A finite element thermally coupled flow formulation for phase‐change problems

A finite element, thermally coupled incompressible flow formulation considering phase‐change effects is presented. This formulation accounts for natural convection, temperature‐dependent material properties and isothermal and non‐isothermal phase‐change models. In this context, the full Navier–Stokes equations are solved using a generalized streamline operator (GSO) technique. The highly non‐linear phase‐change effects are treated with a temperature‐based algorithm, which provides stability and convergence of the numerical solution. The Boussinesq approximation is used in order to consider the temperature‐dependent density variation. Furthermore, the numerical solution of the coupled problem is approached with a staggered incremental‐iterative solution scheme, such that the convergence criteria are written in terms of the residual vectors. Finally, this formulation is used for the solutions of solidification and melting problems validating some numerical results with other existing solutions obtained with different methodologies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Freezing over a cylinder with finite heat transfer at the wall

A simple and straightforward implicit numerical technique for phase change problems in cylindrical geometry is proposed. When implicit schemes are used the moving interface along with the convective or radiative boundary condition pose a problem because of the requirement to calculate the interface location and boundary temperature implicitly. Due to this difficulty some of the methods available in literature used approximations near the wall and the rest used iterative methods. The present technique isolates the nonlinearity associated with the moving interface as well as that of any nonlinear wall boundary condition and permits the simultaneous evaluation of the unknown interface location and the wall temperature at the new time level. Thereafter the temperatures at the other nodes are obtained without nodal iterations. Numerical results are obtained for outward solidification with both finite and infinite heat transfer rates at the wall. Good agreement is obtained between the present numerical results and the results available in literature for the limiting cases.     

ELAFINT: A MIXED EULERIAN–LAGRANGIAN METHOD FOR FLUID FLOWS WITH COMPLEX AND MOVING BOUNDARIES

In this work a mixed Eulerian–Lagrangian technique is devised, hereinafter abbreviated as ELAFINT (Eulerian–Lagrangian Algorithm For INterface Tracking). The method is capable of handling fluid flows in the presence of both irregularly shaped solid boundaries and moving/free phase boundaries. The position and shape of the boundary are tracked explicitly by the Lagrangian translation of marker particles. The field equations are solved on an underlying fixed grid as in Eulerian methods. The interface passes through the grid lay-out and details regarding the treatment of the cut cells so formed are provided. The issues involved in treating the internal boundaries are dealt with, with particular attention to conservation and consistency in the vicinity of the interface. The method is tested by comparing with solutions from well-tested body-fitted co-ordinate methods. Test cases pertaining to forced and natural convection in irregular geometries and moving phase boundaries with melt convection are presented. The capability developed here can be beneficial in solving difficult flow problems involving moving and geometrically complex boundaries.     

Simulation of three-dimensional polymer mould filling processes using a pseudo-concentration method

Mould filling processes, in which a material flow front advances through a mould, are typical examples of moving boundary problems. The moving boundary is accompanied by a moving contact line at the mould walls causing, from a macroscopic modelling viewpoint, a stress singularity. In order to be able to simulate such processes, the moving boundary and moving contact line problem must be overcome. A numerical model for both two- and three-dimensional mould filling simulations has been developed. It employs a pseudo-concentration method in order to avoid elaborate three-dimensional remeshing, and has been implemented in a finite element program. The moving contact line problem has been overcome by employing a Robin boundary condition at the mould walls, which can be turned into a Dirichlet (no-slip) or a Neumann (free-slip) boundary condition depending on the local pseudo-concentration. Simulation results for two-dimensional test cases demonstrate the model's ability to deal with flow phenomena such as fountain flow and flow in bifurcations. The method is by no means limited to two-dimensional flows, as is shown by a pilot simulation for a simple three-dimensional mould. The reverse problem of mould filling is the displacement of a viscous fluid in a tube by a less viscous fluid, which has had considerable attention since the 1960's. Simulation results for this problem are in good agreement with results from the literature. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deterministic physical influence control of interfacial motion in thermal processing of solidified materials

In this paper, a new experimental method of phase interface motion control with time dependent boundary cooling is presented for ice–water solidification problems. A numerical method for inverse heat transfer problems was developed to predict the transient boundary conditions, which produce a prescribed phase interface motion. In the experimental study, the predicted boundary temperatures from the numerical simulation were used to control the ice–water interface movement for various specified interface motions. Two cases of different phase interface velocities were considered. Water supercooling was observed during each experiment. A time delay in the thermal control was calculated based on an analytical solution. Close agreement between measured data and specified interface motion was achieved for the ice–water solidification problems.     

低渗透多孔介质渗流动边界模型的解析与数值解

考虑启动压力梯度的低渗透多孔介质非达西渗流模型属于强非线性动边界问题, 分别利用相似变量变换方法和基于空间坐标变换的有限差分方法, 对内边界变压力情况下、考虑启动压力梯度的一维低渗透多孔介质非达西渗流动边界模型进行了精确解析与数值求解研究. 研究结果表明:该动边界模型存在唯一的精确解析解, 且所求得的精确解析解可严格验证数值解的正确性;且当启动压力梯度值趋于零时, 非达西渗流动边界模型的精确解析解将退化为达西渗流情况下的精确解析解. 由求解结果作出的非零无因次启动压力梯度下的地层压力分布曲线表现出紧支性特点, 其与达西渗流模型的有显著不同. 因此, 研究低渗透多孔介质中非稳态渗流问题时, 应该考虑动边界的影响. 研究内容完善了低渗透多孔介质的非达西渗流力学理论, 为低渗透油气藏开发的试井解释与油藏数值模拟技术提供了理论基础.      

A regular boundary element method for fluid flow

The Boundary Element Method is now well established as a valid numerical technique for the solution of field problems, equal to the Finite Element Method in generality and surpassing it in computational efficiency in some cases.¹ In this paper is presented a 'Regular Boundary Element Method' as applied to inviscid laminar fluid flow problems. It involves the formation of a system of regular integral equations obtained by moving the singularity outside the domain of the given problem. It is also shown that non-conforming elements may be used whereby freedoms are not defined at the geometric nodes under the boundary element discretization. A linear element is developed here; higher order variants could easily be defined. Satisfactory numerical results have been obtained using the proposed regular method with both conventional (continuous across the boundary) and non-conforming boundary elements for two-dimensional inviscid laminar fluid flow problems having regular and singular solutions.     

Modeling Three-Dimensional Groundwater Flows by the Body-Fitted Coordinate (BFC) Method: II. Free and Moving Boundary Problems

This paper presents a methodology and solution procedure of the time-dependent body-fitted coordinate (BFC) method for the analysis of transient, three-dimensional groundwater flow problems characterized by free and moving boundaries. The technique consists of numerical grid generation, time-dependent body-fitted coordinate transformation, and application of the finite difference method (FDM) to the transformed partial differential equations. Based on the time-dependent BFC method, a three-dimensional finite-difference computer code, BFC3DGW, was developed and used to solve two unconfined flow problems. The code was verified by comparing numerical results with analytical solutions for a steady-state seepage problem. In order to demonstrate capability of the method in dealing with flow problems with irregular and moving boundary surfaces, an unconfined well-flow problem was solved by the developed code. Difficulties associated with the free and moving irregular boundary have been successfully overcome by employing this method.     

Time‐accurate stabilized finite‐element model for weakly nonlinear and weakly dispersive water waves

Introduction of a time‐accurate stabilized finite‐element approximation for the numerical investigation of weakly nonlinear and weakly dispersive water waves is presented in this paper. To make the time approximation match the order of accuracy of the spatial representation of the linear triangular elements by the Galerkin finite‐element method, the fourth‐order time integration of implicit multistage Padé method is used for the development of the numerical scheme. The streamline‐upwind Petrov–Galerkin (SUPG) method with crosswind diffusion is employed to stabilize the scheme and suppress the spurious oscillations, usually common in the numerical computation of convection‐dominated flow problems. The performance of numerical stabilization and accuracy is addressed. Treatments of various boundary conditions, including the open boundary conditions, the perfect reflecting boundary conditions along boundaries with irregular geometry, are also described. Numerical results showing the comparisons with analytical solutions, experimental measurements, and other published numerical results are presented and discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

低渗透煤层气藏中气-水两相不稳定渗流动态分析

针对低渗透煤层渗流问题,考虑启动压力梯度及其引起的动边界和动边界内吸附气解吸作用的渗流模型研究目前仅限于单相流,而更符合实际的气-水两相渗流动边界模型未见报道.本文综合考虑了煤层吸附气的解吸作用、气-水两相渗流、非达西渗流、地层应力敏感等影响因素,进行了低渗透煤层的气-水两相渗流模型研究.采用了试井技术中的"分相处理"方法,修正了两相渗流的综合压缩系数和流度,并基于含气饱和度呈线性递减分布的假设,建立了煤层气藏的气-水两相渗流耦合模型.该数学模型不仅可以描述由于低渗透煤层中渗流存在启动压力梯度而产生的可表征煤层有效动用范围随时间变化的移动边界,还可以描述煤层有效动用范围内吸附气的解吸现象以及吸附气解吸作用所引起的煤层含气饱和度的上升;为了提高模型精度,控制方程还保留了二次压力梯度项.采用了稳定的全隐式有限差分方法进行了模型的数值求解,并验证了数值计算方法的正确性,获得了模型关于瞬时井底压力与压力导数响应的双对数特征曲线,由此分析了各渗流参数的敏感性影响.本文研究结果可为低渗透煤层气藏开发的气-水两相流试井技术提供渗流力学的理论基础.     

Numerical solution of solidification in a square prism using an algebraic grid generation technique

The solidification of an infinitely long square prism was analyzed numerically. A front fixing technique along with an algebraic grid generation scheme was used, where the finite difference form of the energy equation is solved for the temperature distribution in the solid phase and the solid–liquid interface energy balance is integrated for the new position of the moving solidification front. Results are given for the moving solidification boundary with a circular phase change interface. An algebraic grid generation scheme was developed for two-dimensional domains, which generates grid points separated by equal distances in the physical domain. The current scheme also allows the implementation of a finer grid structure at desired locations in the domain. The method is based on fitting a constant arc length mesh in the two computational directions in the physical domain. The resulting simultaneous, nonlinear algebraic equations for the grid locations are solved using the Newton-Raphson method for a system of equations. The approach is used in a two-dimensional solidification problem, in which the liquid phase is initially at the melting temperature, solved by using a front-fixing approach. The difference of the current study lies in the fact that front fixing is applied to problems, where the solid–liquid interface is curved such that the position of the interface, when expressed in terms of one of the coordinates is a double valued function. This requires a coordinate transformation in both coordinate directions to transform the complex physical solidification domain to a Cartesian, square computational domain. Due to the motion of the solid–liquid interface in time, the computational grid structure is regenerated at every time step.     

基于2D网格的轴对称浸没边界法

浸没边界法是处理颗粒两相流中运动边界问题的一种常用数值模拟方法. 当研究的物理问题的无量纲参数满足一定要求时, 该流场结构呈现轴对称状态. 为此本文提出了一种基于2D笛卡尔网格和柱坐标系的轴对称浸没边界法. 该算法采用有限体积法(FVM)对动量方程进行空间离散, 并通过阶梯状锐利界面替代真实的固体浸没边界来封闭控制方程. 为了提高计算效率, 本文采用自适应网格加密技术提高浸没边界附近网格分辨率. 由于柱坐标系的使用, 使得动量方程中的黏性项产生多余的源项, 我们对其作隐式处理. 此外, 在对小球匀速近壁运动进行直接数值模拟时, 由于球壁间隙很小, 间隙内的压力变化比较剧烈. 因此想要精确地解析流场需要很高的网格分辨率. 此时, 需要在一个时间步内多次实施投影步来保证计算的稳定性. 而在小球自由碰壁运动中, 我们通过引入一个润滑力模型使得低网格分辨率下也能模拟小球近壁处的运动. 最后通过小球和圆盘绕流、Stokes流小球近壁运动以及小球自由下落碰壁弹跳算例验证本算法对于轴对称流的静边界和动边界问题均是适用和准确的.      

基于POD-Galerkin降维方法的热毛细对流分岔分析

作为流动与传热相互耦合的非线性过程, 热毛细对流有着复杂的转捩过程, 探究流场和温度场随参数变化而发生的分岔现象, 是热毛细对流研究的一个重要课题. 基于本征正交分解的POD-Galerkin降维方法可以通过提取特征模态, 构建低维模型, 实现流场的快速计算. 数值分岔方法可以通过求解含参数动力系统的分岔方程, 直接计算稳定解和分岔点. 探究了将直接数值模拟方法、POD-Galerkin降维方法、数值分岔方法的优势结合, 以提高热毛细对流转捩过程分析效率的可行性. 利用直接数值模拟得到的流场和温度场数据, 构建了不同体积比下, 二维有限长液层热毛细对流的POD-Galerkin低维模型, 在低维模型上采用数值积分及数值分岔方法计算了分岔点, 得到了低维方程的分岔图. 在一定参数范围内, 在低维模型上模拟热毛细对流, 对雷诺数和体积比进行参数外推, 通过与直接数值模拟的结果对比, 验证了低维模型的准确性与鲁棒性. 说明了低维方程可以定性反映原高维系统的流动特性, 而定量方面, 由低维模型和直接数值模拟计算得到的周期解频率的相对误差大约为5%. 验证了利用POD-Galerkin降维方法研究热毛细对流的可行性.      

Effect of quadratic pressure gradient term on a one-dimensional moving boundary problem based on modified Darcy’s law

A relatively high formation pressure gradient can exist in seepage flow in low-permeable porous media with a threshold pressure gradient, and a significant error may then be caused in the model computation by neglecting the quadratic pressure gradient term in the governing equations. Based on these concerns, in consideration of the quadratic pressure gradient term, a basic moving boundary model is constructed for a one-dimensional seepage flow problem with a threshold pressure gradient. Owing to a strong nonlinearity and the existing moving boundary in the mathematical model, a corresponding numerical solution method is presented. First, a spatial coordinate transformation method is adopted in order to transform the system of partial differential equations with moving boundary conditions into a closed system with fixed boundary conditions; then the solution can be stably numerically obtained by a fully implicit finite-difference method. The validity of the numerical method is verified by a published exact analytical solution. Furthermore, to compare with Darcy’s flow problem, the exact analytical solution for the case of Darcy’s flow considering the quadratic pressure gradient term is also derived by an inverse Laplace transform. A comparison of these model solutions leads to the conclusion that such moving boundary problems must incorporate the quadratic pressure gradient term in their governing equations; the sensitive effects of the quadratic pressure gradient term tend to diminish, with the dimensionless threshold pressure gradient increasing for the one-dimensional problem.     

Verifying consistency of boundary conditions with integral characteristics of mass conservation for particulates in flow

The mass conservation equation of the particulate phase, in the form of Euler-type transport equation for particle-number density, is integrated to investigate issues related to its boundary condition consistency. For each of the effects of convection, diffusion and particle settling, the provided boundary conditions need to meet the requirement for well-posed problems physically and mathematically for particulate phase simulation. The integration of the conservative form of the transport equation yields the relations between the rate of change of the total particle number and the boundary conditions. Results of these relations are compared with numerical solutions using a finite-volume solver, of which the numerical formulation is also based on the conservative form of the transport equation. Cases for particulate flow in a room-scale chamber with various combinations of convection, diffusion and settling processes are used as examples for boundary-condition consistency verification.     

Green’s function solution for transient heat conduction in annular fin during solidification of phase change material

The Green’s function method is applied for the transient temperature of an annular fin when a phase change material (PCM) solidifies on it. The solidification of the PCMs takes place in a cylindrical shell storage. The thickness of the solid PCM on the fin varies with time and is obtained by the Megerlin method. The models are found with the Bessel equation to form an analytical solution. Three different kinds of boundary conditions are investigated. The comparison between analytical and numerical solutions is given. The results demonstrate that the significant accuracy is obtained for the temperature distribution for the fin in all cases.     

Time‐domain BEM solution of convection–diffusion‐type MHD equations

The two‐dimensional convection–diffusion‐type equations are solved by using the boundary element method (BEM) based on the time‐dependent fundamental solution. The emphasis is given on the solution of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) duct flow problems with arbitrary wall conductivity. The boundary and time integrals in the BEM formulation are computed numerically assuming constant variations of the unknowns on both the boundary elements and the time intervals. Then, the solution is advanced to the steady‐state iteratively. Thus, it is possible to use quite large time increments and stability problems are not encountered. The time‐domain BEM solution procedure is tested on some convection–diffusion problems and the MHD duct flow problem with insulated walls to establish the validity of the approach. The numerical results for these sample problems compare very well to analytical results. Then, the BEM formulation of the MHD duct flow problem with arbitrary wall conductivity is obtained for the first time in such a way that the equations are solved together with the coupled boundary conditions. The use of time‐dependent fundamental solution enables us to obtain numerical solutions for this problem for the Hartmann number values up to 300 and for several values of conductivity parameter. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann method based on force correction technique

In this paper, an improved immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann method based on the force correction technique is presented for fluid‐structure interaction problems including the moving boundary interfaces. By introducing a force correction coefficient, the non‐slip boundary conditions are much better enforced compared with the conventional immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann methods. In addition, the implicit and iterative calculations are avoided; thus, the computational cost is reduced dramatically. Several numerical experiments are carried out to test the efficiency of the method. It is found that the method has the second‐order accuracy, and the non‐slip boundary conditions are enforced indeed. The numerical results also show that the present method is a suitable tool for fluid‐structure interaction problems involving complex moving boundaries.