Enhancing control of grid distribution in algebraic grid generation

Three techniques are presented to enhance the control of grid-point distribution for a class of algebraic grid generation methods known as the two-, four- and six-boundary methods. First, multidimensional stretching functions are presented, and a technique is devised to construct them based on the desired distribution of grid points along certain boundaries. Second, a normalization procedure is proposed which allows more effective control over orthogonality of grid lines at boundaries and curvature of grid lines near boundaries. And third, interpolating functions based on tension splines are introduced to control curvature of grid lines in the interior of the spatial domain. In addition to these three techniques, consistency conditions are derived which must be satisfied by all user-specified data employed in the grid generation process to control grid-point distribution. The usefulness of the techniques developed in this study was demonstrated by using them in conjunction with the two- and four-boundary methods to generate several grid systems, including a three-dimensional grid system in the coolant passage of a radial turbine blade with serpentine channels and pin fins.     

Boundary conformed co-ordinate systems for selected two-dimensional fluid flow problems. Part I: Generation of BFGs

In this paper the generation of general curvilinear co-ordinate systems for use in selected two-dimensional fluid flow problems is presented. The curvilinear co-ordinate systems are obtained from the numerical solution of a system of Poisson equations. The computational grids obtained by this technique allow for curved grid lines such that the boundary of the solution domain coincides with a grid line. Hence, these meshes are called boundary fitted grids (BFG). The physical solution area is mapped onto a set of connected rectangles in the transformed (computational) plane which form a composite mesh. All numerical calculations are performed in the transformed plane. Since the computational domain is a rectangle and a uniform grid with mesh spacings Δξ = Δη = 1 (in two-dimensions) is used, the computer programming is substantially facilitated. By means of control functions, which form the r.h.s. of the Poisson equations, the clustering of grid lines or grid points is governed. This allows a very fine resolution at certain specified locations and includes adaptive grid generation. The first two sections outline the general features of BFGs, and in section 3 the general transformation rules along with the necessary concepts of differential geometry are given. In section 4 the transformed grid generation equations are derived and control functions are specified. Expressions for grid adaptation arc also presented. Section 5 briefly discusses the numerical solution of the transformed grid generation equations using sucessive overrelaxation and shows a sample calculation where the FAS (full approximation scheme) multigrid technique was employed. In the companion paper (Part II), the application of the BFG method to selected fluid flow problems is addressed.     

Surface grid generation with a linkage to geometric generation

This paper describes a new method to generate surface grids over complex configurations defined by a geometric generation system. The scheme is designed for direct utilization of the surface definition provided by a geometric modeller based on a boundary representation (the so-called B-rep modeller). Thus, the conversion of the geometric representation for the surface grid generator is not required. Consequently, this technique eliminates not only laborious tedium in the conversion of data, but also errors in the representation of the surface induced in the process of the conversion. The proposed method is accomplished over several stages. First, the triangulation is performed on the surface of the geometry, on which the area to be grided is laid. Then linear partial differential equations are mapped and solved on these triangular elements. Finally, the surface grid is constructed by searching for the contours inside the solution domain. After the co-ordinate values of the grid points are obtained by a linear interpolation within each triangular element, these values are mapped onto the surface of the geometry through surface parametric functions provided by the B-rep modeller. An example of generating surface grid over a car configuration is given to illustrate the capability of the method.     

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.     

A numerical procedure for the generation of orthogonal body-fitted co-ordinate systems with direct determination of grid points on the boundary

The procedure proposed is based on the solution by finite difference means of a set of Laplace's equations, by the application of a relaxation method. The curvilinear orthogonal grid so generated is fitted to a 2-D physical domain with closed boundary and the contribution of the present work consists in the arbitrary choice of grid points on two adjacent boundaries, in order to achieve the desired density of grid points where the geometry of the boundaries varies rapidly. The method proposed is rapid and stable. Some characteristic examples are finally presented.     

An algorithm of finite element grid generation for three-dimensional complex connected domain

An automated quasi three-dimensional finite element grid generation method is presented for particular three-dimensional complex connected domain, across which some are simply connected two-dimensional.regions and some are multiply connected two-dimensional regions. A subdivision algorithm based on the variational principle has been developed to ascertain the smoothness and orthogonality of the generated grid in any cross sections. Smooth transition between the simply and multiply connected regions is maintained. For illustration, the method is applied to generate a finite element three-dimensional grid for human above knee stump.     

Solving Multi-dimensional Evolution Problems with Localized Structures using Second Generation Wavelets

A dynamically adaptive numerical method for solving multi-dimensional evolution problems with localized structures is developed. The method is based on the general class of multi-dimensional second-generation wavelets and is an extension of the second-generation wavelet collocation method of Vasilyev and Bowman to two and higher dimensions and irregular sampling intervals. Wavelet decomposition is used for grid adaptation and interpolation, while O ( N ) hierarchical finite difference scheme, which takes advantage of wavelet multilevel decomposition, is used for derivative calculations. The prowess and computational efficiency of the method are demonstrated for the solution of a number of two-dimensional test problems.     

A method for generating irregular computational grids in multiply connected planar domains

A method for generating irregular triangular computational grids in two-dimensional multiply connected domains is described. A set of points around each body is defined using a simple grid generation technique appropriate to the geometry of each body. The Voronoi regions associated with the resulting global point distribution are constructed from which the Delaunay triangulation of the set of points is thus obtained. The definition of Voronoi regions ensures that the triangulation produces triangles of reasonable aspect ratios given a grid point distribution. The approach readily accommodates local clustering of grid points to facilitate variable resolution of the domain. The technique is generally applicable and has been used with success in computing triangular grids in multiply connected planar domains. The suitability of such grids for flow calculations is demonstrated using a finite element method for solution of the inviscid transonic flow over two- dimensional high-lift aerofoil configurations.     

A two-step godunov-type scheme for the euler equations

A second-order Godunov-type scheme for the Euler equations in conservation form is derived. The method is based on the ENO formulation proposed by Harten et al. The fundamental difference lies in the use of a two-step scheme to compute the time evolution. The scheme is TVD in the linear scalar case, and gives oscillation-free solutions when dealing with nonlinear hyperbolic systems. The admissible time step is twice that of classical Godunovtype schemes. This feature makes it computationally cheaper than one-step schemes, while requiring the same computer storage.

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Sommario Viene data una nuova estensione al secondo ordine del metodo di Godunov per la soluzione delle equazioni di Eulero in forma conservativa. Il metodo é basato sulla formulazione ENO proposta da Harten et al. La differenza fondamentale consiste nel calcolo dell'evoluzione temporale, ottenuta mediante uno schema a due passi. Questo consente l'uso di un passo di integrazione nel tempo doppio rispetto agli altri schemi alla Godunov ad un solo passo. Il metodo proposto risulta quindi piú efficiente e puó inoltre essere implementato senza alcun aumento dell'occupazione di memoria. Viene dimostrato che lo schema é TVD nel caso lineare, e che fornisce soluzioni prive di oscillazioni spurie nel caso di sistemi non-lineari.

     

Numerical predictions for unsteady viscous flow past an array of cylinders

The unsteady two-dimensional flow around an array of circular cylinders submerged in a uniform onset flow is analysed. The fluid is taken to be viscous and incompressible. The array of cylinders consists of two horizontal rows extending to infinity in the upstream and downstream directions. The centre-to-centre distance between adjacent cylinders is fixed at three diameters, and the rows are staggered. Advantage is taken of spatially periodic boundary conditions in the flow direction. This reduces the computational domain to a rectangular region surrounding a single circular cylinder. Two cases, for Reynolds numbers of 1000 and 10,000, are presented.     

Orthogonal grid generation for Navier–Stokes computations

Body conforming orthogonal grids were generated using a fast hyperbolic method for aerofoils, and were used to solve the Navier–Stokes equation in the generalized orthogonal system for the first time for time accurate simulation of incompressible flow. For grid generation, the Beltrami equation and the definition equation for the orthogonality are solved using a finite difference method. The grids generated around aerofoils by this method have better orthogonality than the results published by earlier investigators. The Navier–Stokes equation at Reynolds numbers of 3000 and 35 000 for NACA 0012 and NACA 0015 respectively, have been solved as an application. The obtained results match quite well with the corresponding experimental results. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A grid deformation technique for unsteady flow computations

A grid deformation technique is presented here based on a transfinite interpolation algorithm applied to the grid displacements. The method, tested using a two‐dimensional flow solver that uses an implicit dual‐time method for the solution of the unsteady Euler equations on deforming grids, is applicable to problems with time varying geometries arising from aeroelasticity and free surface marine problems. The present work is placed into a multi‐block framework and fits into the development of a generally applicable parallel multi‐block flow solver. The effect of grid deformation is examined and comparison with rigidly rotated grids is made for a series of pitching aerofoil test cases selected from the AGARD aeroelastic configurations for the NACA0012 aerofoil. The effect of using a geometric conservation law is also examined. Finally, a demonstration test case for the Williams aerofoil with an oscillating flap is presented, showing the capability of the grid deformation technique. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An extended algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) for density-gradient projections: laser speckle photographic tomography

An extended algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) is presented for tomographic image reconstruction from the density-gradient projections, such as laser speckle photography. The essence of the extended ART is that the density-gradient projection data of speckle photography (Eq. (1)) are first numerically integrated to the algebraic representation of interferometric fringe number data (Eq. (12)), which ART can readily reconstruct into the cross-sectional field. The extended ART is numerically examined by using two computer synthesized phantom fields, and experimentally by using asymmetric single and double helium jets in air. The experimentally reconstructed images were also compared with the direct measurements of helium concentration using an oxygen analyzing probe. The extended ART method shows an improved accuracy and is proposed to use to tomographically reconstruct the density-gradient projections over the previous Fourier convolution (FC) method (Liu et al. 1989). Received: 26 June 1998/Accepted: 18 March 1999     

Solution of shallow water equations for complex flow domains via boundary-fitted co-ordinates

Many problems of applied oceanography and environmental science demand the solution of the momentum, mass and energy equations on physical domains having curving coastlines. Finite-difference calculations representing the boundary as a step function may give inaccurate results near the coastline where simulation results are of greatest interest for numerous applications. This suggests the use of methods which are capable of handling the problem of boundary curvature. This paper presents computational results for the shallow water equations on a circular ring of constant depth, employing the concept of boundary fitted grids (BFG) for an accurate representation of the boundary. All calculations are performed on a rectangle in the transformed plane using a mesh with square grid spacing. Comparisons of the simulations of transient normal mode oscillations and analytic solutions are shown, demonstrating that this technique yields accurate results in situations (provided that there is a reasonable choice of grid) involving a curved boundary. The software developed allows application to any two-dimensional area, regardless of the complexity of the geometry. Simulation runs were made with two co-ordinate systems. For the first system, the grid point distribution was obtained from polar co-ordinates. For the second one, grid point positions were calculated numerically, solving Poisson's equation. It was found that small variations in the metric coefficients do not deteriorate the accuracy of the simulation results. Moreover, comparisons of surface elevation and velocity components at grid points near the inner and outer radii obtained from an x?y Cartesian grid model with the BFG simulation were made. The former model produced inacccuracies at grid points near boundaries, and, owing to the large number of mesh points used to yield the necessary fine resolution, the computation time was found to be a factor of three higher.     

An algebraic multigrid solver for Navier-Stokes problems

An efficient numerical method is presented for solving the equations of motion for viscous fluids. The equations are discretized on the basis of unstructured finite element meshes and then solved by direct iteration. Advective fluxes are temporarily fixed at each iteration to provide a linearized set of coupled equations which are then also solved by iteration using a fully implicit algebraic multigrid (AMG) scheme. A rapid convergence to machine accuracy is achieved that is almost mesh-independent. The scaling of computing time with mesh size is therefore close to the optimum.     

A structured tri-tree search method for generation of optimal unstructured finite element grids in two and three dimensions

A new method for generating finite element grids in two and three dimensions is developed. The method is based on a new search tree structure. The search tree is built upon triangles in two dimensions and tetrahedra in three dimensions. The density of elements can be varied throughout the computational domain. Efficient search algorithms for finding points in space and for finding the boundary of the domain have been developed. The speed of the grid algorithm will permit adaptive gridding during computation. The grid algorithm is generally applicable to both hydrodynamic as well as aerodynamic finite element computations. The technique has been used with success for gridding the North Sea-Skagerrak area.     

Numerical perturbation method for approximate solution of poisson's equation on a moderately deforming grid

In problems such as the computation of incompressible flows with moving boundaries, it may be necessary to solve Poisson's equation on a large sequence of related grids. In this paper the LU decomposition of the matrix A ₀ representing Poisson's equation discretized on one grid is used to efficiently obtain an approximate solution on a perturbation of that grid. Instead of doing an LU decomposition of the new matrix A , the RHS is perturbed by a Taylor expansion of A ^?1 about A ₀. Each term in the resulting series requires one ‘backsolve’ using the original LU . Tests using Laplace's equation on a square/rectangle deformation look promising; three and seven correction terms for deformations of 20% and 40% respectively yielded better than 1% accuracy. As another test, Poisson's equation was solved in an ellipse (fully developed flow in a duct) of aspect ratio 2/3 by perturbing about a circle; one correction term yielded better than 1% accuracy. Envisioned applications other than the computation of unsteady incompressible flow include: three-dimensional parabolic problems in tubes of varying cross-section, use of ‘elimination’ techniques other than LU decomposition, and the solution of PDEs other than Poisson's equation.     

An algebraic boundary orthogonalization procedure for structured grids

An algebraic procedure for grid orthogonalization has been developed. It is often difficult to include both grid clustering and orthogonalization in a grid generation method. Often the degree and extent of orthogonality are hard to control when orthogonalization is included in a complicated grid generation method. Fortunately, grid orthogonalization can be performed independently of grid generation. The orthogonalization method developed is simple and includes invertibility control. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.