A third‐order implicit discontinuous Galerkin method based on a Hermite WENO reconstruction for time‐accurate solution of the compressible Navier–Stokes equations

A space and time third‐order discontinuous Galerkin method based on a Hermite weighted essentially non‐oscillatory reconstruction is presented for the unsteady compressible Euler and Navier–Stokes equations. At each time step, a lower‐upper symmetric Gauss–Seidel preconditioned generalized minimal residual solver is used to solve the systems of linear equations arising from an explicit first stage, single diagonal coefficient, diagonally implicit Runge–Kutta time integration scheme. The performance of the developed method is assessed through a variety of unsteady flow problems. Numerical results indicate that this method is able to deliver the designed third‐order accuracy of convergence in both space and time, while requiring remarkably less storage than the standard third‐order discontinous Galerkin methods, and less computing time than the lower‐order discontinous Galerkin methods to achieve the same level of temporal accuracy for computing unsteady flow problems. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order accurate discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for laminar low Mach number flows

In this paper we present a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method designed to improve the accuracy and efficiency of laminar flow simulations at low Mach numbers using an implicit scheme. The algorithm is based on the flux preconditioning approach, which modifies only the dissipative terms of the numerical flux. This formulation is quite simple to implement in existing implicit DG codes, it overcomes the time‐stepping restrictions of explicit multistage algorithms, is consistent in time and thus applicable to unsteady flows. The performance of the method is demonstrated by solving the flow around a NACA0012 airfoil and on a flat plate, at different low Mach numbers using various degrees of polynomial approximations. Computations with and without flux preconditioning are performed on different grid topologies to analyze the influence of the spatial discretization on the accuracy of the DG solutions at low Mach numbers. The time accurate solution of unsteady flow is also demonstrated by solving the vortex shedding behind a circular cylinder at the Reynolds number of 100. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A posteriori error estimation and anisotropy detection with the dual‐weighted residual method

In this work we develop a new framework for a posteriori error estimation and detection of anisotropies based on the dual‐weighted residual (DWR) method by Becker and Rannacher. The common approach for anisotropic mesh adaptation is to analyze the Hessian of the solution. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors indicate dominant directions and optimal stretching of elements. However, this approach is firmly linked to energy norm error estimation. Here, we extend the DWR method to anisotropic finite elements allowing for the direct estimation of directional errors with regard to given output functionals. The resulting meshes reflect anisotropic properties of both the solution and the functional. For the optimal measurement of the directional errors, the coarse meshes need some alignment with the dominant anisotropies. Numerical examples will demonstrate the efficiency of this method on various three‐dimensional problems including a well‐known Navier–Stokes benchmark. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adjoint‐based error estimation and mesh adaptation for hybridized discontinuous Galerkin methods

We present a robust and efficient target‐based mesh adaptation methodology, building on hybridized discontinuous Galerkin schemes for (nonlinear) convection–diffusion problems, including the compressible Euler and Navier–Stokes equations. The hybridization of finite element discretizations has the main advantage that the resulting set of algebraic equations has globally coupled degrees of freedom (DOFs) only on the skeleton of the computational mesh. Consequently, solving for these DOFs involves the solution of a potentially much smaller system. This not only reduces storage requirements but also allows for a faster solution with iterative solvers. The mesh adaptation is driven by an error estimate obtained via a discrete adjoint approach. Furthermore, the computed target functional can be corrected with this error estimate to obtain an even more accurate value. The aim of this paper is twofold: Firstly, to show the superiority of adjoint‐based mesh adaptation over uniform and residual‐based mesh refinement and secondly, to investigate the efficiency of the global error estimate. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order discontinuous Galerkin solver for low Mach number flows

In this work, we present a high‐order discontinuous Galerkin method (DGM) for simulating variable density flows at low Mach numbers. The corresponding low Mach number equations are an approximation of the compressible Navier–Stokes equations in the limit of zero Mach number. To the best of the authors'y knowledge, it is the first time that the DGM is applied to the low Mach number equations. The mixed‐order formulation is applied for spatial discretization. For steady cases, we apply the semi‐implicit method for pressure‐linked equation (SIMPLE) algorithm to solve the non‐linear system in a segregated manner. For unsteady cases, the solver is implicit in time using backward differentiation formulae, and the SIMPLE algorithm is applied to solve the non‐linear system in each time step. Numerical results for the following three test cases are shown: Couette flow with a vertical temperature gradient, natural convection in a square cavity, and unsteady natural convection in a tall cavity. Considering a fixed number of degrees of freedom, the results demonstrate the benefits of using higher approximation orders. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐order implicit time integration for unsteady incompressible flows

The spatial discretization of unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is stated as a system of differential algebraic equations, corresponding to the conservation of momentum equation plus the constraint due to the incompressibility condition. Asymptotic stability of Runge–Kutta and Rosenbrock methods applied to the solution of the resulting index‐2 differential algebraic equations system is analyzed. A critical comparison of Rosenbrock, semi‐implicit, and fully implicit Runge–Kutta methods is performed in terms of order of convergence and stability. Numerical examples, considering a discontinuous Galerkin formulation with piecewise solenoidal approximation, demonstrate the applicability of the approaches and compare their performance with classical methods for incompressible flows. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order discontinuous Galerkin method for all‐speed flows

In this article, we present a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method designed to improve the accuracy and efficiency of steady solutions of the compressible fully coupled Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes and k ? ω turbulence model equations for solving all‐speed flows. The system of equations is iterated to steady state by means of an implicit scheme. The DG solution is extended to the incompressible limit by implementing a low Mach number preconditioning technique. A full preconditioning approach is adopted, which modifies both the unsteady terms of the governing equations and the dissipative term of the numerical flux function by means of a new preconditioner, on the basis of a modified version of Turkel's preconditioning matrix. At sonic speed the preconditioner reduces to the identity matrix thus recovering the non‐preconditioned DG discretization. An artificial viscosity term is added to the DG discretized equations to stabilize the solution in the presence of shocks when piecewise approximations of order of accuracy higher than 1 are used. Moreover, several rescaling techniques are implemented in order to overcome ill‐conditioning problems that, in addition to the low Mach number stiffness, can limit the performance of the flow solver. These approaches, through a proper manipulation of the governing equations, reduce unbalances between residuals as a result of the dependence on the size of elements in the computational mesh and because of the inherent differences between turbulent and mean‐flow variables, influencing both the evolution of the Courant Friedrichs Lewy (CFL) number and the inexact solution of the linear systems. The performance of the method is demonstrated by solving three turbulent aerodynamic test cases: the flat plate, the L1T2 high‐lift configuration and the RAE2822 airfoil (Case 9). The computations are performed at different Mach numbers using various degrees of polynomial approximations to analyze the influence of the proposed numerical strategies on the accuracy, efficiency and robustness of a high‐order DG solver at different flow regimes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Remarks on the links between low‐order DG methods and some finite‐difference schemes for the Stokes problem

In this paper we demonstrate that some well‐known finite‐difference schemes can be interpreted within the framework of the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) methods using the low‐order piecewise solenoidal discrete spaces introduced in (SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 1990; 27 (6): 1466–1485). In particular, it appears that it is possible to derive the well‐known MAC scheme using a first‐order Nédélec approximation on rectangular cells. It has been recently interpreted within the framework of the Raviart–Thomas approximation by Kanschat (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2007; published online). The two approximations are algebraically equivalent to the MAC scheme, however, they have to be applied on grids that are staggered on a distance h/2 in each direction. This paper also demonstrates that both discretizations allow for the construction of a divergence‐free basis, which yields a linear system with a ‘biharmonic’ conditioning. Both this paper and Kanschat (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2007; published online) demonstrate that the LDG framework can be used to generalize some popular finite‐difference schemes to grids that are not parallel to the coordinate axes or that are unstructured. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A complete boundary integral formulation for compressible Navier–Stokes equations

A complete boundary integral formulation for compressible 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 wall pressure and wall skin friction of two‐dimensional compressible laminar viscous flow around airfoils are in good agreement with field numerical methods. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A coupled continuous and discontinuous finite element method for the incompressible flows

In this paper, we develop a coupled continuous Galerkin and discontinuous Galerkin finite element method based on a split scheme to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. In order to use the equal order interpolation functions for velocity and pressure, we decouple the original Navier–Stokes equations and obtain three distinct equations through the split method, which are nonlinear hyperbolic, elliptic, and Helmholtz equations, respectively. The hybrid method combines the merits of discontinuous Galerkin (DG) and finite element method (FEM). Therefore, DG is concerned to accomplish the spatial discretization of the nonlinear hyperbolic equation to avoid using the stabilization approaches that appeared in FEM. Moreover, FEM is utilized to deal with the Poisson and Helmholtz equations to reduce the computational cost compared with DG. As for the temporal discretization, a second‐order stiffly stable approach is employed. Several typical benchmarks, namely, the Poiseuille flow, the backward‐facing step flow, and the flow around the cylinder with a wide range of Reynolds numbers, are considered to demonstrate and validate the feasibility, accuracy, and efficiency of this coupled method. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multi‐energy‐level lattice Boltzmann model for the compressible Navier–Stokes equations

In this paper, we propose a new lattice Boltzmann model for the compressible Navier–Stokes equations. The new model is based on a three‐energy‐level and three‐speed lattice Boltzmann equation by using a method of higher moments of the equilibrium distribution functions. As the 25‐bit model, we obtained the equilibrium distribution functions and the compressible Navier–Stokes equations with the second accuracy of the truncation errors. The numerical examples show that the model can be used to simulate the shock waves, contact discontinuities and supersonic flows around circular cylinder. The numerical results are compared with those obtained by traditional method. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An agglomeration‐based adaptive discontinuous Galerkin method for compressible flows

In this work, we exploit the possibility to devise discontinuous Galerkin discretizations over polytopic grids to perform grid adaptation strategies on the basis of agglomeration coarsening of a fine grid obtained via standard unstructured mesh generators. The adaptive agglomeration process is here driven by an adjoint‐based error estimator. We investigate several strategies for converting the error field estimated solving the adjoint problem into an agglomeration factor field that is an indication of the number of elements of the fine grid that should be clustered together to form an agglomerated element. As a result the size of agglomerated elements is optimized for the achievement of the best accuracy for given grid size with respect to the target quantities. To demonstrate the potential of this strategy we consider problem‐specific outputs of interest typical of aerodynamics, eg, the lift and drag coefficients in the context of inviscid and viscous flows test cases.     

Third‐order Cartesian overset mesh adaptation method for solving steady compressible flows

A third‐order mesh generation and adaptation method is presented for solving the steady compressible Euler equations. For interior points, a third‐order scheme is used on Cartesian and curvilinear meshes. Concerning the mesh adaptation, the method of Meakin is also extended to third order. The accuracy of the new overset mesh adaptation method is demonstrated by a grid convergence study for 2‐D inviscid model problems and results are compared with a second‐order method. Finally, the method is applied to the computation of an inviscid 3‐D flow around a hovering blade of the ONERA 7A helicopter rotor exhibiting an improvement in the wake capture. With a 7 million point mesh, the tip vortex can be followed for more than three rotor revolutions with the third‐order method. The CPU time needed for this calculation is only 3% higher than with a conventional second‐order method. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A nodal‐based implementation of a stabilized finite element method for incompressible flow problems

The objective of this paper is twofold. First, a stabilized finite element method (FEM) for the incompressible Navier–Stokes is presented and several numerical experiments are conducted to check its performance. This method is capable of dealing with all the instabilities that the standard Galerkin method presents, namely the pressure instability, the instability arising in convection‐dominated situations and the less popular instabilities found when the Navier–Stokes equations have a dominant Coriolis force or when there is a dominant absorption term arising from the small permeability of the medium where the flow takes place. The second objective is to describe a nodal‐based implementation of the finite element formulation introduced. This implementation is based on an a priori calculation of the integrals appearing in the formulation and then the construction of the matrix and right‐hand side vector of the final algebraic system to be solved. After appropriate approximations, this matrix and this vector can be constructed directly for each nodal point, without the need to loop over the elements, thus making the calculations much faster. In order to be able to do this, all the variables have to be defined at the nodes of the finite element mesh, not on the elements. This is also so for the stabilization parameters of the formulation. However, doing this gives rise to questions regarding the consistency and the conservation properties of the final scheme, which are addressed in this paper. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the discontinuous Galerkin method for the numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations

The paper deals with the use of the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method (DGFEM) for the numerical solution of viscous compressible flows. We start with a scalar convection–diffusion equation and present a discretization with the aid of the non‐symmetric variant of DGFEM with interior and boundary penalty terms. We also mention some theoretical results. Then we extend the scheme to the system of the Navier–Stokes equations and discuss the treatment of stabilization terms. Several numerical examples are presented. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A posteriori pointwise error estimation for compressible fluid flows using adjoint parameters and Lagrange remainder

The pointwise error of a finite‐difference calculation of supersonic flow is discussed. The local truncation error is determined by a Taylor series with the remainder being in a Lagrange form. The contribution of the local truncation error to the total pointwise approximation error is estimated via adjoint parameters. It is demonstrated by numerical tests that the results of the numerical calculation of gasdynamics parameter at an observation point may be refined and an error bound may be estimated. The results of numerical tests for the case of parabolized Navier–Stokes are presented as an illustration of the proposed method. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A stabilized finite element method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using a hierarchical basis

Stabilized finite element methods have been shown to yield robust, accurate numerical solutions to both the compressible and incompressible Navier–Stokes equations for laminar and turbulent flows. The present work focuses on the application of higher‐order, hierarchical basis functions to the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using a stabilized finite element method. It is shown on a variety of problems that the most cost‐effective simulations (in terms of CPU time, memory, and disk storage) can be obtained using higher‐order basis functions when compared with the traditional linear basis. In addition, algorithms will be presented for the efficient implementation of these methods within the traditional finite element data structures. Copyright © 2001 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.     

Parallel finite element computation of unsteady incompressible flows

A parallel semi-explicit iterative finite element computational procedure for modelling unsteady incompressible fluid flows is presented. During the procedure, element flux vectors are calculated in parallel and then assembled into global flux vectors. Equilibrium iterations which introduce some ‘local implicitness’ are performed at each time step. The number of equilibrium iterations is governed by an implicitness parameter. The present technique retains the advantages of purely explicit schemes, namely (i) the parallel speed-up is equal to the number of parallel processors if the small communication overhead associated with purely explicit schemes is ignored and (ii) the computation time as well as the core memory required is linearly proportional to the number of elements. The incompressibility condition is imposed by using the artificial compressibility technique. A pressure-averaging technique which allows the use of equal-order interpolations for both velocity and pressure, this simplifying the formulation, is employed. Using a standard Galerkin approximation, three benchmark steady and unsteady problems are solved to demonstrate the accuracy of the procedure. In all calculations the Reynolds number is less than 500. At these Reynolds numbers it was found that the physical dissipation is sufficient to stabilize the convective term with no need for additional upwind-type dissipation. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.