Stretched Cartesian grids for solution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

Two Cartesian grid stretching functions are investigated for solving the unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using the pressure–velocity formulation. The first function is developed for the Fourier method and is a generalization of earlier work. This function concentrates more points at the centre of the computational box while allowing the box to remain finite. The second stretching function is for the second‐order central finite difference scheme, which uses a staggered grid in the computational domain. This function is derived to allow a direct discretization of the Laplacian operator in the pressure equation while preserving the consistent behaviour exhibited by the uniform grid scheme. Both functions are analysed for their effects on the matrix of the discretized pressure equation. It is shown that while the second function does not spoil the matrix diagonal dominance, the first one can. Limits to stretching of the first method are derived for the cases of mappings in one and two directions. A limit is also derived for the second function in order to prevent a strong distortion of a sine wave. The performances of the two types of stretching are examined in simulations of periodic co‐flowing jets and a time developing boundary layer. Copyright © 2000 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.     

An adaptive multigrid finite-volume scheme for incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

An algorithm for the solutions of the two-dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is presented. The algorithm can be used to compute both steady-state and time-dependent flow problems. It is based on an artificial compressibility method and uses higher-order upwind finite-volume techniques for the convective terms and a second-order finite-volume technique for the viscous terms. Three upwind schemes for discretizing convective terms are proposed here. An interesting result is that the solutions computed by one of them is not sensitive to the value of the artificial compressibility parameter. A second-order, two-step Runge–Kutta integration coupling with an implicit residual smoothing and with a multigrid method is used for achieving fast convergence for both steady- and unsteady-state problems. The numerical results agree well with experimental and other numerical data. A comparison with an analytically exact solution is performed to verify the space and time accuracy of the algorithm.     

Upwind discretization of the steady Navier–Stokes equations

A discretization method is presented for the full, steady, compressible Navier–Stokes equations. The method makes use of quadrilateral finite volumes and consists of an upwind discretization of the convective part and a central discretization of the diffusive part. In the present paper the emphasis lies on the discretization of the convective part. The solution method applied solves the steady equations directly by means of a non-linear relaxation method accelerated by multigrid. The solution method requires the discretization to be continuously differentiable. For two upwind schemes which satisfy this requirement (Osher's and van Leer's scheme), results of a quantitative error analysis are presented. Osher's scheme appears to be increasingly more accurate than van Leer's scheme with increasing Reynolds number. A suitable higher-order accurate discretization of the convection terms is derived. On the basis of this higher-order scheme, to preserve monotonicity, a new limiter is constructed. Numerical results are presented for a subsonic flat plate flow and a supersonic flat plate flow with oblique shock wave–boundary layer interaction. The results obtained agree with the predictions made. Useful properties of the discretization method are that it allows an easy check of false diffusion and that it needs no tuning of parameters.     

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.     

Benchmark solutions for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in general co-ordinates on staggered grids

Benchmark problems are solved with the steady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations discretized with a finite volume method in general curvilinear co-ordinates on a staggered grid. The problems solved are skewed driven cavity problems, recently proposed as non-orthogonal grid benchmark problems. The system of discretized equations is solved efficiently with a non-linear multigrid algorithm, in which a robust line smoother is implemented. Furthermore, another benchmark problem is introduced and solved in which a 90° change in grid line direction occurs.     

A multigrid method for steady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations based on partial flux splitting

Flux splitting is applied to the convective part of the steady Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible flow. Partial upwind differences are introduced in the split first-order part, while central differences are used in the second-order part. The discrete set of equations obtained is positive, so that it can be solved by collective variants of relaxation methods. The partial upwinding is optimized in the same way as for a scalar convection–diffusion equation, but involving several Peclet numbers. It is shown that with the optimum partial upwinding accurate results can be obtained. A full multigrid method in W-cycle form, using red–black successive under-relaxation, injection and bilinear interpolation, is described. The efficiency of this method is demonstrated.     

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.     

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.     

Multigrid solution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations for three‐dimensional recirculating flow: coupled and decoupled smoothers compared

A comparison of multigrid methods for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in three dimensions is presented. The continuous equations are discretised on staggered grids using a second‐order monotonic scheme for the convective terms and implemented in defect correction form. The convergence characteristics of a decoupled method (SIMPLE) are compared with those of the cellwise coupled method (SCGS). The convergence rates obtained for computations of the three‐dimensional lid‐driven cavity problem are found to be very similar to those obtained for computations of the corresponding two‐dimensional problem with comparable grid density. Although the convergence rate of SCGS is thus superior to that of SIMPLE, the decoupled method is found to be more efficient computationally and requires less computing time for a given level of convergence. The linewise implementation of the coupled method (CLGS) is also investigated and shown to be more efficient than SCGS, although the convergence rate and computing time required per cycle are both found to depend on the direction of sweep. The optimal implementation of CLGS is found to be only marginally more effective than SIMPLE, but a change to the structure of the data storage would increase the advantage. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Algebraic multigrid methods for the solution of the Navier–Stokes equations in complicated geometries

The application of standard multigrid methods for the solution of the Navier–Stokes equations in complicated domains causes problems in two ways. First, coarsening is not possible to full extent since the geometry must be resolved by the coarsest grid used. Second, for semi-implicit time-stepping schemes, robustness of the convergence rates is usually not obtained for convection–diffusion problems, especially for higher Reynolds numbers. We show that both problems can be overcome by the use of algebraic multigrid (AMG), which we apply for the solution of the pressure and momentum equations in explicit and semi-implicit time-stepping schemes. We consider the convergence rates of AMG for several model problems and demonstrate the robustiness of the proposed scheme. © 1998 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.     

Pseudostress–velocity formulation for incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

This paper presents a numerical algorithm using the pseudostress–velocity formulation to solve incompressible Newtonian flows. The pseudostress–velocity formulation is a variation of the stress–velocity formulation, which does not require symmetric tensor spaces in the finite element discretization. Hence its discretization is greatly simplified. The discrete system is further decoupled into an H ( div ) problem for the pseudostress and a post‐process resolving the velocity. This can be done conveniently by using the penalty method for steady‐state flows or by using the time discretization for nonsteady‐state flows. We apply this formulation to the 2D lid‐driven cavity problem and study its grid convergence rate. Also, computational results of the time‐dependent‐driven cavity problem and the flow past rectangular problem are reported. Copyright © 2009 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.     

Continuation of travelling‐wave solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations

An efficient way of obtaining travelling waves in a periodic fluid system is described and tested. We search for steady states in a reference frame travelling at the wave phase velocity using a first‐order pseudospectral semi‐implicit time scheme adapted to carry out the Newton's iterations. The method is compared to a standard Newton–Raphson solver and is shown to be highly efficient in performing this task, even when high‐resolution grids are used. This method is well suited to three‐dimensional calculations in cylindrical or spherical geometries. Copyright © 2006 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.     

Fundamental solutions of the streamfunction–vorticity formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations

A new boundary element procedure is developed for the solution of the streamfunction–vorticity formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations in two dimensions. The differential equations are stated in their transient version and then discretized via finite differences with respect to time. In this discretization, the non-linear inertial terms are evaluated in a previous time step, thus making the scheme explicit with respect to them. In the resulting discretized equations, fundamental solutions that take into account the coupling between the equations are developed by treating the non-linear terms as in homogeneities. The resulting boundary integral equations are solved by the regular boundary element method, in which the singular points are placed outside the solution domain.     

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 Chimera method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

The Chimera method was developed three decades ago as a meshing simplification tool. Different components are meshed independently and then glued together using a domain decomposition technique to couple the equations solved on each component. This coupling is achieved via transmission conditions (in the finite element context) or by imposing the continuity of fluxes (in the finite volume context). Historically, the method has then been used extensively to treat moving objects, as the independent meshes are free to move with respect to the others. At each time step, the main task consists in recomputing the interpolation of the transmission conditions or fluxes. This paper presents a Chimera method applied to the Navier–Stokes equations. After an introduction on the Chimera method, we describe in two different sections the two independent steps of the method: the hole cutting to create the interfaces of the subdomains and the coupling of the subdomains. Then, we present the Navier–Stokes solver considered in this work. Implementation aspects are then detailed in order to apply efficiently the method to this specific parallel Navier–Stokes solver. We conclude with some examples to demonstrate the reliability and application of the proposed method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simple and efficient error analysis for multi‐step solution of the Navier–Stokes equations

A simple error analysis is used within the context of segregated finite element solution scheme to solve incompressible fluid flow. An error indicator is defined based on the difference between a numerical solution on an original mesh and an approximated solution on a related mesh. This error indicator is based on satisfying the steady‐state momentum equations. The advantages of this error indicator are, simplicity of implementation (post‐processing step), ability to show regions of high and/or low error, and as the indicator approaches zero the solution approaches convergence. Two examples are chosen for solution; first, the lid‐driven cavity problem, followed by the solution of flow over a backward facing step. The solutions are compared to previously published data for validation purposes. It is shown that this rather simple error estimate, when used as a re‐meshing guide, can be very effective in obtaining accurate numerical solutions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.