Incompressible SPH simulation of water entry of a free‐falling object

In this paper an incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (Incom‐SPH) model is used to simulate the interactions between the free surface flow and a moving object. Incom‐SPH method is a two‐step semi‐implicit hydrodynamic formulation of the SPH algorithm and is capable of accurately treating the free surface deformations and impact forces during the solid–fluid interactions. For a free‐falling object, its motion is tracked by an additional Lagrangian algorithm based on Newton's law to couple with the Incom‐SPH program. The developed model is employed to investigate the water entry of a free‐falling wedge. The accuracy of the computations is validated by the good agreement in predicting the relevant hydrokinematic and hydrodynamic parameters. Finally, a numerical test is performed to study the influence of spatial resolution on the water entry features. The Incom‐SPH modeling coupled with the solid–fluid interaction algorithm could provide a promising computational tool to predict the slamming problems in coastal and offshore engineering. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SPH computation of plunging waves using a 2‐D sub‐particle scale (SPS) turbulence model

The paper presents a 2‐D large eddy simulation (LES) modelling approach to investigate the properties of the plunging waves. The numerical model is based on the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. SPH is a mesh‐free Lagrangian particle approach which is capable of tracking the free surfaces of large deformation in an easy and accurate way. The Smagorinsky model is used as the turbulence model due to its simplicity and effectiveness. The proposed 2‐D SPH–LES model is applied to a cnoidal wave breaking and plunging over a mild slope. The computations are in good agreement with the documented data. Especially the computed turbulence quantities under the breaking waves agree better with the experiments as compared with the numerical results obtained by using the k–ε model. The sensitivity analyses of the SPH–LES computations indicate that both the turbulence model and the spatial resolution play an important role in the model predictions and the contributions from the sub‐particle scale (SPS) turbulence decrease with the particle size refinement. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved MUSCL treatment for the SPH‐ALE method: comparison with the standard SPH method for the jet impingement case

In the present work, a new implementation of the Monotone Upwind‐centered Scheme for Conservation Laws (MUSCL) ‐ Hancock scheme has been developed for the SPH‐Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method. The resulting method was tested at various benchmark cases and then it was used to simulate the jet impingement on a flat plate for several different impingement angles, in comparison with the standard SPH method and results from literature. The SPH‐ALE method proves to produce higher quality results than the standard SPH method in all cases, while the MUSCL treatment tends to remedy the issues of the numerical viscosity, inherent to the method, up to a point. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel method to calculate the pressure interaction between dust and fluid using SPH

Unstable behavior of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) dust particles, such as clumping or fingering under certain conditions, has been reported by several researchers who have conducted studies on dusty fluid SPH. The simulation results in this study show that this instability is numerical, and the instability is mainly attributable to the ill‐interpolated pressure gradient in the interaction term between 2 phases. In this paper, we introduce a new method to calculate the pressure force interaction term between dust and fluid particles. The key idea is to first interpolate the pressure gradient at SPH fluid particles and then use the values to calculate the pressure gradient at SPH dust particles, in a consecutive manner. To compare the new method with the existing method, we first conducted an interpolation of pressure gradient at hydrostatic equilibrium under gravity to estimate any error. The results show that the new method is more accurate. We then conducted additional numerical tests, namely, dust‐liquid counterflow, sedimentation in a confined tank, and sedimentation in the presence of turbulence. The unphysical unstable behavior of SPH dust particles such as clumping or fingering was significantly reduced in the new method. The results also show that the instability becomes more significant when using the existing method especially for the case when simulating a flow with relatively high concentration of dust or for the case in which inertia dominates the dynamics of dust particles. Especially, in those cases, the existing method should be avoided, and the newly proposed method is highly recommended.     

A critical investigation of smoothed particle hydrodynamics applied to problems with free‐surfaces

In this paper, an in‐depth study of SPH method, in its original weakly compressible version, is achieved on dedicated 2D and 3D free‐surface flow test cases. These rather critical prototype problems shall constitute suitable test cases to get through when building a free‐surface SPH model. The present work aims at investigating various numerical aspects of this method, often little mentioned in literature. In particular, a great care is paid to the dynamic part of the solution, which is critical to the local hydrodynamic load prediction. The role of numerical errors in the development of acoustic frequencies in the pressure signals is discussed, as well as the influence of the choice of the sound velocity. On the shown test problems, it is also evidenced that some numerical tools are crucial to ensure the robustness and accuracy of the standard SPH method. The convergence of our model is heuristically proved on these nonlinear prototype tests, showing at the same time the very satisfactory level of accuracy reached. Through these tests, some other numerical specificities of the SPH method are discussed, such as the self‐redistribution of the particles occurring during the Lagrangian evolution. A higher order model is also proposed, and its advantages and drawbacks are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A corrected symmetric SPH method to simulate viscoelastic free surface flows based on the PTT model

In this work, a corrected symmetric and periodic density reinitialized SPH (CSPDR‐SPH) method is proposed and extended to simulate the viscoelastic free surface flows based on the Phan–Thien–Tanner model. The improvements mainly lie in deriving a corrected symmetric kernel gradient, and combining it with a periodic density reinitialization procedure. In addition, a simple artificial viscosity and a simple artificial stress form are adopted. Thus, the CSPDR‐SPH method has higher accuracy and better stability than the SPH method, and conserves both linear and angular momentums. The consistency and convergence of the CSPDR‐SPH method are justified by approximating a function in one and two dimensions. The merits of CSPDR‐SPH method are demonstrated by several benchmarks. The simple flow in a two‐dimensional channel is investigated to show the capability of the CSPDR‐SPH method to simulate the viscoelastic free surface flow. Then the CSPDR‐SPH method is extended to simulate the impacting drop problem. Numerical results show that the CSPDR‐SPH method can precisely capture the viscoelastic free surface. The Reynolds number, Weissenberg number and elongation parameter have remarkable effect on the flows. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A POD reduced‐order 4D‐Var adaptive mesh ocean modelling approach

Inflow and outflow boundary conditions are essential for the application of computational fluid dynamics to many engineering scenarios. In this paper we present a new boundary condition implementation that enables the simulation of flow through permeable boundaries in the Lagrangian mesh‐free method, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). Each permeable boundary is associated with an inflow or outflow zone outside the domain, in which particles are created or removed as required. The analytic boundary condition is applied by prescribing the appropriate variables for particles in an inflow or outflow zone, and extrapolating other variables from within the domain. Characteristic‐based non‐reflecting boundary conditions, described in the literature for mesh‐based methods, can be implemented within this framework. Results are presented for simple one‐dimensional flows, quasi‐one‐dimensional compressible nozzle flow, and two‐dimensional flow around a cylinder at Reynolds numbers of 40 and 100 and a Mach number of 0.1. These results establish the capability of SPH to model flows through open domains, opening a broad new class of applications. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A kernel gradient free (KGF) SPH method

The finite particle method (FPM) is a modified SPH method with high order accuracy while retaining the advantages of SPH in modeling problems with free surfaces, moving interfaces, and large deformations. In both SPH and FPM, kernel gradient is necessary in kernel and particle approximation of a field function and its derivatives. In this paper, a new FPM is presented, which only involves kernel function itself in kernel and particle approximation. The kernel gradient is not necessary in the whole computation, and this approach is thus referred to as a kernel gradient free (KGF) SPH method. This is helpful when a kernel function is not differentiable or the resultant kernel gradient is not sufficiently smooth, and thus it is more general in selecting a kernel function. Moreover, different from the original FPM with an asymmetric corrective matrix, in the new FPM, the resultant corrective matrix is symmetric, and this is advantageous in particle approximations. A series of numerical examples have been conducted to show the efficiencies of KGF‐SPH including one‐dimensional mathematical tests of polynomial functions with equal or variable smoothing length and two‐dimensional incompressible fluid flow of shear cavity. It is found that KGF‐SPH is comparable with FPM in accuracy and is flexible as SPH. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fourth‐ and tenth‐order compact finite difference solutions of perturbed circular vortex flows

In this study, high‐order compact finite difference calculations are reported for 2D unsteady incompressible circular vortex flow in primitive variable formulation. The fourth‐order Runge–Kutta temporal discretization is used together with fourth‐ or tenth‐order compact spatial discretization. Dependent on the perturbation initially imposed, the solutions display a tripole, triangular or square vortex. The comparison of the predictions with the detailed spectral calculations of Kloosterziel and Carnevale (J. Fluid Mech. 1999; 388 :217–257) shows that the vorticity fields are very well captured. The spectral resolution of the present method was quantified from the decomposition of the vorticity distribution in its azimuthal components and compared with reported spectral results. Using identical grid resolution to the reference results yields negligible differences in the main features of the flow. The perturbation amplitude and its first harmonic are virtually identical to the reference results for both fourth‐ or tenth‐order spatial discretization, as theoretically expected but seldom a posteriori verified. The differences between the two spatial discretizations appear only for coarser grids, favouring the tenth‐order discretization. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A stabilized SPH method for inviscid shallow water flows

In this paper, the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is applied to the solution of shallow water equations. A brief review of the method in its standard form is first described then a variational formulation using SPH interpolation is discussed. A new technique based on the Riemann solver is introduced to improve the stability of the method. This technique leads to better results. The treatment of solid boundary conditions is discussed but remains an open problem for general geometries. The dam‐break problem with a flat bed is used as a benchmark test. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new multi‐domain/multi‐resolution method for large‐eddy simulation

A new multi‐domain/multi‐resolution method is presented in the framework of the large‐eddy simulation (LES). The proposed treatment at the interfaces is conceived to deal with the problem of discontinuities on the characteristic length scales met in the case of two domains having different resolutions. It gives rise to an original approach taking into account not only the discontinuous aspect on the flow fields values but also, consequently, the non‐conservative aspect of transfer of fluxes through the interfaces. This new treatment at the interfaces has been assessed successfully in the case of a subsonic compressible channel flow. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved SPH model for multiphase flows with large density ratios

This paper presents a new smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model for simulating multiphase fluid flows with large density ratios. The new SPH model consists of an improved discretization scheme, an enhanced multiphase interface treatment algorithm, and a coupled dynamic boundary treatment technique. The presented SPH discretization scheme is developed from Taylor series analysis with kernel normalization and kernel gradient correction and is then used to discretize the Navier‐Stokes equation to obtain improved SPH equations of motion for multiphase fluid flows. The multiphase interface treatment algorithm involves treating neighboring particles from different phases as virtual particles with specially updated density to maintain pressure consistency and a repulsive interface force between neighboring interface particles into the pressure gradient to keep sharp interface. The coupled dynamic boundary treatment technique includes a soft repulsive force between approaching fluid and solid particles while the information of virtual particles are approximated using the improved SPH discretization scheme. The presented SPH model is applied to 3 typical multiphase flow problems including dam breaking, Rayleigh‐Taylor instability, and air bubble rising in water. It is demonstrated that inherent multiphase flow physics can be well captured while the dynamic evolution of the complex multiphase interfaces is sharp with consistent pressure across the interfaces.     

An improved KGF‐SPH with a novel discrete scheme of Laplacian operator for viscous incompressible fluid flows

The kernel gradient free (KGF) smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is a modified finite particle method (FPM) which has higher order accuracy than the conventional SPH method. In KGF‐SPH, no kernel gradient is required in the whole computation, and this leads to good flexibility in the selection of smoothing functions and it is also associated with a symmetric corrective matrix. When modeling viscous incompressible flows with SPH, FPM or KGF‐SPH, it is usual to approximate the Laplacian term with nested approximation on velocity, and this may introduce numerical errors from the nested approximation, and also cause difficulties in dealing with boundary conditions. In this paper, an improved KGF‐SPH method is presented for modeling viscous, incompressible fluid flows with a novel discrete scheme of Laplacian operator. The improved KGF‐SPH method avoids nested approximation of first order derivatives, and keeps the good feature of ‘kernel gradient free’. The two‐dimensional incompressible fluid flow of shear cavity, both in Euler frame and Lagrangian frame, are simulated by SPH, FPM, the original KGF‐SPH and improved KGF‐SPH. The numerical results show that the improved KGF‐SPH with the novel discrete scheme of Laplacian operator are more accurate than SPH, and more stable than FPM and the original KGF‐SPH. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An innovative open boundary treatment for incompressible SPH

An innovative inflow/outflow boundary treatment has been proposed to be used in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). Among other strategies, it involves the use of extended regions at open boundary sections and a procedure to enforce the mass continuity constraint, as well as to minimize outflow reflections. This methodology has been coupled with a modified ‘particle shifting’ algorithm, so that the robustness of the method could be ensured at high Reynolds number regimes. Confined flow around a square cylinder with an open outflow has been selected as the flow problem to analyze the performance of the new method. Detailed comparisons with data available in the literature for a variety of mesh‐based methods have been made for two different values of the blockage ratio β, namely for β = 1/4 and 1/8, and a range of supercritical Reynolds numbers. The results obtained with the present implementation of truly incompressible SPH have demonstrated numerical accuracy comparable with that of other methods, as well as the success of the open boundary treatment. A direct comparison with previously published SPH results for a distinct blockage ratio, namely for β = 1/5, has also revealed that a major improvement has been achieved by the use of the method described in this paper. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of one‐ and two‐equation low‐Re turbulence models. Part II—Vortex‐generator jet and diffusing S‐duct flows

This second segment of the two‐part paper systematically examines several turbulence models in the context of two flows, namely a vortex flow created by an inclined jet in crossflow, and the flow field in a diffusing S‐shaped duct. The test cases are chosen on the basis of availability of high‐quality and detailed experimental data. The tested turbulence models are integrated to solid surfaces and consist of: Rodi's two‐layer k–ε model, Wilcox's k–ω model, Menter's two‐equation shear–stress‐transport model, and the one‐equation model of Spalart and Allmaras. The objective of the study is to establish the prediction accuracy of these turbulence models with respect to three‐dimensional separated flows with streamline curvature. At the same time, the study establishes the minimum spatial resolution requirements for each of these turbulence closures, and identifies the proper low‐Mach‐number preconditioning and artificial diffusion settings of a Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes algorithm for optimum rate of convergence and minimum adverse impact on prediction accuracy. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SPH for 3D floating bodies using variable mass particle distribution

A floating body with substantial heave motion is a challenging fluid–structure interaction problem for numerical simulation. In this paper we develop SPH in three dimensions to include variable particle mass distribution using an arbitrary Lagrange–Eulerian formulation with an embedded Riemann solver. A wedge or cone in initially still water is forced to move with a displacement equal to the surface elevation of a focused wave group. A two‐dimensional wedge case is used to evaluate two forms of repulsive‐force boundary condition on the body; the force depending on the normal distance from the object surface produced closer agreement with the experiment. For a three‐dimensional heaving cone the comparison between SPH and experiment shows excellent agreement for the force and free surface for motion with low peak spectral frequencies while for a higher peak frequency the agreement is reasonable in terms of phase and magnitude, but a small discrepancy appears at the troughs in the motion. Capturing the entire three‐dimensional flow field using an initially uniform particle distribution with sufficiently fine resolution requires an extremely large number of particles and consequently large computing resource. To mitigate this issue, we employ a variable mass distribution with fine resolution around the body. Using a refined mass distribution in a preselected area avoids the need for a dynamic particle refinement scheme and leads to a computational speedup of more than 600% or much improved results for a given number of particles. SPH with variable mass distribution is then applied to a single heaving‐float wave energy converter, the ‘Manchester Bobber’, in extreme waves and compared with experiments in a wave tank. The SPH simulations are presented for two cases: a single degree‐of‐freedom system with motion restricted to the vertical direction and with general motion allowing six degrees‐of‐freedom. The motion predicted for the float with general motion is in much closer agreement with experimental data than the vertically constrained system. Using variable particle mass distribution is shown to produce close agreement with a computation time 20% of that required with a uniformly fine resolution. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wave body interaction in 2D using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) with variable particle mass

Wave interaction with bodies is an important practical application for smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) which in principle applies to steep and breaking waves without special treatment. However, few detailed tests have been undertaken even with small amplitude waves. In order to reduce computer time a variable particle mass distribution is tested here with fine resolution near the body and coarse resolution further away, while maintaining a uniform kernel size. We consider two well‐defined test cases, in two dimensions, of waves generated by a heaving semi‐immersed cylinder and progressive waves interacting with a fixed cylinder. But first, still water with hydrostatic pressure is tested. The open‐source code SPHysics ( http://www.sphysics.org )^{§Update made here after initial online publication.} is used with a Riemann solver in an Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation. For the heaving cylinder, SPH results for far field wave amplitude and cylinder force show good agreement with the data of Yu and Ursell (J. Fluid Mech. 1961; 11 :529–551). For wave loading on a half‐submerged cylinder the agreement with the experimental data of Dixon et al. (J. Waterway Port Coastal Ocean Div. 1979; 105 :421–438) for the root mean square force is within 2%. For more submerged cases, the results show some discrepancy, but this was also found with other modelling approaches. The sensitivity of results to the value of the slope limiter used in the MUSCL‐based Riemann solver is demonstrated. The variable mass distribution leads to a computer run speedup of nearly 200% in these cases. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Curvilinear smoothed particle hydrodynamics

We suggest a new set of equations to employ smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) in a curvilinear space, and we refer to it as curvSPH. In classical SPH, the horizontal and vertical resolution of discretization is supposed to be equal for fluid particles. However, curvSPH makes the horizontal and vertical resolutions independent from each other. This is performed by transformation of physical space into an appropriate computational space with a different scale in horizontal and vertical directions. Solving a problem using SPH in a curvilinear space also provides capability to model curved boundaries as straight lines. In classical SPH, special care is needed to reach a uniform mass distribution along curved boundaries; however, producing uniform mass distribution along a line using curvSPH is straight forward. Different simulations, including simulation of a flip bucket are performed to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method. Good agreement of results with experimental data and classical SPH confirms the capabilities of curvSPH. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.