Generalized Fourier analyses of the advection–diffusion equation—Part I: one‐dimensional domains

This paper presents a detailed multi‐methods comparison of the spatial errors associated with finite difference, finite element and finite volume semi‐discretizations of the scalar advection–diffusion equation. The errors are reported in terms of non‐dimensional phase and group speed, discrete diffusivity, artificial diffusivity, and grid‐induced anisotropy. It is demonstrated that Fourier analysis provides an automatic process for separating the discrete advective operator into its symmetric and skew‐symmetric components and characterizing the spectral behaviour of each operator. For each of the numerical methods considered, asymptotic truncation error and resolution estimates are presented for the limiting cases of pure advection and pure diffusion. It is demonstrated that streamline upwind Petrov–Galerkin and its control‐volume finite element analogue, the streamline upwind control‐volume method, produce both an artificial diffusivity and a concomitant phase speed adjustment in addition to the usual semi‐discrete artifacts observed in the phase speed, group speed and diffusivity. The Galerkin finite element method and its streamline upwind derivatives are shown to exhibit super‐convergent behaviour in terms of phase and group speed when a consistent mass matrix is used in the formulation. In contrast, the CVFEM method and its streamline upwind derivatives yield strictly second‐order behaviour. In Part II of this paper, we consider two‐dimensional semi‐discretizations of the advection–diffusion equation and also assess the affects of grid‐induced anisotropy observed in the non‐dimensional phase speed, and the discrete and artificial diffusivities. Although this work can only be considered a first step in a comprehensive multi‐methods analysis and comparison, it serves to identify some of the relative strengths and weaknesses of multiple numerical methods in a common analysis framework. Published in 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generalized fourier analyses of the advection–diffusion equation—Part II: two‐dimensional domains

Part I of this work presents a detailed multi‐methods comparison of the spatial errors associated with the one‐dimensional finite difference, finite element and finite volume semi‐discretizations of the scalar advection–diffusion equation. In Part II we extend the analysis to two‐dimensional domains and also consider the effects of wave propagation direction and grid aspect ratio on the phase speed, and the discrete and artificial diffusivities. The observed dependence of dispersive and diffusive behaviour on propagation direction makes comparison of methods more difficult relative to the one‐dimensional results. For this reason, integrated (over propagation direction and wave number) error and anisotropy metrics are introduced to facilitate comparison among the various methods. With respect to these metrics, the consistent mass Galerkin and consistent mass control‐volume finite element methods, and their streamline upwind derivatives, exhibit comparable accuracy, and generally out‐perform their lumped mass counterparts and finite‐difference based schemes. While this work can only be considered a first step in a comprehensive multi‐methods analysis and comparison, it serves to identify some of the relative strengths and weaknesses of multiple numerical methods in a common mathematical framework. Published in 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Augmented upwind numerical schemes for the groundwater transport advection‐dispersion equation with local operators

When solute transport is advection‐dominated, the advection‐dispersion equation approximates to a hyperbolic‐type partial differential equation, and finite difference and finite element numerical approximation methods become prone to artificial oscillations. The upwind scheme serves to correct these responses to produce a more realistic solution. The upwind scheme is reviewed and then applied to the advection‐dispersion equation with local operators for the first‐order upwinding numerical approximation scheme. The traditional explicit and implicit schemes, as well as the Crank‐Nicolson scheme, are developed and analyzed for numerical stability to form a comparison base. Two new numerical approximation schemes are then proposed, namely, upwind–Crank‐Nicolson scheme, where only for the advection term is applied, and weighted upwind‐downwind scheme. These newly developed schemes are analyzed for numerical stability and compared to the traditional schemes. It was found that an upwind–Crank‐Nicolson scheme is appropriate if the Crank‐Nicolson scheme is only applied to the advection term of the advection‐dispersion equation. Furthermore, the proposed explicit weighted upwind‐downwind finite difference numerical scheme is an improvement on the traditional explicit first‐order upwind scheme, whereas the implicit weighted first‐order upwind‐downwind finite difference numerical scheme is stable under all assumptions when the appropriate weighting factor (θ) is assigned.     

A multiscale control volume finite element method for advection–diffusion equations

We present a new stabilized method for advection–diffusion equations, which combines a control volume FEM formulation of the governing equations with a novel multiscale approximation of the total flux. The latter incorporates information about the exact solution that cannot be represented on the mesh. To define this flux, we solve the governing equations along suitable mesh segments under the assumption that the flux varies linearly along these segments. This procedure yields second‐order accurate fluxes on the edges of the mesh. Then, we use curl‐conforming elements of the same order to lift these edge fluxes into the mesh elements. In so doing, we obtain a stabilized control volume FEM formulation that is second‐order accurate and does not require mesh‐dependent stabilization parameters. Numerical convergence studies on uniform and nonuniform grids along with several standard advection tests illustrate the computational properties of the new method. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

Co-located equal-order control-volume finite element method for two-dimensional axisymmetric incompressible fluid flow

The formulation of a control-volume-based finite element method (CVFEM) for axisymmetric, two-dimensional, incompressible fluid flow and heat transfer in irregular-shaped domains is presented. The calculation domain is discretized into torus-shaped elements and control volumes. In a longitudinal cross-sectional plane, these elements are three-node triangles, and the control volumes are polygons obtained by joining the centroids of the three-node triangles to the mid-points of the sides. Two different interpolation schemes are proposed for the scalar-dependent variables in the advection terms: a flow-oriented upwind function, and a mass-weighted upwind function that guarantees that the discretized advection terms contribute positively to the coefficients in the discretized equations. In the discretization of diffusion transport terms, the dependent variables are interpolated linearly. An iterative sequential variable adjustment algorithm is used to solve the discretized equations for the velocity components, pressure and other scalar-dependent variables of interest. The capabilities of the proposed CVFEM are demonstrated by its application to four different example problems. The numerical solutions are compared with the results of independent numerical and experimental investigations. These comparisons are quite encouraging.     

Modeling of lifting‐device aerodynamics using the actuator surface concept

The actuator surface (AS) concept and its implementation within a differential, Navier–Stokes control volume finite‐element method (CVFEM) are presented in this article. Inspired by vortex and actuator disk methods, the AS concept consists of using porous surfaces carrying velocity and pressure discontinuities to model the action of lifting surfaces on the flow. The underlying principles and mathematics associated with AS are first reviewed, as well as their implementation in a CVFEM. Results are presented for idealized 2D cases with analytical solutions, as well as for the 3D cases of a finite wing and an experimental wind turbine. In the case of the finite wing, wake induction is well handled by the model with accurate predictions of induced angles and drag when compared with the Prandtl lifting line model. Comparisons with volume force approaches, often used to model the action of propellers or wind turbine blades in a simplified analysis, show that the AS concept has some interesting advantages in terms of accuracy and respect of flow physics. This new approach is easy and rapid to embed in most computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. It is applicable to a wide range of problems involving thin lifting devices like finite wings, propellers, helicopter or wind turbine blades. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Q2Q1 finite element/level‐set method for simulating two‐phase flows with surface tension

A Q2Q1 (quadratic velocity/linear pressure) finite element/level‐set method was proposed for simulating incompressible two‐phase flows with surface tension. The Navier–Stokes equations were solved using the Q2Q1 integrated FEM, and the level‐set variable was linearly interpolated using a ‘pseudo’ Q2Q1 finite element when calculating the density and viscosity of a fluid to avoid an unbounded density/viscosity. The advection of the level‐set function was calculated through the Taylor–Galerkin method, and the direct approach method is employed for reinitialization. The proposed method was tested by solving several benchmark problems including rising bubbles exhibiting a large density difference and the surface tension effect. The numerical results of the rising bubbles were compared with the existing results to validate the benchmark quantities such as the centroid, circularity, and rising velocity. Furthermore, we focused our attention mainly on mass conservation and time‐step. We observed that the present method represented a convergence rate between 1.0 and 1.5 orders in terms of mass conservation and provided more stable solutions even when using a larger time‐step than the critical time‐step that was imposed because of the explicit treatment of surface tension. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of free‐surface flow using the level‐set method with global mass correction

A new numerical method that couples the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with the global mass correction level‐set method for simulating fluid problems with free surfaces and interfaces is presented in this paper. The finite volume method is used to discretize Navier–Stokes equations with the two‐step projection method on a staggered Cartesian grid. The free‐surface flow problem is solved on a fixed grid in which the free surface is captured by the zero level set. Mass conservation is improved significantly by applying a global mass correction scheme, in a novel combination with third‐order essentially non‐oscillatory schemes and a five stage Runge–Kutta method, to accomplish advection and re‐distancing of the level‐set function. The coupled solver is applied to simulate interface change and flow field in four benchmark test cases: (1) shear flow; (2) dam break; (3) travelling and reflection of solitary wave and (4) solitary wave over a submerged object. The computational results are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions, experimental data and previous numerical simulations using a RANS‐VOF method. The simulations reveal some interesting free‐surface phenomena such as the free‐surface vortices, air entrapment and wave deformation over a submerged object. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Lagrange–Galerkin method for the two‐dimensional shallow water equations on adaptive grids

The weak Lagrange–Galerkin finite element method for the two‐dimensional shallow water equations on adaptive unstructured grids is presented. The equations are written in conservation form and the domains are discretized using triangular elements. Lagrangian methods integrate the governing equations along the characteristic curves, thus being well suited for resolving the non‐linearities introduced by the advection operator of the fluid dynamics equations. An additional fortuitous consequence of using Lagrangian methods is that the resulting spatial operator is self‐adjoint, thereby justifying the use of a Galerkin formulation; this formulation has been proven to be optimal for such differential operators. The weak Lagrange–Galerkin method automatically takes into account the dilation of the control volume, thereby resulting in a conservative scheme. The use of linear triangular elements permits the construction of accurate (by virtue of the second‐order spatial and temporal accuracies of the scheme) and efficient (by virtue of the less stringent Courant–Friedrich–Lewy (CFL) condition of Lagrangian methods) schemes on adaptive unstructured triangular grids. Lagrangian methods are natural candidates for use with adaptive unstructured grids because the resolution of the grid can be increased without having to decrease the time step in order to satisfy stability. An advancing front adaptive unstructured triangular mesh generator is presented. The highlight of this algorithm is that the weak Lagrange–Galerkin method is used to project the conservation variables from the old mesh onto the newly adapted mesh. In addition, two new schemes for computing the characteristic curves are presented: a composite mid‐point rule and a general family of Runge–Kutta schemes. Results for the two‐dimensional advection equation with and without time‐dependent velocity fields are illustrated to confirm the accuracy of the particle trajectories. Results for the two‐dimensional shallow water equations on a non‐linear soliton wave are presented to illustrate the power and flexibility of this strategy. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A pressure correction‐volume of fluid method for simulation of two‐phase flows

A pressure correction method coupled with the volume of fluid (VOF) method is developed to simulate two‐phase flows. A volume fraction function is introduced in the VOF method and is governed by an advection equation. A modified monotone upwind scheme for a conservation law (modified MUSCL) is used to solve the solution of the advection equation. To keep the initial sharpness of an interface, a slope modification scheme is introduced. The continuum surface tension (CST) model is used to calculate the surface tension force. Three schemes, central‐upwind, Parker–Youngs, and mixed schemes, are introduced to compute the interface normal vector and the gradient of the volume fraction function. Moreover, a height function technique is applied to compute the local curvature of the interface. Several basic test problems are performed to check the order of accuracy of the present numerical schemes for computing the interface normal vector and the gradient of the volume fraction function. Three physical problems, two‐dimensional broken dam problem, static drop, and spurious currents, and three‐dimensional rising bubble, are performed to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the pressure correction method. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improvements in mass conservation using alternative boundary implementations for a quasi‐bubble finite element shallow water model

Finite element approaches generally do not guarantee exact satisfaction of conservation laws especially when Dirichlet‐type boundary conditions are imposed. This article discusses improvement of the global mass conservation property of quasi‐bubble finite element solutions for the shallow water equations, focusing on implementations of the surface‐elevation boundary conditions. We propose two alternative implementations, which are shown by numerical verification to be effective in improving the smoothness of solutions near the boundary and in reducing the mass conservation error. The improvement of the mass conservation property contributes to augmenting the reliability and robustness of long‐term time integrations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Runge–Kutta control volume discontinuous finite element method for systems of hyperbolic conservation laws

In this paper, a new high‐order and high‐resolution method called the Runge–Kutta control volume discontinuous finite element method (RKCVDFEM) was proposed to solve 1D and 2D systems of hyperbolic conservation laws. Its main advantage lies in the local conservation, and it is simpler than the Runge–Kutta discontinuous Galerkin finite element method (RKDGM). The theoretical analysis showed that the RKCVDFEM has formally an optimal convergence order for 1D systems. Based on logically rectangular grids of irregular quadrilaterals, a scheme for 2D systems was constructed. Some classical problems were simulated and the validity of the method was presented. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Equivalence conditions between linear Lagrangian finite element and node‐centred finite volume schemes for conservation laws in cylindrical coordinates

A complete set of equivalence conditions, relating the mass‐lumped Bubnov–Galerkin finite element (FE) scheme for Lagrangian linear elements to node‐centred finite volume (FV) schemes, is derived for the first time for conservation laws in a three‐dimensional cylindrical reference. Equivalence conditions are used to devise a class of FV schemes, in which all grid‐dependent quantities are defined in terms of FE integrals. Moreover, all relevant differential operators in the FV framework are consistent with their FE counterparts, thus opening the way to the development of consistent hybrid FV/FE schemes for conservation laws in a three‐dimensional cylindrical coordinate system. The two‐dimensional schemes for the polar and the axisymmetrical cases are also explicitly derived. Numerical experiments for compressible unsteady flows, including expanding and converging shock problems and the interaction of a converging shock waves with obstacles, are carried out using the new approach. The results agree fairly well with one‐dimensional simulations and simplified models. Copyright © 2013 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.     

High‐order ADER‐WENO ALE schemes on unstructured triangular meshes—application of several node solvers to hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics

In this paper, we present a class of high‐order accurate cell‐centered arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) one‐step ADER weighted essentially non‐oscillatory (WENO) finite volume schemes for the solution of nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws on two‐dimensional unstructured triangular meshes. High order of accuracy in space is achieved by a WENO reconstruction algorithm, while a local space–time Galerkin predictor allows the schemes to be high order accurate also in time by using an element‐local weak formulation of the governing PDE on moving meshes. The mesh motion can be computed by choosing among three different node solvers, which are for the first time compared with each other in this article: the node velocity may be obtained either (i) as an arithmetic average among the states surrounding the node, as suggested by Cheng and Shu, or (ii) as a solution of multiple one‐dimensional half‐Riemann problems around a vertex, as suggested by Maire, or (iii) by solving approximately a multidimensional Riemann problem around each vertex of the mesh using the genuinely multidimensional Harten–Lax–van Leer Riemann solver recently proposed by Balsara et al. Once the vertex velocity and thus the new node location have been determined by the node solver, the local mesh motion is then constructed by straight edges connecting the vertex positions at the old time level tⁿ with the new ones at the next time level t^{n + 1}. If necessary, a rezoning step can be introduced here to overcome mesh tangling or highly deformed elements. The final ALE finite volume scheme is based directly on a space–time conservation formulation of the governing PDE system, which therefore makes an additional remapping stage unnecessary, as the ALE fluxes already properly take into account the rezoned geometry. In this sense, our scheme falls into the category of direct ALE methods. Furthermore, the geometric conservation law is satisfied by the scheme by construction. We apply the high‐order algorithm presented in this paper to the Euler equations of compressible gas dynamics as well as to the ideal classical and relativistic magnetohydrodynamic equations. We show numerical convergence results up to fifth order of accuracy in space and time together with some classical numerical test problems for each hyperbolic system under consideration. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite‐volume‐type VOF method on dynamically adaptive quadtree grids

This paper describes a finite‐volume volume‐of‐fluid (VOF) method for simulating viscous free surface flows on dynamically adaptive quadtree grids. The scheme is computationally efficient in that it provides relatively fine grid resolution at the gas–liquid interface and coarse grid density in regions where flow variable gradients are small. Special interpolations are used to ensure volume flux conservation where differently sized neighbour cells occur. The numerical model is validated for advection of dyed fluid in unidirectional and rotating flows, and for two‐dimensional viscous sloshing in a rectangular tank. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simple high‐resolution advection scheme

A simple, robust, mass‐conserving numerical scheme for solving the linear advection equation is described. The scheme can estimate peak solution values accurately even in regions where spatial gradients are high. Such situations present a severe challenge to classical numerical algorithms. Attention is restricted to the case of pure advection in one and two dimensions since this is where past numerical problems have arisen. The authors' scheme is of the Godunov type and is second‐order in space and time. The required cell interface fluxes are obtained by MUSCL interpolation and the exact solution of a degenerate Riemann problem. Second‐order accuracy in time is achieved via a Runge–Kutta predictor–corrector sequence. The scheme is explicit and expressed in finite volume form for ease of implementation on a boundary‐conforming grid. Benchmark test problems in one and two dimensions are used to illustrate the high‐spatial accuracy of the method and its applicability to non‐uniform grids. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimised composite numerical schemes in 2‐D for hyperbolic conservation laws

One of the techniques available for optimising parameters that regulate dispersion and dissipation effects in finite difference schemes is the concept of minimised integrated exponential error for low dispersion and low dissipation. In this paper, we work essentially with the two‐dimensional (2D) Corrected Lax–Friedrichs and Lax–Friedrichs schemes applied to the 2D scalar advection equation. We examine the shock‐capturing properties of these two numerical schemes, and observe that these methods are quite effective from the point of being able to control computational noise and having a large range of stability. To improve the shock‐capturing efficiency of these two methods, we derive composite methods using the idea of predictor/corrector or a linear combination of the two schemes. The optimal cfl number for some of these composite schemes are computed. Some numerical experiments are carried out in two dimensions such as cylindrical explosion, shock‐focusing, dam‐break and Riemann gas dynamics tests. The modified equations of some of the composite schemes when applied to the 2D scalar advection equation are obtained. We also perform some convergence tests to obtain the order of accuracy and show that better results in terms of shock‐capturing property are obtained when the optimal cfl obtained using minimised integrated exponential error for low dispersion and low dissipation is used. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of droplet ejection of thermal inkjet printheads

In this study, we present a method to predict the droplet ejection in thermal inkjet printheads including the growth and collapse of a vapor bubble and refill of the firing chamber. The three‐dimensional Navier–Stokes equations are solved using a finite‐volume approach with a fixed Cartesian mesh. The piecewise‐linear interface calculation‐based volume‐of‐fluid method is employed to track and reconstruct the ink–air interface. A geometrical computation based on Lagrangian advection is used to compute the mass flux and advance the interface. A simple and efficient model for the bubble dynamics is employed to model the effect of ink vapor on the adjacent ink liquid. To solve the surface tension‐dominated flow accurately, a hierarchical curvature‐estimation method is proposed to adapt to the local grid resolution. The numerical methods mentioned earlier have been implemented in an internal simulation code, CFD3. The numerical examples presented in the study show good performance of CFD3 in prediction of surface tension‐dominated free‐surface flows, for example, droplet ejection in thermal inkjet printing. Currently, CFD3 is used extensively for printhead development within Hewlett‐Packard. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A finite‐volume particle method for conservation laws on moving domains

The paper deals with the finite‐volume particle method (FVPM), a relatively new method for solving hyperbolic systems of conservation laws. A general formulation of the method for bounded and moving domains is presented. Furthermore, an approximation property of the reconstruction formula is proved. Then, based on a two‐dimensional test problem posed on a moving domain, a special Ansatz for the movement of the particles is proposed. The obtained numerical results indicate that this method is well suited for such problems, and thus a first step to apply the FVPM to real industrial problems involving free boundaries or fluid–structure interaction is taken. Finally, we perform a numerical convergence study for a shock tube problem and a simple linear advection equation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.