Approximation of the thermally coupled MHD problem using a stabilized finite element method

A numerical formulation to solve the MHD problem with thermal coupling is presented in full detail. The distinctive feature of the method is the design of the stabilization terms, which serve several purposes. First, convective dominated flows in the Navier–Stokes and the heat equation can be dealt with. Second, there is no restriction in the choice of the interpolation spaces of all the variables and, finally, flows highly coupled with the magnetic field can be accounted for. Different aspects related to the design of the final fully discrete and linearized algorithm are also discussed.     

A current density conservative scheme for incompressible MHD flows at a low magnetic Reynolds number. Part I: On a rectangular collocated grid system

A consistent, conservative and accurate scheme has been designed to calculate the current density and the Lorentz force by solving the electrical potential equation for magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) at low magnetic Reynolds numbers and high Hartmann numbers on a finite-volume structured collocated grid. In this collocated grid, velocity (u), pressure (p), and electrical potential (φ) are located in the grid center, while current fluxes are located on the cell faces. The calculation of current fluxes on the cell faces is conducted using a conservative scheme, which is consistent with the discretization scheme for the solution of electrical potential Poisson equation. A conservative interpolation is used to get the current density at the cell center, which is used to conduct the calculation of Lorentz force at the cell center for momentum equations. We will show that both “conservative” and “consistent” are important properties of the scheme to get an accurate result for high Hartmann number MHD flows with a strongly non-uniform mesh employed to resolve the Hartmann layers and side layers of Hunt’s conductive walls and Shercliff’s insulated walls. A general second-order projection method has been developed for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with the Lorentz force included. This projection method can accurately balance the pressure term and the Lorentz force for a fully developed core flow. This method can also simplify the pressure boundary conditions for MHD flows.     

Analogue of the Cole-Hopf transform for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations and its application

We consider the Navier–Stokes equations written in the stream function in two dimensions and vector potentials in three dimensions, which are critical dependent variables. On this basis, we introduce an analogue of the Cole-Hopf transform, which exactly reduces the Navier–Stokes equations to the heat equations with a potential term (i.e. the nonlinear Schrödinger equation at imaginary times). The following results are obtained. (i) A regularity criterion immediately obtains as the boundedness of condition for the potential term when the equations are recast in a path-integral form by the Feynman-Kac formula. (ii) This in turn gives an additional characterisation of possible singularities for the Navier–Stokes equations. (iii) Some numerical results for the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations are presented to demonstrate how the potential term captures near-singular structures. Finally, we extend this formulation to higher dimensions, where the regularity issues are markedly open.     

An effective explicit pressure gradient scheme implemented in the two-level non-staggered grids for incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

In this paper, an improved two-level method is presented for effectively solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. This proposed method solves a smaller system of nonlinear Navier–Stokes equations on the coarse mesh and needs to solve the Oseen-type linearized equations of motion only once on the fine mesh level. Within the proposed two-level framework, a prolongation operator, which is required to linearize the convective terms at the fine mesh level using the convergent Navier–Stokes solutions computed at the coarse mesh level, is rigorously derived to increase the prediction accuracy. This indispensable prolongation operator can properly communicate the flow velocities between the two mesh levels because it is locally analytic. Solution convergence can therefore be accelerated. For the sake of numerical accuracy, momentum equations are discretized by employing the general solution for the two-dimensional convection–diffusion–reaction model equation. The convective instability problem can be simultaneously eliminated thanks to the proper treatment of convective terms. The converged solution is, thus, very high in accuracy as well as in yielding a quadratic spatial rate of convergence. For the sake of programming simplicity and computational efficiency, pressure gradient terms are rigorously discretized within the explicit framework in the non-staggered grid system. The proposed analytical prolongation operator for the mapping of solutions from the coarse to fine meshes and the explicit pressure gradient discretization scheme, which accommodates the dispersion-relation-preserving property, have been both rigorously justified from the predicted Navier–Stokes solutions.     

Numerical comparisons of time–space iterative method and spatial iterative methods for the stationary Navier–Stokes equations

This paper makes some numerical comparisons of time–space iterative method and spatial iterative methods for solving the stationary Navier–Stokes equations. The time–space iterative method consists in solving the nonstationary Stokes equations based on the time–space discretization by the Euler implicit/explicit scheme under a weak uniqueness condition (A2). The spatial iterative methods consist in solving the stationary Stokes scheme, Newton scheme, Oseen scheme based on the spatial discretization under some strong uniqueness assumptions. We compare the stability and convergence conditions of the time–space iterative method and the spatial iterative methods. Moreover, the numerical tests show that the time–space iterative method is the more simple than the spatial iterative methods for solving the stationary Navier–Stokes problem. Furthermore, the time–space iterative method can solve the stationary Navier–Stokes equations with some small viscosity and the spatial iterative methods can only solve the stationary Navier–Stokes equations with some large viscosities.     

A gradient stable scheme for a phase field model for the moving contact line problem

In this paper, an efficient numerical scheme is designed for a phase field model for the moving contact line problem, which consists of a coupled system of the Cahn–Hilliard and Navier–Stokes equations with the generalized Navier boundary condition [1], [2], [4]. The nonlinear version of the scheme is semi-implicit in time and is based on a convex splitting of the Cahn–Hilliard free energy (including the boundary energy) together with a projection method for the Navier–Stokes equations. We show, under certain conditions, the scheme has the total energy decaying property and is unconditionally stable. The linearized scheme is easy to implement and introduces only mild CFL time constraint. Numerical tests are carried out to verify the accuracy and stability of the scheme. The behavior of the solution near the contact line is examined. It is verified that, when the interface intersects with the boundary, the consistent splitting scheme [21], [22] for the Navier Stokes equations has the better accuracy for pressure.     

Revisiting finite-scale Navier–Stokes theory: Order-of-magnitude results,new critical values,and connections to Stokesian fluids

We return to Ref. [7] and present, as well as note the implications stemming from, a rigorous order-of-magnitude-based derivation of the governing system considered therein. The system in question models the ‘piston problem’ for the case of a viscous, but thermally non-conducting, gas with constant transport coefficients under the generalization of the Navier–Stokes (NS) equations known as the finite-scale Navier–Stokes (FSNS) equations. Our analysis also provides a rigorous derivation of the FSNS system considered in Ref. [12], highlights links between FSNS theory and Stokesian fluids, and examines the possible applicability of generalizations of the perfect gas law to finite-scale theory. We conclude with a brief discussion regarding new critical values of the averaging length scale.     

Weighted least-squares finite elements based on particle imaging velocimetry data

The solution of the Navier–Stokes equations requires that data about the solution is available along the boundary. In some situations, such as particle imaging velocimetry, there is additional data available along a single plane within the domain, and there is a desire to also incorporate this data into the approximate solution of the Navier–Stokes equation. The question that we seek to answer in this paper is whether two-dimensional velocity data containing noise can be incorporated into a full three-dimensional solution of the Navier–Stokes equations in an appropriate and meaningful way. For addressing this problem, we examine the potential of least-squares finite element methods (LSFEM) because of their flexibility in the enforcement of various boundary conditions. Further, by weighting the boundary conditions in a manner that properly reflects the accuracy with which the boundary values are known, we develop the weighted LSFEM. The potential of weighted LSFEM is explored for three different test problems: the first uses randomly generated Gaussian noise to create artificial ‘experimental’ data in a controlled manner, and the second and third use particle imaging velocimetry data. In all test problems, weighted LSFEM produces accurate results even for cases where there is significant noise in the experimental data.     

Computational Model of Thermal‐Fluid Flow in a Radio‐Frequency Plasma Torch

The paper aims to clarify the modelling results concerning the heat transfer and fluid flow in a radio‐frequency plasma torch with argon at atmospheric pressure. Fluid numerical simulation requires the coupling of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and thermal phenomena. This model combines Navier–Stokes equations with the Maxwell's equations for compressible fluid and electromagnetic phenomena successively. A numerical formulation based on the finite element method is used. In this study, fluid flow and temperature equations are simultaneously solved (direct method, instead of using the indirect method) using a finite elements method (FEM) for optically thin argon plasmas under the assumptions of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and laminar flow. Appropriate boundary conditions are given, and nonlinear parameters such as the thermal and electrical conductivity of the gas and input power used in the simulation are detailed. We have found that the source of power is located on the torch wall in this type of inductive discharge. The center can be heated by conduction and convection via electromagnetic phenomena (power loss and Lorentz force). (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Non-local closure and parallel performance of lattice Boltzmann models for some plasma physics problems

The lattice Boltzmann (LB) method is a mesoscopic approach to solving nonlinear macroscopic conservation equations. Because the LB algorithm yields a simple collide-stream sequence it has been extensively applied to Navier–Stokes flows, but its MHD counterpart is less well known in the plasma physics community. Several plasma problems that should be amenable to LB are discussed. In particular, Landau damping—a collisionless kinetic phenomenon of wave–particle interaction—can be studied by LB since non-local macroscopic closures have been generated by plasma physicists. The parallel performance of 2D LB codes for MHD are presented, including scaling performance on the Earth Simulator.     

A finite element method for the numerical solution of the coupled Cahn–Hilliard and Navier–Stokes system for moving contact line problems

In this paper, a semi-implicit finite element method is presented for the coupled Cahn–Hilliard and Navier–Stokes equations with the generalized Navier boundary condition for the moving contact line problems. In our method, the system is solved in a decoupled way. For the Cahn–Hilliard equations, a convex splitting scheme is used along with a P1-P1 finite element discretization. The scheme is unconditionally stable. A linearized semi-implicit P2-P0 mixed finite element method is employed to solve the Navier–Stokes equations. With our method, the generalized Navier boundary condition is extended to handle the moving contact line problems with complex boundary in a very natural way. The efficiency and capacity of the present method are well demonstrated with several numerical examples.     

A reconstructed discontinuous Galerkin method for the compressible Navier–Stokes equations on arbitrary grids

A reconstruction-based discontinuous Galerkin (RDG) method is presented for the solution of the compressible Navier–Stokes equations on arbitrary grids. The RDG method, originally developed for the compressible Euler equations, is extended to discretize viscous and heat fluxes in the Navier–Stokes equations using a so-called inter-cell reconstruction, where a smooth solution is locally reconstructed using a least-squares method from the underlying discontinuous DG solution. Similar to the recovery-based DG (rDG) methods, this reconstructed DG method eliminates the introduction of ad hoc penalty or coupling terms commonly found in traditional DG methods. Unlike rDG methods, this RDG method does not need to judiciously choose a proper form of a recovered polynomial, thus is simple, flexible, and robust, and can be used on arbitrary grids. The developed RDG method is used to compute a variety of flow problems on arbitrary meshes to demonstrate its accuracy, efficiency, robustness, and versatility. The numerical results indicate that this RDG method is able to deliver the same accuracy as the well-known Bassi–Rebay II scheme, at a half of its computing costs for the discretization of the viscous fluxes in the Navier–Stokes equations, clearly demonstrating its superior performance over the existing DG methods for solving the compressible Navier–Stokes equations.     

On the use of biorthogonal interpolating wavelets for large-eddy simulation of turbulence

Recent work in the field of turbulence modelling has demonstrated the benefits of the wavelet-based multiresolution analysis technique as a tool for the formulation of the large-eddy simulation (LES) equations. In this formalism, the LES equations are obtained by projecting the Navier–Stokes equations onto a hierarchy of wavelet spaces. This paper investigates the use of biorthogonal interpolating wavelets as a basis for this projection, placing special emphasis on the wavelet-based differential operators that define this mapping. A detailed analysis of their convergence properties is presented and compared to those of their orthogonal counterpart, the Daubechies wavelets. Based on this study, we highlight the weaknesses of the unlifted interpolating wavelet representation for LES sub-grid modelling. Finally, we establish a link between the unlifted framework and the sampling-based LES approach recently proposed in the literature.     

Long-Time Behavior for the Two-Dimensional Motion of a Disk in a Viscous Fluid

In this article, we study the long-time behavior of solutions of the two-dimensional fluid-rigid disk problem. The motion of the fluid is modeled by the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations, and the disk moves under the influence of the forces exerted by the viscous fluid. We first derive L ^p ?L ^q decay estimates for the linearized equations and compute the first term in the asymptotic expansion of the solutions of the linearized equations. We then apply these computations to derive time-decay estimates for the solutions to the full Navier–Stokes fluid-rigid disk system.     

h-Multigrid for space-time discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of the compressible Navier–Stokes equations

Being implicit in time, the space-time discontinuous Galerkin discretization of the compressible Navier–Stokes equations requires the solution of a non-linear system of algebraic equations at each time-step. The overall performance, therefore, highly depends on the efficiency of the solver. In this article, we solve the system of algebraic equations with a h-multigrid method using explicit Runge–Kutta relaxation. Two-level Fourier analysis of this method for the scalar advection–diffusion equation shows convergence factors between 0.5 and 0.75. This motivates its application to the 3D compressible Navier–Stokes equations where numerical experiments show that the computational effort is significantly reduced, up to a factor 10 w.r.t. single-grid iterations.     

Simulations of MHD flows with moving interfaces

We report on the numerical simulation of a two-fluid magnetohydrodynamics problem arising in the industrial production of aluminium. The motion of the two non-miscible fluids is modeled through the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations coupled with the Maxwell equations. Stabilized finite elements techniques and an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation (for the motion of the interface separating the two fluids) are used in the numerical simulation. With a view to justifying our strategy, details on the numerical analysis of the problem, with a special emphasis on conservation and stability properties and on the surface tension discretization, as well as results on tests cases are provided. Examples of numerical simulations of the industrial case are eventually presented.     

Uniformly stable numerical schemes for the Boltzmann equation preserving the compressible Navier–Stokes asymptotics

In this paper, we develop a numerical method to solve Boltzmann like equations of kinetic theory which is able to capture the compressible Navier–Stokes dynamics at small Knudsen numbers. Our approach is based on the micro/macro decomposition technique, which applies to general collision operators. This decomposition is performed in all the phase space and leads to an equivalent formulation of the Boltzmann (or BGK) equation that couples a kinetic equation with macroscopic ones. This new formulation is then discretized with a semi-implicit time scheme combined with a staggered grid space discretization. Finally, several numerical tests are presented in order to illustrate the efficiency of our approach. Incidentally, we also introduce in this paper a modification of a standard splitting method that allows to preserve the compressible Navier–Stokes asymptotics in the case of the simplified BGK model. Up to our knowledge, this property is not known for general collision operators.     

A high order Discontinuous Galerkin – Fourier incompressible 3D Navier–Stokes solver with rotating sliding meshes

We present the development of a sliding mesh capability for an unsteady high order (order ? 3) h/p Discontinuous Galerkin solver for the three-dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. A high order sliding mesh method is developed and implemented for flow simulation with relative rotational motion of an inner mesh with respect to an outer static mesh, through the use of curved boundary elements and mixed triangular–quadrilateral meshes.A second order stiffly stable method is used to discretise in time the Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian form of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Spatial discretisation is provided by the Symmetric Interior Penalty Galerkin formulation with modal basis functions in the x–y plane, allowing hanging nodes and sliding meshes without the requirement to use mortar type techniques. Spatial discretisation in the z-direction is provided by a purely spectral method that uses Fourier series and allows computation of spanwise periodic three-dimensional flows. The developed solver is shown to provide high order solutions, second order in time convergence rates and spectral convergence when solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on meshes where fixed and rotating elements coexist.In addition, an exact implementation of the no-slip boundary condition is included for curved edges; circular arcs and NACA 4-digit airfoils, where analytic expressions for the geometry are used to compute the required metrics.The solver capabilities are tested for a number of two dimensional problems governed by the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on static and rotating meshes: the Taylor vortex problem, a static and rotating symmetric NACA0015 airfoil and flows through three bladed cross-flow turbines. In addition, three dimensional flow solutions are demonstrated for a three bladed cross-flow turbine and a circular cylinder shadowed by a pitching NACA0012 airfoil.     

Absorbing boundary conditions for nonlinear Euler and Navier–Stokes equations based on the perfectly matched layer technique

Absorbing boundary conditions for the nonlinear Euler and Navier–Stokes equations in three space dimensions are presented based on the perfectly matched layer (PML) technique. The derivation of equations follows a three-step method recently developed for the PML of linearized Euler equations. To increase the efficiency of the PML, a pseudo mean flow is introduced in the formulation of absorption equations. The proposed PML equations will absorb exponentially the difference between the nonlinear fluctuation and the prescribed pseudo mean flow. With the nonlinearity in flux vectors, the proposed nonlinear absorbing equations are not formally perfectly matched to the governing equations as their linear counter-parts are. However, numerical examples show satisfactory results. Furthermore, the nonlinear PML reduces automatically to the linear PML upon linearization about the pseudo mean flow. The validity and efficiency of proposed equations as absorbing boundary conditions for nonlinear Euler and Navier–Stokes equations are demonstrated by numerical examples.     

Semi-Lagrangian multistep exponential integrators for index 2 differential–algebraic systems

Implicit-explicit (IMEX) multistep methods are very useful for the time discretization of convection diffusion PDE problems such as the Burgers equations and the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. In the latter as well as in PDE models of plasma physics and of electromechanical systems, semi-discretization in space gives rise to differential–algebraic (DAE) system of equations often of index higher than 1. In this paper we propose a new class of exponential integrators for index 2 DAEs arising from the semi-discretization of PDEs with a dominating and typically nonlinear convection term. This class of problems includes the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The integration methods are based on the backward differentiation formulae (BDF) and they can be applied without modifications in the semi-Lagrangian integration of convection diffusion problems. The approach gives improved performance at low viscosity regimes.