A high-order discontinuous Galerkin method for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on arbitrary grids

A high-order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is proposed in this work for solving the two-dimensional steady and unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes (INS) equations written in conservative form on arbitrary grids. In order to construct the interface inviscid fluxes both in the continuity and in the momentum equations, an artificial compressibility term has been added to the continuity equation for relaxing the incompressibility constraint. Then, as the hyperbolic nature of the INS equations has been recovered, the local Lax-Friedrichs (LLF) flux, which was previously developed in the context of hyperbolic conservation laws, is applied to discretize the inviscid term. Unlike the traditional artificial compressibility method, in this work, the artificial compressibility is introduced only for the construction of the inviscid numerical fluxes; therefore, a consistent discretization of the INS equations is obtained, irrespective of the amount of artificial compressibility used. What is more, as the LLF flux can be obtained directly and straightforward, no numerical iteration for solving an exact Riemann problem is entailed in our method. The viscous term is discretized by the direct DG method, which was developed based on the weak formulation of the scalar diffusion problems on structured grids. The performance and the accuracy of the method are demonstrated by computing a number of benchmark test cases, including both steady and unsteady incompressible flow problems. Due to its simplicity in implementation, our method provides an attractive alternative for solving the INS equations on arbitrary grids.     

A divergence-conforming hybridized discontinuous Galerkin method for the incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations

We present a hybridized discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) method for the incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the Spalart-Allmaras one-equation turbulence model. The method extends upon an HDG method recently introduced by Rhebergen and Wells for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. With a special choice of velocity and pressure spaces for both element and trace degrees of freedom (DOFs), the method returns pointwise divergence-free mean velocity fields and properly balances momentum and energy. We further examine the use of different polynomial degrees and meshes to see how the order of the scalar eddy viscosity affects the convergence of the mean velocity and pressure fields, specifically for the method of manufactured solutions. As is standard with HDG methods, static condensation can be employed to remove the element DOFs and thus dramatically reduce the global number of DOFs. Numerical results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.     

A matrix-free high-order discontinuous Galerkin compressible Navier-Stokes solver: A performance comparison of compressible and incompressible formulations for turbulent incompressible flows

Both compressible and incompressible Navier-Stokes solvers can be used and are used to solve incompressible turbulent flow problems. In the compressible case, the Mach number is then considered as a solver parameter that is set to a small value, M ≈0.1, in order to mimic incompressible flows. This strategy is widely used for high-order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) discretizations of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The present work raises the question regarding the computational efficiency of compressible DG solvers as compared to an incompressible formulation. Our contributions to the state of the art are twofold: Firstly, we present a high-performance DG solver for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations based on a highly efficient matrix-free implementation that targets modern cache-based multicore architectures with Flop/Byte ratios significantly larger than 1. The performance results presented in this work focus on the node-level performance, and our results suggest that there is great potential for further performance improvements for current state-of-the-art DG implementations of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. Secondly, this compressible Navier-Stokes solver is put into perspective by comparing it to an incompressible DG solver that uses the same matrix-free implementation. We discuss algorithmic differences between both solution strategies and present an in-depth numerical investigation of the performance. The considered benchmark test cases are the three-dimensional Taylor-Green vortex problem as a representative of transitional flows and the turbulent channel flow problem as a representative of wall-bounded turbulent flows. The results indicate a clear performance advantage of the incompressible formulation over the compressible one.     

A high‐order discontinuous Galerkin method for extension problems

We present a novel technique for solving extension problems such as the extension velocity, by reformulating the problem into an elliptic differential equation. We introduce a novel discretization using an upwind flux without any additional stabilization. This leads to a triangular matrix structure, which can be solved using a marching algorithm and high‐order accuracy, even in the presence of singularities.     

Modified incompressible SPH method for simulating free surface problems

An incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (I-SPH) formulation is presented to simulate free surface incompressible fluid problems. The governing equations are mass and momentum conservation that are solved in a Lagrangian form using a two-step fractional method. In the first step, velocity field is computed without enforcing incompressibility. In the second step, a Poisson equation of pressure is used to satisfy incompressibility condition. The source term in the Poisson equation for the pressure is approximated, based on the SPH continuity equation, by an interpolation summation involving the relative velocities between a reference particle and its neighboring particles. A new form of source term for the Poisson equation is proposed and also a modified Poisson equation of pressure is used to satisfy incompressibility condition of free surface particles. By employing these corrections, the stability and accuracy of SPH method are improved. In order to show the ability of SPH method to simulate fluid mechanical problems, this method is used to simulate four test problems such as 2-D dam-break and wave propagation.     

Implicit high-order discontinuous Galerkin method with HWENO type limiters for steady viscous flow simulations

Two types of implicit algorithms have been improved for high order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method to solve compressible Navier-Stokes (NS) equations on triangular grids. A block lower-upper symmetric Gauss-Seidel (BLU-SGS) approach is implemented as a nonlinear iterative scheme. And a modified LU-SGS (LLU-SGS) approach is suggested to reduce the memory requirements while retain the good convergence performance of the original LU-SGS approach. Both implicit schemes have the significant advantage that only the diagonal block matrix is stored. The resulting implicit high-order DG methods are applied, in combination with Hermite weighted essentially non-oscillatory (HWENO) limiters, to solve viscous flow problems. Numerical results demonstrate that the present implicit methods are able to achieve significant efficiency improvements over explicit counterparts and for viscous flows with shocks, and the HWENO limiters can be used to achieve the desired essentially non-oscillatory shock transition and the designed high-order accuracy simultaneously.     

Large eddy simulation of incompressible free round jet with discontinuous Galerkin method

In the paper, discontinuous Galerkin method is applied to simulation of incompressible free round turbulent jet using large eddy simulation with eddy viscosity approach. The solution algorithm is based on the classical projection method, but instead of the solution of the Poisson equation, a parabolic equation is advanced in pseudo‐time, which provides the pressure field ensuring the proper pressure–velocity coupling. For time and pseudo‐time integration, explicit Runge–Kutta method is employed. The computational meshes consist of hexahedral elements with flat faces. Within a given finite element, all flow variables are expressed with modal expansions of the same order (including velocity and pressure). Discretisation of the viscous terms in the Navier–Stokes equations and Laplacian in the Poisson equation is stabilised with mixed finite element approach. The correctness of the solution algorithm is verified in a commonly used test case of laminar flow in 3D lid‐driven cavity. The results of computations of the free jet are compared with experimental and numerical reference data, the latter obtained from the high‐order pseudospectral code. The statistics of centerline flow velocity – mean velocity and its fluctuations – show satisfactory agreement with the reference data. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An internal penalty discontinuous Galerkin method for simulating conjugate heat transfer in a closed cavity

Using the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method for conjugate heat transfer problems can provide improved accuracy close to the fluid‐solid interface, localizing the data exchange process, which may further enhance the convergence and stability of the entire computation. This paper presents a framework for the simulation of conjugate heat transfer problems using DG methods on unstructured grids. Based on an existing DG solver for the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equation, the fluid advection‐diffusion equation, Boussinesq term, and solid heat equation are introduced using an explicit DG formulation. A Dirichlet‐Neumann partitioning strategy has been implemented to achieve the data exchange process via the numerical flux of interface quadrature points in the fluid‐solid interface. Formal h and p convergence studies employing the method of manufactured solutions demonstrate that the expected order of accuracy is achieved. The algorithm is then further validated against 3 existing benchmark cases, including a thermally driven cavity, conjugate thermally driven cavity, and a thermally driven cavity with conducting solid, at Rayleigh numbers from 1000 to 100 000. The computational effort is documented in detail demonstrating clearly that, for all cases, the highest‐order accurate algorithm has several magnitudes lower error than first‐ or second‐order schemes for a given computational effort.     

A high-order Runge-Kutta discontinuous Galerkin method with a subcell limiter on adaptive unstructured grids for two-dimensional compressible inviscid flows

A robust, adaptive unstructured mesh refinement strategy for high-order Runge-Kutta discontinuous Galerkin method is proposed. The present work mainly focuses on accurate capturing of sharp gradient flow features like strong shocks in the simulations of two-dimensional inviscid compressible flows. A posteriori finite volume subcell limiter is employed in the shock-affected cells to control numerical spurious oscillations. An efficient cell-by-cell adaptive mesh refinement is implemented to increase the resolution of our simulations. This strategy enables to capture strong shocks without much numerical dissipation. A wide range of challenging test cases is considered to demonstrate the efficiency of the present adaptive numerical strategy for solving inviscid compressible flow problems having strong shocks.     

A GPU-accelerated adaptive discontinuous Galerkin method for level set equation

This paper presents a GPU-accelerated nodal discontinuous Galerkin method for the solution of two- and three-dimensional level set (LS) equation on unstructured adaptive meshes. Using adaptive mesh refinement, computations are localised mostly near the interface location to reduce the computational cost. Small global time step size resulting from the local adaptivity is avoided by local time-stepping based on a multi-rate Adams–Bashforth scheme. Platform independence of the solver is achieved with an extensible multi-threading programming API that allows runtime selection of different computing devices (GPU and CPU) and different threading interfaces (CUDA, OpenCL and OpenMP). Overall, a highly scalable, accurate and mass conservative numerical scheme that preserves the simplicity of LS formulation is obtained. Efficiency, performance and local high-order accuracy of the method are demonstrated through distinct numerical test cases.     

A high-order nodal discontinuous Galerkin method to solve preconditioned multiphase Euler/Navier-Stokes equations for inviscid/viscous cavitating flows

In this study, a high-order accurate numerical method is applied and examined for the simulation of the inviscid/viscous cavitating flows by solving the preconditioned multiphase Euler/Navier-Stokes equations on triangle elements. The formulation used here is based on the homogeneous equilibrium model considering the continuity and momentum equations together with the transport equation for the vapor phase with applying appropriate mass transfer terms for calculating the evaporation/condensation of the liquid/vapor phase. The spatial derivative terms in the resulting system of equations are discretized by the nodal discontinuous Galerkin method (NDGM) and an implicit dual-time stepping method is used for the time integration. An artificial viscosity approach is implemented and assessed for capturing the steep discontinuities in the interface between the two phases. The accuracy and robustness of the proposed method in solving the preconditioned multiphase Euler/Navier-Stokes equations are examined by the simulation of different two-dimensional and axisymmetric cavitating flows. A sensitivity study is also performed to examine the effects of different numerical parameters on the accuracy and performance of the solution of the NDGM. Indications are that the solution methodology proposed and applied here is based on the NDGM with the implicit dual-time stepping method and the artificial viscosity approach is accurate and robust for the simulation of the inviscid and viscous cavitating flows.     

Numerical comparison of hybridized discontinuous Galerkin and finite volume methods for incompressible flow

In this study, a hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method is presented for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equation. In our formulation, the convective part is linearized using a Picard iteration, for which there exists a necessary criterion for convergence. We show that our novel hybridized implementation can be used as an alternative method for solving a range of problems in the field of incompressible fluid dynamics. We demonstrate this by comparing the performance of our method with standard finite volume solvers, specifically the well‐established finite volume method of second order in space, such as the icoFoam and simpleFoam of the OpenFOAM package for three typical fluid problems. These are the Taylor–Green vortex, the 180‐degree fence case and the DFG benchmark. Our careful comparison yields convincing evidence for the use of hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method as a competitive alternative because of their high accuracy and better stability properties. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient discontinuous Galerkin method for aeroacoustic propagation

An efficient discontinuous Galerkin formulation is applied to the solution of the linearized Euler equations and the acoustic perturbation equations for the simulation of aeroacoustic propagation in two‐dimensional and axisymmetric problems, with triangular and quadrilateral elements. To improve computational efficiency, a new strategy of variable interpolation order is proposed in addition to a quadrature‐free approach and parallel implementation. Moreover, an accurate wall boundary condition is formulated on the basis of the solution of the Riemann problem for a reflective wall. Time discretization is based on a low dissipation formulation of a fourth‐order, low storage Runge–Kutta scheme. Along the far‐field boundaries a perfectly matched layer boundary condition is used. For the far‐field computations, the integral formulation of Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings is coupled with the near‐field solver. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed variable order formulation is assessed for realistic geometries, namely sound propagation around a high‐lift airfoil and the Munt problem. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An unfitted interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method for incompressible Navier–Stokes two‐phase flow

A discontinuous Galerkin method for the solution of the immiscible and incompressible two‐phase flow problem based on the nonsymmetric interior penalty method is presented. Therefore, the incompressible Navier–Stokes equation is solved for a domain decomposed into two subdomains with different values of viscosity and density as well as a singular surface tension force. On the basis of a piecewise linear approximation of the interface, meshes for both phases are cut out of a structured mesh. The discontinuous finite elements are defined on the resulting Cartesian cut‐cell mesh and may therefore approximate the discontinuities of the pressure and the velocity derivatives across the interface with high accuracy. As the mesh resolves the interface, regularization of the density and viscosity jumps across the interface is not required. This preserves the local conservation property of the velocity field even in the vicinity of the interface and constitutes a significant advantage compared with standard methods that require regularization of these discontinuities and cannot represent the jumps and kinks in pressure and velocity. A powerful subtessellation algorithm is incorporated to allow the usage of standard time integrators (such as Crank–Nicholson) on the time‐dependent mesh. The presented discretization is applicable to both the two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional cases. The performance of our approach is demonstrated by application to a two‐dimensional benchmark problem, allowing for a thorough comparison with other numerical methods. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A discontinuous Galerkin method/HLLC solver for the Euler equations

This paper proposes a fully three‐dimensional non‐linear Euler methodology for solving aerodynamic and acoustic problems in the presence of strong shocks and rarefactions. It uses a discontinuous Galerkin method (DGM) within the element, and a Riemann solver (HLLC) at the boundaries to propagate rarefactions while preserving the entropy condition and capturing shocks with no spurious oscillations. This approach is thought to marry the best aspects of finite element and finite volume methods, achieving conservation while not requiring the solution of a large matrix. Examples in which shock and rarefaction waves are well captured are presented and the propagation of acoustic pulses is well demonstrated. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A moving discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for flows with interfaces

A moving discontinuous Galerkin finite element method with interface condition enforcement is formulated for flows with discontinuous interfaces. The underlying weak formulation enforces the interface condition separately from the conservation law, so that the residual only vanishes upon satisfaction of both. In this formulation, the discrete grid geometry is treated as a variable, so that, in contrast to the standard discontinuous Galerkin method, this method has both the means to detect interfaces, via interface condition enforcement, and to satisfy, via grid movement, the conservation law and its associated interface condition. The method therefore directly fits interfaces, including shocks, preserving a high-order representation up to the interface without requiring shock capturing or an upwind numerical flux to achieve stability. It can be generalized to flows with a priori unknown interfaces with nontrivial topology and curved interface geometry as well as to an arbitrary number of spatial dimensions. Unsteady flows are represented in a manner similar to steady flows using a space-time formulation. In addition to computing flows with interfaces, the method can represent point singularities in a flow field by degenerating cuboid elements. In general, the method works in conjunction with standard local grid operations, including edge collapse, to ensure that degenerate cells are removed. Test cases are presented for up to three-dimensional flows that provide an initial assessment of the stability and accuracy of the method.     

A reconstructed discontinuous Galerkin method for multi-material hydrodynamics with sharp interfaces

Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods have been well established for single-material hydrodynamics. However, consistent DG discretizations for non-equilibrium multi-material (more than two materials) hydrodynamics have not been extensively studied. In this work, a novel reconstructed DG (rDG) method for the single-velocity multi-material system is presented. The multi-material system being considered assumes stiff velocity relaxation, but does not assume pressure and temperature equilibrium between the multiple materials. A second-order DG(P₁) method and a third-order least-squares based rDG(P₁P₂) are used to discretize this system in space, and a third-order total variation diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta method is used to integrate in time. A well-balanced DG discretization of the non-conservative system is presented and is verified by numerical test problems. Furthermore, a consistent interface treatment is implemented, which ensures strict conservation of material masses and total energy. Numerical tests indicate that the DG and rDG methods are, indeed, the second- and third-order accurate. Comparisons with the second-order finite volume method show that the DG and rDG methods are able to capture the interfaces more sharply. The DG and rDG methods are also more accurate in the single-material regions of the flow. This work focuses on the general multidimensional rDG formulation of the non-equilibrium multi-material system and a study of properties of the method via one-dimensional numerical experiments. The results from this research will be the foundation for a multidimensional high-order rDG method for multi-material hydrodynamics.     

A discontinuous Galerkin method for the Navier–Stokes equations

The foundations of a new discontinuous Galerkin method for simulating compressible viscous flows with shocks on standard unstructured grids are presented in this paper. The new method is based on a discontinuous Galerkin formulation both for the advective and the diffusive contributions. High‐order accuracy is achieved by using a recently developed hierarchical spectral basis. This basis is formed by combining Jacobi polynomials of high‐order weights written in a new co‐ordinate system. It retains a tensor‐product property, and provides accurate numerical quadrature. The formulation is conservative, and monotonicity is enforced by appropriately lowering the basis order and performing h‐refinement around discontinuities. Convergence results are shown for analytical two‐ and three‐dimensional solutions of diffusion and Navier–Stokes equations that demonstrate exponential convergence of the new method, even for highly distorted elements. Flow simulations for subsonic, transonic and supersonic flows are also presented that demonstrate discretization flexibility using hp‐type refinement. Unlike other high‐order methods, the new method uses standard finite volume grids consisting of arbitrary triangulizations and tetrahedrizations. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A discontinuous Galerkin scheme for the numerical solution of flow problems with discontinuities

In this paper, a new discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for the numerical solution of flow problems with discontinuities is presented. The method is based on the limitation in every cell of the difference between the extrema values and the mean value of the numerical solution. The algorithm and technical details for the implementation of the method are presented in one‐and two‐dimensional problems. Numerical experiments for classical test problems are solved on unstructured triangulations to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive Runge–Kutta discontinuous Galerkin method for complex geometry problems on Cartesian grid

A Cartesian grid method using immersed boundary technique to simulate the impact of body in fluid has become an important research topic in computational fluid dynamics because of its simplification, automation of grid generation, and accuracy of results. In the frame of Cartesian grid, one often uses finite volume method with second order accuracy or finite difference method. In this paper, an h‐adaptive Runge–Kutta discontinuous Galerkin (RKDG) method on Cartesian grid with ghost cell immersed boundary method for arbitrarily complex geometries is developed. A ghost cell immersed boundary treatment with the modification of normal velocity is presented. The method is validated versus well documented test problems involving both steady and unsteady compressible flows through complex bodies over a wide range of Mach numbers. The numerical results show that the present boundary treatment to some extent reduces the error of entropy and demonstrate the efficiency, robustness, and versatility of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.