A composite grid solver for conjugate heat transfer in fluid–structure systems

We describe a numerical method for modeling temperature-dependent fluid flow coupled to heat transfer in solids. This approach to conjugate heat transfer can be used to compute transient and steady state solutions to a wide range of fluid–solid systems in complex two- and three-dimensional geometry. Fluids are modeled with the temperature-dependent incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using the Boussinesq approximation. Solids with heat transfer are modeled with the heat equation. Appropriate interface equations are applied to couple the solutions across different domains. The computational region is divided into a number of sub-domains corresponding to fluid domains and solid domains. There may be multiple fluid domains and multiple solid domains. Each fluid or solid sub-domain is discretized with an overlapping grid. The entire region is associated with a composite grid which is the union of the overlapping grids for the sub-domains. A different physics solver (fluid solver or solid solver) is associated with each sub-domain. A higher-level multi-domain solver manages the entire solution process.     

Numerical methods for solid mechanics on overlapping grids: Linear elasticity

This paper presents a new computational framework for the simulation of solid mechanics on general overlapping grids with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). The approach, described here for time-dependent linear elasticity in two and three space dimensions, is motivated by considerations of accuracy, efficiency and flexibility. We consider two approaches for the numerical solution of the equations of linear elasticity on overlapping grids. In the first approach we solve the governing equations numerically as a second-order system (SOS) using a conservative finite-difference approximation. The second approach considers the equations written as a first-order system (FOS) and approximates them using a second-order characteristic-based (Godunov) finite-volume method. A principal aim of the paper is to present the first careful assessment of the accuracy and stability of these two representative schemes for the equations of linear elasticity on overlapping grids. This is done by first performing a stability analysis of analogous schemes for the first-order and second-order scalar wave equations on an overlapping grid. The analysis shows that non-dissipative approximations can have unstable modes with growth rates proportional to the inverse of the mesh spacing. This new result, which is relevant for the numerical solution of any type of wave propagation problem on overlapping grids, dictates the form of dissipation that is needed to stabilize the scheme. Numerical experiments show that the addition of the indicated form of dissipation and/or a separate filter step can be used to stabilize the SOS scheme. They also demonstrate that the upwinding inherent in the Godunov scheme, which provides dissipation of the appropriate form, stabilizes the FOS scheme. We then verify and compare the accuracy of the two schemes using the method of analytic solutions and using problems with known solutions. These latter problems provide useful benchmark solutions for time dependent elasticity. We also consider two problems in which exact solutions are not available, and use a posterior error estimates to assess the accuracy of the schemes. One of these two problems is additionally employed to demonstrate the use of dynamic AMR and its effectiveness for resolving elastic “shock” waves. Finally, results are presented that compare the computational performance of the two schemes. These demonstrate the speed and memory efficiency achieved by the use of structured overlapping grids and optimizations for Cartesian grids.     

A novel pressure–velocity formulation and solution method for fluid–structure interaction problems

In the standard approach for simulating fluid–structure interaction problems the solution of the set of equations for solids provides the three displacement components while the solution of equations for fluids provides the three velocity components and pressure. In the present paper a novel reformulation of the elastodynamic equations for Hookean solids is proposed so that they contain the same unknowns as the Navier–Stokes equations, namely velocities and pressure. A separate equation for pressure correction is derived from the constitutive equation of the solid material. The system of equations for both media is discretised using the same method (finite volume on collocated grids) and the same iterative technique (SIMPLE algorithm) is employed for the pressure–velocity coupling. With this approach, the continuity of the velocity field at the interface is automatically satisfied. A special pressure correction procedure that enforces the compatibility of stresses at the interface is also developed. The new method is employed for the prediction of pressure wave propagation in an elastic tube. Computations were carried out with different meshes and time steps and compared with available analytic solutions as well as with numerical results obtained using the Flügge equations that describe the deformation of thin shells. For all cases examined the method showed very good performance.     

An Eulerian method for multi-component problems in non-linear elasticity with sliding interfaces

This paper is devoted to developing a multi-material numerical scheme for non-linear elastic solids, with emphasis on the inclusion of interfacial boundary conditions. In particular for colliding solid objects it is desirable to allow large deformations and relative slide, whilst employing fixed grids and maintaining sharp interfaces. Existing schemes utilising interface tracking methods such as volume-of-fluid typically introduce erroneous transport of tangential momentum across material boundaries. Aside from combatting these difficulties one can also make improvements in a numerical scheme for multiple compressible solids by utilising governing models that facilitate application of high-order shock capturing methods developed for hydrodynamics. A numerical scheme that simultaneously allows for sliding boundaries and utilises such high-order shock capturing methods has not yet been demonstrated. A scheme is proposed here that directly addresses these challenges by extending a ghost cell method for gas-dynamics to solid mechanics, by using a first-order model for elastic materials in conservative form. Interface interactions are captured using the solution of a multi-material Riemann problem which is derived in detail. Several different boundary conditions are considered including solid/solid and solid/vacuum contact problems. Interfaces are tracked using level-set functions. The underlying single material numerical method includes a characteristic based Riemann solver and high-order WENO reconstruction. Numerical solutions of example multi-material problems are provided in comparison to exact solutions for the one-dimensional augmented system, and for a two-dimensional friction experiment.     

基于近似Riemann解的有限体积ALE方法

研究二维平面坐标系和二维轴对称坐标系中四边形网格上可压缩流体力学的有限体积ALE(Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian)方法.数值方法采用节点中心有限体积法,数值通量采用适用于任意状态方程的HLLC(Harten-Lax-Van Leer-Collela)通量.空间二阶精度通过用WENO(weighted essentially non-oscillatory)方法对原始变量进行重构获得,时间离散采用两步显式Runge-Kutta格式.数值例子显示,方法具有良好的激波分辨能力和高精度的数值逼近能力.     

A matrix-free,implicit, incompressible fractional-step algorithm for fluid–structure interaction applications

In this paper we detail a fast, fully-coupled, partitioned fluid–structure interaction (FSI) scheme. For the incompressible fluid, new fractional-step algorithms are proposed which make possible the fully implicit, but matrix-free, parallel solution of the entire coupled fluid–solid system. These algorithms include artificial compressibility pressure-poisson solution in conjunction with upwind velocity stabilisation, as well as simplified pressure stabilisation for improved computational efficiency. A dual-timestepping approach is proposed where a Jacobi method is employed for the momentum equations while the pressures are concurrently solved via a matrix-free preconditioned GMRES methodology. This enables efficient sub-iteration level coupling between the fluid and solid domains. Parallelisation is effected for distributed-memory systems. The accuracy and efficiency of the developed technology is evaluated by application to benchmark problems from the literature. The new schemes are shown to be efficient and robust, with the developed preconditioned GMRES solver furnishing speed-ups ranging between 50 and 80.     

Implicit LU-SGS algorithm for high-order methods on unstructured grid with p-multigrid strategy for solving the steady Navier–Stokes equations

The fluid dynamic equations are discretized by a high-order spectral volume (SV) method on unstructured tetrahedral grids. We solve the steady state equations by advancing in time using a backward Euler (BE) scheme. To avoid the inversion of a large matrix we approximate BE by an implicit lower–upper symmetric Gauss–Seidel (LU-SGS) algorithm. The implicit method addresses the stiffness in the discrete Navier–Stokes equations associated with stretched meshes. The LU-SGS algorithm is then used as a smoother for a p-multigrid approach. A Von Neumann stability analysis is applied to the two-dimensional linear advection equation to determine its damping properties. The implicit LU-SGS scheme is used to solve the two-dimensional (2D) compressible laminar Navier–Stokes equations. We compute the solution of a laminar external flow over a cylinder and around an airfoil at low Mach number. We compare the convergence rates with explicit Runge–Kutta (E-RK) schemes employed as a smoother. The effects of the cell aspect ratio and the low Mach number on the convergence are investigated. With the p-multigrid method and the implicit smoother the computational time can be reduced by a factor of up to 5–10 compared with a well tuned E-RK scheme.     

Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian finite-element method for computation of two-phase flows with soluble surfactants

A finite-element scheme based on a coupled arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian and Lagrangian approach is developed for the computation of interface flows with soluble surfactants. The numerical scheme is designed to solve the time-dependent Navier–Stokes equations and an evolution equation for the surfactant concentration in the bulk phase, and simultaneously, an evolution equation for the surfactant concentration on the interface. Second-order isoparametric finite elements on moving meshes and second-order isoparametric surface finite elements are used to solve these equations. The interface-resolved moving meshes allow the accurate incorporation of surface forces, Marangoni forces and jumps in the material parameters. The lower-dimensional finite-element meshes for solving the surface evolution equation are part of the interface-resolved moving meshes. The numerical scheme is validated for problems with known analytical solutions. A number of computations to study the influence of the surfactants in 3D-axisymmetric rising bubbles have been performed. The proposed scheme shows excellent conservation of fluid mass and of the total mass of the surfactant.     

Numerically stable fluid–structure interactions between compressible flow and solid structures

We propose a novel method to implicitly two-way couple Eulerian compressible flow to volumetric Lagrangian solids. The method works for both deformable and rigid solids and for arbitrary equations of state. The method exploits the formulation of [11] which solves compressible fluid in a semi-implicit manner, solving for the advection part explicitly and then correcting the intermediate state to time tⁿ⁺¹ using an implicit pressure, obtained by solving a modified Poisson system. Similar to previous fluid–structure interaction methods, we apply pressure forces to the solid and enforce a velocity boundary condition on the fluid in order to satisfy a no-slip constraint. Unlike previous methods, however, we apply these coupled interactions implicitly by adding the constraint to the pressure system and combining it with any implicit solid forces in order to obtain a strongly coupled, symmetric indefinite system (similar to [17], which only handles incompressible flow). We also show that, under a few reasonable assumptions, this system can be made symmetric positive-definite by following the methodology of [16]. Because our method handles the fluid–structure interactions implicitly, we avoid introducing any new time step restrictions and obtain stable results even for high density-to-mass ratios, where explicit methods struggle or fail. We exactly conserve momentum and kinetic energy (thermal fluid–structure interactions are not considered) at the fluid–structure interface, and hence naturally handle highly non-linear phenomenon such as shocks, contacts and rarefactions.     

激波和单列水柱、气水固多界面相互作用的数值模拟

研究可压缩多介质流场的激波和多介质界面相互作用问题.在Descartes固定网格采用level-set方法追踪界面,气/气界面边界条件处理采用OGFM方法,采用修正的rGFM方法提高气/水和气/固界面处构造Riemann问题精度,将Riemann近似解得到的界面参数外推到两侧真实和虚拟流体,采用五阶WENO方法求解流场Euler方程和界面level-set方程,给出不同时刻流场数值纹影图像.结果表明：在可压缩流场嵌入固体和水、气体等目标,本文方法可较精确地分辨平面运动激波和单列水柱及包含气/气、气/水和气/固等界面作用后产生的复杂激波结构.和传统的分区与贴体变换方法不同,为Descartes网格包含多介质界面复杂流场计算提供新途径.     

A conservative level-set based method for compressible solid/fluid problems on fixed grids

A three-dimensional Eulerian method is presented for simulating dynamic systems comprising multiple compressible solid and fluid components where internal boundaries are tracked using level-set functions. Aside from the interface interaction calculation within mixed cells, each material is treated independently and the governing constitutive laws solved using a conservative finite volume discretisation based upon the solution of Riemann problems to determine the numerical fluxes. The required reconstruction of mixed cell volume fractions and cut cell geometries is presented in detail using the level-set fields. High-order accuracy is achieved by incorporating the weighted-essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) method and Runge–Kutta time integration. A model for elastoplastic solid dynamics is employed formulated using the tensor of elastic deformation gradients permitting the equations to be written in divergence form. The scheme is demonstrated using selected one-dimensional initial value problems for which exact solutions are derived, a two-dimensional void collapse, and a three-dimensional simulation of a confined explosion.     

A differentially interpolated direct forcing immersed boundary method for predicting incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in time-varying complex geometries

A dispersion-relation-preserving dual-compact scheme developed in Cartesian grids is applied together with the immersed boundary method to solve the flow equations in irregular and time-varying domains. The artificial momentum forcing term applied at certain points in cells containing fluid and solid allows an imposition of velocity condition to account for the motion of solid body. We develop in this study a differential-based interpolation scheme which can be easily extended to three-dimensional simulation. The results simulated from the proposed immersed boundary method agree well with other numerical and experimental results for the chosen benchmark problems. The accuracy and fidelity of the IB flow solver developed to predict flows with irregular boundaries are therefore demonstrated.     

A multislope MUSCL method on unstructured meshes applied to compressible Euler equations for axisymmetric swirling flows

A finite volume method for the numerical solution of axisymmetric inviscid swirling flows is presented. The governing equations of the flow are the axisymmetric compressible Euler equations including swirl (or tangential) velocity. A first-order scheme is introduced where the convective fluxes at cell interfaces are evaluated by the Rusanov or the HLLC numerical flux while the geometric source terms are discretizated to provide a well-balanced scheme i.e. the steady-state solutions with null velocity are preserved. Extension to the second-order space approximation using a multislope MUSCL method is then derived. To test the numerical scheme, a stationary solution of the fluid flow following the radial direction has been established with a zero and nonzero tangential velocity. Numerical and exact solutions are compared for classical Riemann problems where we employ different limiters and effectiveness of the multislope MUSCL scheme is demonstrated for strongly shocked axially symmetric flows like in spherical bubble compression problem. Two other tests with axisymmetric geometries are performed: the supersonic flow in a tube with a cone and the axisymmetric blunt body with a free stream.     

A space–time hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method for incompressible flows on deforming domains

We present the first space–time hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) finite element method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes and Oseen equations. Major advantages of a space–time formulation are its excellent capabilities of dealing with moving and deforming domains and grids and its ability to achieve higher-order accurate approximations in both time and space by simply increasing the order of polynomial approximation in the space–time elements. Our formulation is related to the HDG formulation for incompressible flows introduced recently in, e.g., [N.C. Nguyen, J. Peraire, B. Cockburn, A hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method for Stokes flow, Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 199 (2010) 582–597]. However, ours is inspired in typical DG formulations for compressible flows which allow for a more straightforward implementation. Another difference is the use of polynomials of fixed total degree with space–time hexahedral and quadrilateral elements, instead of simplicial elements. We present numerical experiments in order to assess the quality of the performance of the methods on deforming domains and to experimentally investigate the behavior of the convergence rates of each component of the solution with respect to the polynomial degree of the approximations in both space and time.     

A third-order finite-volume residual-based scheme for the 2D Euler equations on unstructured grids

A residual-based (RB) scheme relies on the vanishing of residual at the steady-state to design a transient first-order dissipation, which becomes high-order at steady-state. Initially designed within a finite-difference framework for computations of compressible flows on structured grids, the RB schemes displayed good convergence, accuracy and shock-capturing properties which motivated their extension to unstructured grids using a finite volume (FV) method. A second-order formulation of the FV–RB scheme for compressible flows on general unstructured grids was presented in a previous paper. The present paper describes the derivation of a third-order FV–RB scheme and its application to hyperbolic model problems as well as subsonic, transonic and supersonic internal and external inviscid flows.     

重新初始化的LS方法跟踪二维可压缩多介质流界面运动

 用非耦合求解方法计算Level Set函数方程与流体力学方程组，应用重新初始化的Level Set函数确保距离函数性质，流体力学方程组采用二阶精度多介质流波传播差分格式计算，重新初始化方程采用五阶WENO格式计算。并给出了二维可压缩多介质流界面运动的计算结果。     

A second-order discretization of the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann equation over irregular geometries using non-graded adaptive Cartesian grids

In this paper we present a finite difference scheme for the discretization of the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann (PB) equation over irregular domains that is second-order accurate. The interface is represented by a zero level set of a signed distance function using Octree data structure, allowing a natural and systematic approach to generate non-graded adaptive grids. Such a method guaranties computational efficiency by ensuring that the finest level of grid is located near the interface. The nonlinear PB equation is discretized using finite difference method and several numerical experiments are carried which indicate the second-order accuracy of method. Finally the method is used to study the supercapacitor behaviour of porous electrodes.     

A class of Cartesian grid embedded boundary algorithms for incompressible flow with time-varying complex geometries

We present a class of numerical algorithms for simulating viscous fluid problems of incompressible flow interacting with moving rigid structures. The proposed Cartesian grid embedded boundary algorithms employ a slightly different idea from the traditional direct-forcing immersed boundary methods: the proposed algorithms calculate and apply the force density in the extended solid domain to uphold the solid velocity and hence the boundary condition at the rigid-body surface. The principle of the embedded boundary algorithm allows us to solve the fluid equations on a Cartesian grid with a set of external forces spread onto the grid points occupied by the rigid structure. The proposed algorithms use the MAC (marker and cell) algorithm to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Unlike projection methods, the MAC scheme incorporates the gradient of the force density in solving the pressure Poisson equation, so that the dipole force, due to the jump of pressure across the solid-fluid interface, is directly balanced by the gradient of the force density. We validate the proposed algorithms via the classical benchmark problem of flow past a cylinder. Our numerical experiments show that numerical solutions of the velocity field obtained by using the proposed algorithms are smooth across the solid-fluid interface. Finally, we consider the problem of a cylinder moving between two parallel plane walls. Numerical solutions of this problem obtained by using the proposed algorithms are compared with the classical asymptotic solutions. We show that the two solutions are in good agreement.     

Nondissipative and energy-stable high-order finite-difference interface schemes for 2-D patch-refined grids

A class of finite-difference interface schemes suitable for two-dimensional cell-centered grids with patch-refinement and step-changes in resolution is presented. Grids of this type are generated by adaptive mesh refinement methods according to resolution needs dictated by the physics of the problem being modeled. For these grids, coarse and fine nodes are not aligned at the mesh interfaces, resulting in hanging nodes. Three distinct geometries are identified at the interfaces of a domain with interior patch-refinement: edges, concave corners and convex corners. Asymptotic stability in time of the numerical scheme is achieved by imposing a summation-by-parts condition on the interface closure, which is thus also nondissipative. Interface stencils corresponding to an explicit fourth-order finite-difference scheme are presented for each geometry. To preserve stability, a reduction in local accuracy is required at the corner geometries. It is also found that no second-order accurate solution exists that satisfies the summation-by-parts condition. Tests using the 2-D scalar advection equation and an inviscid compressible vortex support the stability and accuracy of these stencils for both linear and nonlinear problems.     

扩散方程的有限方向差分方法

研究二维散乱点集上数值求解非线性扩散方程的有限方向差分方法。利用五个邻点信息构造具有最小模板的离散格式,并且离散系数具有显式表达式。另外,利用五点公式获得了间断问题物质界面的离散格式,该格式对界面流的计算具有近似二阶精度。不同计算区域及不同类型的离散点集上的计算结果验证了方法的有效性。