A 3D incompressible Navier–Stokes velocity–vorticity weak form finite element algorithm

The velocity–vorticity formulation is selected to develop a time‐accurate CFD finite element algorithm for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in three dimensions.The finite element implementation uses equal order trilinear finite elements on a non‐staggered hexahedral mesh. A second order vorticity kinematic boundary condition is derived for the no slip wall boundary condition which also enforces the incompressibility constraint. A biconjugate gradient stabilized (BiCGSTAB) sparse iterative solver is utilized to solve the fully coupled system of equations as a Newton algorithm. The solver yields an efficient parallel solution algorithm on distributed‐memory machines, such as the IBM SP2. Three dimensional laminar flow solutions for a square channel, a lid‐driven cavity, and a thermal cavity are established and compared with available benchmark solutions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solution of the Navier–Stokes equations in velocity–vorticity form using a Eulerian–Lagrangian boundary element method

This paper describes the Eulerian–Lagrangian boundary element model for the solution of incompressible viscous flow problems using velocity–vorticity variables. A Eulerian–Lagrangian boundary element method (ELBEM) is proposed by the combination of the Eulerian–Lagrangian method and the boundary element method (BEM). ELBEM overcomes the limitation of the traditional BEM, which is incapable of dealing with the arbitrary velocity field in advection‐dominated flow problems. The present ELBEM model involves the solution of the vorticity transport equation for vorticity whose solenoidal vorticity components are obtained iteratively by solving velocity Poisson equations involving the velocity and vorticity components. The velocity Poisson equations are solved using a boundary integral scheme and the vorticity transport equation is solved using the ELBEM. Here the results of two‐dimensional Navier–Stokes problems with low–medium Reynolds numbers in a typical cavity flow are presented and compared with a series solution and other numerical models. The ELBEM model has been found to be feasible and satisfactory. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite volume solution of the Navier–Stokes equations in velocity–vorticity formulation

For the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, vorticity‐based formulations have many attractive features over primitive‐variable velocity–pressure formulations. However, some features interfere with the use of the numerical methods based on the vorticity formulations, one of them being the lack of a boundary conditions on vorticity. In this paper, a novel approach is presented to solve the velocity–vorticity integro‐differential formulations. The general numerical method is based on standard finite volume scheme. The velocities needed at the vertexes of each control volume are calculated by a so‐called generalized Biot–Savart formula combined with a fast summation algorithm, which makes the velocity boundary conditions implicitly satisfied by maintaining the kinematic compatibility of the velocity and vorticity fields. The well‐known fractional step approaches are used to solve the vorticity transport equation. The paper describes in detail how we accurately impose no normal‐flow and no tangential‐flow boundary conditions. We impose a no‐flux boundary condition on solid objects by the introduction of a proper amount of vorticity at wall. The diffusion term in the transport equation is treated implicitly using a conservative finite update. The diffusive fluxes of vorticity into flow domain from solid boundaries are determined by an iterative process in order to satisfy the no tangential‐flow boundary condition. As application examples, the impulsively started flows through a flat plate and a circular cylinder are computed using the method. The present results are compared with the analytical solution and other numerical results and show good agreement. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element solution of the Navier–Stokes equations by a velocity–vorticity method

A velocity–vorticity formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations is presented as an alternative to the primitive variables approach. The velocity components and the vorticity are solved for in a fully coupled manner using a Newton method. No artificial viscosity is required in this formulation. The pressure is updated by a method allowing natural imposition of boundary conditions. Incompressible and subsonic results are presented for two-dimensional laminar internal flows up to high Reynolds numbers.     

Three-dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on non-orthogonal staggered grids using the velocity–vorticity formulation

This paper is concerned with the numerical resolution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in the velocity–vorticity form on non-orthogonal structured grids. The discretization is performed in such a way, that the discrete operators mimic the properties of the continuous ones. This allows the discrete equivalence between the primitive and velocity–vorticity formulations to be proved. This last formulation can thus be seen as a particular technique for solving the primitive equations. The difficulty associated with non-simply connected computational domains and with the implementation of the boundary conditions are discussed. One of the main drawback of the velocity–vorticity formulation, relative to the additional computational work required for solving the additional unknowns, is alleviated. Two- and three-dimensional numerical test cases validate the proposed method. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new velocity–vorticity boundary integral formulation for Navier–Stokes equations

In the present work, an indirect boundary integral method for the numerical solution of Navier–Stokes equations formulated in velocity–vorticity dependent variables is proposed. This wholly integral approach, based on Helmholtz's decomposition, deals directly with the vorticity field and gives emphasis to the establishment of appropriate boundary conditions for the vorticity transport equation. The coupling between the vorticity and the vortical velocity fields is expressed by an iterative procedure. The present analysis shows the usefulness of an integral formulation not only in providing a potentially more efficient computational tool, but also in giving a better understanding to the physics of the phenomenon. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A compact finite difference method on staggered grid for Navier–Stokes flows

Compact finite difference methods feature high‐order accuracy with smaller stencils and easier application of boundary conditions, and have been employed as an alternative to spectral methods in direct numerical simulation and large eddy simulation of turbulence. The underpinning idea of the method is to cancel lower‐order errors by treating spatial Taylor expansions implicitly. Recently, some attention has been paid to conservative compact finite volume methods on staggered grid, but there is a concern about the order of accuracy after replacing cell surface integrals by average values calculated at centres of cell surfaces. Here we introduce a high‐order compact finite difference method on staggered grid, without taking integration by parts. The method is implemented and assessed for an incompressible shear‐driven cavity flow at Re = 10³, a temporally periodic flow at Re = 10⁴, and a spatially periodic flow at Re = 10⁴. The results demonstrate the success of the method. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Velocity–pressure coupling in finite difference formulations for the Navier–Stokes equations

A new numerical procedure for solving the two‐dimensional, steady, incompressible, viscous flow equations on a staggered Cartesian grid is presented in this paper. The proposed methodology is finite difference based, but essentially takes advantage of the best features of two well‐established numerical formulations, the finite difference and finite volume methods. Some weaknesses of the finite difference approach are removed by exploiting the strengths of the finite volume method. In particular, the issue of velocity–pressure coupling is dealt with in the proposed finite difference formulation by developing a pressure correction equation using the SIMPLE approach commonly used in finite volume formulations. However, since this is purely a finite difference formulation, numerical approximation of fluxes is not required. Results presented in this paper are based on first‐ and second‐order upwind schemes for the convective terms. This new formulation is validated against experimental and other numerical data for well‐known benchmark problems, namely developing laminar flow in a straight duct, flow over a backward‐facing step, and lid‐driven cavity flow. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical solution of Navier–Stokes equations using multiquadric radial basis function networks

A numerical method based on radial basis function networks (RBFNs) for solving steady incompressible viscous flow problems (including Boussinesq materials) is presented in this paper. The method uses a ‘universal approximator’ based on neural network methodology to represent the solutions. The method is easy to implement and does not require any kind of ‘finite element‐type’ discretization of the domain and its boundary. Instead, two sets of random points distributed throughout the domain and on the boundary are required. The first set defines the centres of the RBFNs and the second defines the collocation points. The two sets of points can be different; however, experience shows that if the two sets are the same better results are obtained. In this work the two sets are identical and hence commonly referred to as the set of centres. Planar Poiseuille, driven cavity and natural convection flows are simulated to verify the method. The numerical solutions obtained using only relatively low densities of centres are in good agreement with analytical and benchmark solutions available in the literature. With uniformly distributed centres, the method achieves Reynolds number Re = 100 000 for the Poiseuille flow (assuming that laminar flow can be maintained) using the density of , Re = 400 for the driven cavity flow with a density of and Rayleigh number Ra = 1 000 000 for the natural convection flow with a density of . Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical solution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with an upwind compact difference scheme

A new finite difference method for the discretization of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is presented. The scheme is constructed on a staggered‐mesh grid system. The convection terms are discretized with a fifth‐order‐accurate upwind compact difference approximation, the viscous terms are discretized with a sixth‐order symmetrical compact difference approximation, the continuity equation and the pressure gradient in the momentum equations are discretized with a fourth‐order difference approximation on a cell‐centered mesh. Time advancement uses a three‐stage Runge–Kutta method. The Poisson equation for computing the pressure is solved with preconditioning. Accuracy analysis shows that the new method has high resolving efficiency. Validation of the method by computation of Taylor's vortex array is presented. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fourth‐order finite difference scheme for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in a disk

We develop an efficient fourth‐order finite difference method for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in the vorticity‐stream function formulation on a disk. We use the fourth‐order Runge–Kutta method for the time integration and treat both the convection and diffusion terms explicitly. Using a uniform grid with shifting a half mesh away from the origin, we avoid placing the grid point directly at the origin; thus, no pole approximation is needed. Besides, on such grid, a fourth‐order fast direct method is used to solve the Poisson equation of the stream function. By Fourier filtering the vorticity in the azimuthal direction at each time stage, we are able to increase the time step to a reasonable size. The numerical results of the accuracy test and the simulation of a vortex dipole colliding with circular wall are presented. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust semidirect finite difference methods for solving the Navier–Stokes and energy equations

Semidirect solution techniques can be an effective alternative to the more conventional iterative approaches used in many finite difference methods. This paper summarizes several semidirect techniques which generally have not been applied to the Navier–Stokes and energy equations in finite difference form. The methods presented use both successive substitution and Jacobian-based updates as well as two variations of Broyden's full matrix update. A hybrid method is also presented, as is a norm-reducing search technique that can be used to enhance the convergence characteristics of any semidirect approach. These methods have been compared with the well known iterative methods SIMPLE and SIMPLER. The comparison was performed on the natural convection and driven cavity problems. The semidirect methods proved to be reliably convergent without the need for a priori specification of variable under-relaxation factors, which was necessary with the iterative methods. Natural convection and driven cavity solutions have been readily obtained with the proposed methods for Rayleigh and Reynolds numbers up to 10⁹ and 10⁶ respectively. Of the semidirect techniques, the hybrid approach was the most robust. From an arbitrary zero initial guess this method was able to obtain a solution to the natural convection problem for Rayleigh numbers three orders of magnitude larger than was possible with the Newton-Raphson update. The computational effort required by the semidirect methods is comparable to that required by the iterative methods; however, the memory requirements can be significantly greater.     

Solution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on domains with one or several open boundaries1

The aim of this paper is to develop a methodology for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in the presence of one or several open boundaries. A new set of open boundary conditions is first proposed. This has been developed in the context of the velocity–vorticity formulation, but it is also emphasized how it can be formally extended to the equations in primitive variables. The case of a domain involving several independent open boundaries is considered next. An influence matrix technique is applied such that the inlet mass flux is split onto the several outlets in order to enforce the prescribed mean pressure at each outlet. Both approaches are validated by numerical test cases. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Taylor series‐based finite volume method for the Navier–Stokes equations

A Taylor series‐based finite volume formulation has been developed to solve the Navier–Stokes equations. Within each cell, velocity and pressure are obtained from the Taylor expansion at its centre. The derivatives in the expansion are found by applying the Gauss theorem over the cell. The resultant integration over the faces of the cell is calculated from the value at the middle point of the face and its derivatives, which are further obtained from a higher order interpolation based on the values at the centres of two cells sharing this face. The terms up to second order in the velocity and the terms up to first order in pressure in the Taylor expansion are retained throughout the derivation. The test cases for channel flow, flow past a circular cylinder and flow in a collapsible channel have shown that the method is quite accurate and flexible. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A spectral–finite difference solution of the Navier–Stokes equations in three dimensions

A new computational code for the numerical integration of the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations in their non-dimensional velocity–pressure formulation is presented. The system of non-linear partial differential equations governing the time-dependent flow of a viscous incompressible fluid in a channel is managed by means of a mixed spectral–finite difference method, in which different numerical techniques are applied: Fourier decomposition is used along the homogeneous directions, second-order Crank–Nicolson algorithms are employed for the spatial derivatives in the direction orthogonal to the solid walls and a fourth-order Runge–Kutta procedure is implemented for both the calculation of the convective term and the time advancement. The pressure problem, cast in the Helmholtz form, is solved with the use of a cyclic reduction procedure. No-slip boundary conditions are used at the walls of the channel and cyclic conditions are imposed at the other boundaries of the computing domain. Results are provided for different values of the Reynolds number at several time steps of integration and are compared with results obtained by other authors. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The fundamental solution method for incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

A complete boundary integral formulation for incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with time discretization by operator splitting is developed using the fundamental solutions of the Helmholtz operator equation with different order. The numerical results for the lift and the drag hysteresis associated with a NACA0012 aerofoil oscillating in pitch show good agreement with available experimental data. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fourth‐order compact finite difference scheme for the steady stream function–vorticity formulation of the Navier–Stokes/Boussinesq equations

A fourth‐order compact finite difference scheme on the nine‐point 2D stencil is formulated for solving the steady‐state Navier–Stokes/Boussinesq equations for two‐dimensional, incompressible fluid flow and heat transfer using the stream function–vorticity formulation. The main feature of the new fourth‐order compact scheme is that it allows point‐successive overrelaxation (SOR) or point‐successive underrelaxation iteration for all Rayleigh numbers Ra of physical interest and all Prandtl numbers Pr attempted. Numerical solutions are obtained for the model problem of natural convection in a square cavity with benchmark solutions and compared with some of the accurate results available in the literature. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An overlapping control volume method for the Navier–Stokes equations on non‐staggered grids

An algorithm, based on the overlapping control volume (OCV) method, for the solution of the steady and unsteady two‐dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in complex geometry is presented. The primitive variable formulation is solved on a non‐staggered grid arrangement. The problem of pressure–velocity decoupling is circumvented by using momentum interpolation. The accuracy and effectiveness of the method is established by solving five steady state and one unsteady test problems. The numerical solutions obtained using the technique are in good agreement with the analytical and benchmark solutions available in the literature. On uniform grids, the method gives second‐order accuracy for both diffusion‐ and convection‐dominated flows. There is little loss of accuracy on grids that are moderately non‐orthogonal. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fourth‐order accurate compact‐difference discretization method for Helmholtz and incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

A fourth‐order accurate solution method for the three‐dimensional Helmholtz equations is described that is based on a compact finite‐difference stencil for the Laplace operator. Similar discretization methods for the Poisson equation have been presented by various researchers for Dirichlet boundary conditions. Here, the complicated issue of imposing Neumann boundary conditions is described in detail. The method is then applied to model Helmholtz problems to verify the accuracy of the discretization method. The implementation of the solution method is also described. The Helmholtz solver is used as the basis for a fourth‐order accurate solver for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Numerical results obtained with this Navier–Stokes solver for the temporal evolution of a three‐dimensional instability in a counter‐rotating vortex pair are discussed. The time‐accurate Navier–Stokes simulations show the resolving properties of the developed discretization method and the correct prediction of the initial growth rate of the three‐dimensional instability in the vortex pair. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two‐level finite element method with a stabilizing subgrid for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

We consider the Galerkin finite element method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in two dimensions. The domain is discretized into a set of regular triangular elements and the finite‐dimensional spaces employed consist of piecewise continuous linear interpolants enriched with the residual‐free bubble functions. To find the bubble part of the solution, a two‐level finite element method with a stabilizing subgrid of a single node is described, and its application to the Navier–Stokes equation is displayed. Numerical approximations employing the proposed algorithm are presented for three benchmark problems. The results show that the proper choice of the subgrid node is crucial in obtaining stable and accurate numerical approximations consistent with the physical configuration of the problem at a cheap computational cost. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.