhere. Reduced jump-discontinuity of the proposed IBM has been verified in both subsonic and supersonic flow using fundamental benchmark problems. We observed that the reduced jump-discontinuity does not hamper the mass conservation and shows even better conservation property than conventional methods due to the nonoscillatory performance in smooth regions. The numerical results further confirm the ability of the proposed IBM to solve complex flow physics with high-order accuracy and improved stability.     

Asymptotic theory of the Boltzmann system,for a steady flow of a slightly rarefied gas with a finite Mach number: General theory

A steady rarefied gas flow with Mach number of the order of unity around a body or bodies is considered. The general behaviour of the gas for small Knudsen numbers is studied by asymptotic analysis of the boundary-value problem of the Boltzmann equation for a general domain. The effect of gas rarefaction (or Knudsen number) is expressed as a power series of the square root of the Knudsen number of the system. A series of fluid-dynamic type equations and their associated boundary conditions that determine the component functions of the expansion of the density, flow velocity, and temperature of the gas is obtained by the analysis. The equations up to the order of the square root of the Knudsen number do not contain non-Navier–Stokes stress and heat flow, which differs from the claim by Darrozes (in Rarefied Gas Dynamics, Academic Press, New York, 1969). The contributions up to this order, except in the Knudsen layer, are included in the system of the Navier–Stokes equations and the slip boundary conditions consisting of tangential velocity slip due to the shear of flow and temperature jump due to the temperature gradient normal to the boundary.     

考虑法向压力梯度的三维旋转边界层计算

本文以量级分析为基础,建立了一般曲线坐标系上的三维旋转边界层方程。对旋转在边界层中的影响进行分析之后,提出了一个能够处理壁面法向压力梯度不为零问题的压力梯度迭代方法。在传统的Box法的基础上发展了一套完整的求解三维旋转边界层的方法和程序,并对螺旋面、压气机转子叶面以及圆柱面上的旋转边界层进行了计算,与他人的计算和实验的对比分析表明,该方法和程序是正确的,可用于求解任意几何物面上的三维旋转边界层。     

THREE-DIMENSIONAL VISCOUS FLOW THROUGH A ROTATING CHANNEL: A PSEUDOSPECTRAL MATRIX METHOD APPROACH

A Fourier–Chebyshev pseudospectral method is used for the numerical simulation of incompressible flows in a three-dimensio nal channel of square cross-section with rotation. Realistic, non-periodic boundary conditions that impose no-slip conditions in two directions (spanwis e and vertical directions) are used. The Navier–Stokes equations are integrated in time using a fractional step method. The Poisson equations for pressure and the Helmholtz equation for velocity are solved using a matrix diagonalization (eigenfunction decomposition) method, through which we are able to reduce a three-dimensional matrix problem to a simple algebraic vector equation. This results in signficant savings in computer storage requirement, particularly for large-scale computations. Verification of the numerical algorithm and code is carried out by comparing with a limiting case of an exact steady state solution for a one-dimensional channel flow and also with a two-dimensional rotating channel case. Two-cell and four-cell two-dimensional flow patterns are observed in the numerical experiment. It is found that the four-cell flow pattern is stable to symmetri cal disturbances but unstable to asymmetrical disturbances.     

A virtual boundary method with improved computational efficiency using a multi‐grid method

The flow around spherical, solid objects is considered. The boundary conditions on the solid boundaries have been applied by replacing the boundary with a surface force distribution on the surface, such that the required boundary conditions are satisfied. The velocity on the boundary is determined by extrapolation from the flow field. The source terms are determined iteratively, as part of the solution. They are then averaged and are smoothed out to nearby computational grid points. A multi‐grid scheme has been used to enhance the computational efficiency of the solution of the force equations. The method has been evaluated for flow around both moving and stationary spherical objects at very low and intermediate Reynolds numbers. The results shows a second order accuracy of the method both at creeping flow and at Re=100. The multi‐grid scheme is shown to enhance the convergence rate up to a factor 10 as compared to single grid approach. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scaling Transformations for Boundary Layer Flow near the Stagnation-Point on a Heated Permeable Stretching Surface in a Porous Medium Saturated with a Nanofluid and Heat Generation/Absorption Effects

In this article, a similarity solution of the steady boundary layer flow near the stagnation-point flow on a permeable stretching sheet in a porous medium saturated with a nanofluid and in the presence of internal heat generation/absorption is theoretically studied. The governing partial differential equations with the corresponding boundary conditions are reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations with the appropriate boundary conditions via Lie-group analysis. Copper (Cu) with water as its base fluid has been considered and representative results have been obtained for the nanoparticle volume fraction parameter f{\phi} in the range 0 ￡ f ￡ 0.2{0\leq \phi \leq 0.2} with the Prandtl number of Pr = 6.8 for the water working fluid. Velocity and temperature profiles as well as the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number are determined numerically. The influence of pertinent parameters such as nanofluid volume fraction parameter, the ratio of free stream velocity and stretching velocity parameter, the permeability parameter, suction/blowing parameter, and heat source/sink parameter on the flow and heat transfer characteristics is discussed. Comparisons with published results are also presented. It is shown that the inclusion of a nanoparticle into the base fluid of this problem is capable to change the flow pattern.     

Modelling of thin piezoelectric layers on plates

The derivation of plate equations for a plate consisting of two layers, one anisotropic elastic and one piezoelectric, is considered. Power series expansions in the thickness coordinate for the displacement components and the electric potential lead to recursion relations among the expansion functions. Using these in the boundary and interface conditions, a set of equations are obtained for some of the lowest-order expansion functions. This set is reduced to six equations corresponding to the symmetric (in-plane) and antisymmetric (bending) motions of the elastic layer. These equations are given to linear (for the symmetric equations) or quadratic (for the antisymmetric equations) order in the thickness. It is noted that it is, in principle, possible to go to any order, and that it is believed that the corresponding equations are asymptotically correct. A few numerical results for guided waves along the plate and a 1D actuator case illustrate the accuracy.