An hybrid finite volume–finite element method for variable density incompressible flows

This paper is devoted to the numerical simulation of variable density incompressible flows, modeled by the Navier–Stokes system. We introduce an hybrid scheme which combines a finite volume approach for treating the mass conservation equation and a finite element method to deal with the momentum equation and the divergence free constraint. The breakthrough relies on the definition of a suitable footbridge between the two methods, through the design of compatibility condition. In turn, the method is very flexible and allows to deal with unstructured meshes. Several numerical tests are performed to show the scheme capabilities. In particular, the viscous Rayleigh–Taylor instability evolution is carefully investigated.     

An efficient finite volume method for electric field–space charge coupled problems

The goal of this paper is to introduce some recently developed finite volume schemes to enable numerical simulation of electric field–space charge coupled problems. The key features of this methodology are the possibility of handling problems with complex geometries and accurately capturing the charge density distribution. The total variation diminishing (TVD) scheme and the improved deferred correction (IDC) scheme are used to compute the convective and diffusive fluxes respectively. Our technique is firstly verified with the computation of hydrostatic solutions in a two coaxial cylinders configuration. The homogeneous and autonomous injection from the inner or outer electrode is considered. Comparison has been made with the analytical solution. The numerical technique is also applied to the problem of corona discharge in a blade-plane configuration. The good agreement between our numerical solution and the one obtained with a combination approach of Finite Element Method (FEM) and Method of Characteristics (MoC) is shown.     

A new time–space domain high-order finite-difference method for the acoustic wave equation

A new unified methodology was proposed in Finkelstein and Kastner (2007) [39] to derive spatial finite-difference (FD) coefficients in the joint time–space domain to reduce numerical dispersion. The key idea of this method is that the dispersion relation is completely satisfied at several designated frequencies. We develop this new time–space domain FD method further for 1D, 2D and 3D acoustic wave modeling using a plane wave theory and the Taylor series expansion. New spatial FD coefficients are frequency independent though they lead to a frequency dependent numerical solution. We prove that the modeling accuracy is 2nd-order when the conventional (2M)$(2M)$th-order space domain FD and the 2nd-order time domain FD stencils are directly used to solve the acoustic wave equation. However, under the same discretization, the new 1D method can reach (2M)$(2M)$th-order accuracy and is always stable. The 2D method can reach (2M)$(2M)$th-order accuracy along eight directions and has better stability. Similarly, the 3D method can reach (2M)$(2M)$th-order accuracy along 48 directions and also has better stability than the conventional FD method. The advantages of the new method are also demonstrated by the results of dispersion analysis and numerical modeling of acoustic wave equation for homogeneous and inhomogeneous acoustic models. In addition, we study the influence of the FD stencil length on numerical modeling for 1D inhomogeneous media, and derive an optimal FD stencil length required to balance the accuracy and efficiency of modeling. A new time–space domain high-order staggered-grid FD method for the 1D acoustic wave equation with variable densities is also developed, which has similar advantages demonstrated by dispersion analysis, stability analysis and modeling experiments. The methodology presented in this paper can be easily extended to solve similar partial difference equations arising in other fields of science and engineering.     

A monotone finite volume method for advection–diffusion equations on unstructured polygonal meshes

We present a new second-order accurate monotone finite volume (FV) method for the steady-state advection–diffusion equation. The method uses a nonlinear approximation for both diffusive and advective fluxes and guarantees solution non-negativity. The interpolation-free approximation of the diffusive flux uses the nonlinear two-point stencil proposed in Lipnikov [23]. Approximation of the advective flux is based on the second-order upwind method with a specially designed minimal nonlinear correction. The second-order convergence rate and monotonicity are verified with numerical experiments.     

Compact fourth-order finite volume method for numerical solutions of Navier–Stokes equations on staggered grids

The development of a compact fourth-order finite volume method for solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations on staggered grids is presented. A special attention is given to the conservation laws on momentum control volumes. A higher-order divergence-free interpolation for convective velocities is developed which ensures a perfect conservation of mass and momentum on momentum control volumes. Three forms of the nonlinear correction for staggered grids are proposed and studied. The accuracy of each approximation is assessed comparatively in Fourier space. The importance of higher-order approximations of pressure is discussed and numerically demonstrated. Fourth-order accuracy of the complete scheme is illustrated by the doubly-periodic shear layer and the instability of plane-channel flow. The efficiency of the scheme is demonstrated by a grid dependency study of turbulent channel flows by means of direct numerical simulations. The proposed scheme is highly accurate and efficient. At the same level of accuracy, the fourth-order scheme can be ten times faster than the second-order counterpart. This gain in efficiency can be spent on a higher resolution for more accurate solutions at a lower cost.     

Finite-element modeling of an acoustic cloak for three-dimensional flexible shells with structural excitation

A finite-element model for three-dimensional acoustic cloaks in both cylindrical and spherical coordinates is presented. The model is developed through time-harmonic analysis to study pressure and velocity field distributions as well as the cloak’s performance. The model developed accounts for the fluid-structure interaction of thin fluid-loaded shells. A plane strain model is used for the thin shell. Mechanical harmonic excitation is applied to the fluid-loaded shell to investigate the effect of mechanical oscillation of the shell on the performance of the acoustic cloak. In developing this model, a deeper insight into the acoustic cloak phenomena presented by Cummer and Shurig in 2007 is presented. Different nonlinear coordinate transformations are presented to study their effect on the acoustic cloak performance.     

Research on modal analysis of structural acoustic radiation using structural vibration modes and acoustic radiation modes

Modal analysis of structural acoustic radiation from a vibrating structure is discussed using structural vibration modes and acoustic radiation modes based on the quadratic form of acoustic power. The finite element method is employed for discretisizing the structure. The boundary element method and Rayleigh integral are used for modeling the acoustic fluid. It is shown that the power radiated by a single vibration mode is to increase the radiated power and the effect of modal interaction can lead to an increase or a decrease or no change in the radiated power, moreover, control of vibration modes is a good way to reduce both vibration and radiated sound as long as the influence of interaction of vibration modes on sound radiation is insignificant. Stiffeners may change mode shapes of a plate and thus change radiation efficiency of the plate‘s modes. The CHIEF method is adopted to obtain an acoustic radiation mode formulation without the nonuniqueness difficulty at critical frequencies for three-dimensional structures by using Moore-Penrose inverse. A pulsating cube is involved to verify the formulation. Good agreement is obtained between the numerical and analytical solutions. The shapes and radiation efficiencies of acoustic radiation modes of the cube are discussed. The structural acoustic control using structural vibration modes and acoustic radiation modes are compared and studied.     

A Chebyshev–Lagrangian method for acoustic analysis of a rectangular cavity with arbitrary impedance walls

A general Chebyshev–Lagrangian method is proposed to obtain the analytical solution for a rectangular acoustic cavity with arbitrary impedance boundary conditions. The originality of the present paper is the successful attempt of applying orthogonal polynomials, such as Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind, to the analysis of a rectangular sound field with general wall impedance. The sound pressure is uniformly expressed as triplicate Chebyshev polynomial series which is independent in each direction. The Chebyshev polynomial series solution is obtained using the Rayleigh–Ritz procedure after considering the influence of boundary impedance on the cavity as the work done by the impedance surfaces in the Lagrangian function. The accuracy and reliability of the proposed method are validated against the analytical solutions and some numerical results available in the literature. Excellent orthogonality and complete properties of the Chebyshev polynomials ensure the rapid convergence, numerical stability, high accuracy of the current solution. The simplicity and low computational cost of the present approach make it preferable to obtain the results of complex models even in the relative high frequency range by choosing enough truncated terms in the sound pressure expression. Numerous cases with various uniform or non-uniform impedance boundary conditions are analyzed numerically and some of the results can be used as benchmark. It is shown that the impedance boundary condition can effectively influence or modify the acoustic characteristics and response of a cavity.     

An Eulerian–Lagrangian WENO finite volume scheme for advection problems

We develop a locally conservative Eulerian–Lagrangian finite volume scheme with the weighted essentially non-oscillatory property (EL–WENO) in one-space dimension. This method has the advantages of both WENO and Eulerian–Lagrangian schemes. It is formally high-order accurate in space (we present the fifth order version) and essentially non-oscillatory. Moreover, it is free of a CFL time step stability restriction and has small time truncation error. The scheme requires a new integral-based WENO reconstruction to handle trace-back integration. A Strang splitting algorithm is presented for higher-dimensional problems, using both the new integral-based and pointwise-based WENO reconstructions. We show formally that it maintains the fifth order accuracy. It is also locally mass conservative. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the performance of the scheme and verify its formal accuracy.     

The enhanced volume source boundary point method for the calculation of acoustic radiation problem

The Volume Source Boundary Point Method(VSBPM) is greatly improved so that it will speed up the VSBPM‘s solution of the acoustic radiation problem caused by the vibrating body.The fundamental solution provided by Helmholtz equation is enforced in a weighted residual sense over a tetrahedron located on the normal line of the boundary node to replace the coefficient matrices of the system equation.Through the enhanced volume source boundary point analysis of various examples and the sound field of a vibrating rectangular box in a semi-anechoic chamber,it has revealed that the calculating speed of the EVSBPM is more than 10 times faster than that of the VSBPM while it workss on the aspects of its calculating precision and stability,adaptation to geometric shape of vibrating body as well as its ability to overcome the non-uniqueness problem.     

A moving interface method for dynamic kinetic–fluid coupling

This paper is a continuation of earlier work [P. Degond, S. Jin, L. Mieussens, A smooth transition between kinetic and hydrodynamic equations, Journal of Computational Physics 209 (2005) 665–694] in which we presented an automatic domain decomposition method for the solution of gas dynamics problems which require a localized resolution of the kinetic scale. The basic idea is to couple the macroscopic hydrodynamics model and the microscopic kinetic model through a buffer zone in which both equations are solved. Discontinuities or sharp gradients of the solution are responsible for locally strong departures to local equilibrium which require the resolution of the kinetic model. The buffer zone is drawn around the kinetic region by introducing a cut-off function, which takes values between zero and one and which is identically zero in the fluid zone and one in the kinetic zone. In the present paper, we specifically consider the possibility of moving the kinetic region or creating new kinetic regions, by evolving the cut-off function with respect to time. We present algorithms which perform this task by taking into account indicators which characterize the non-equilibrium state of the gas. The method is shown to be highly flexible as it relies on the time evolution of the buffer cut-off function rather than on the geometric definition of a moving interface which requires remeshing, by contrast to many previous methods. Numerical examples are presented which validate the method and demonstrate its performances.     

An implicit immersed boundary method for three-dimensional fluid–membrane interactions

We present an implicit immersed boundary method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations capable of handling three-dimensional membrane–fluid flow interactions. The goal of our approach is to greatly improve the time step by using the Jacobian-free Newton–Krylov method (JFNK) to advance the location of the elastic membrane implicitly. The most attractive feature of this Jacobian-free approach is Newton-like nonlinear convergence without the cost of forming and storing the true Jacobian. The Generalized Minimal Residual method (GMRES), which is a widely used Krylov-subspace iterative method, is used to update the search direction required for each Newton iteration. Each GMRES iteration only requires the action of the Jacobian in the form of matrix–vector products and therefore avoids the need of forming and storing the Jacobian matrix explicitly. Once the location of the boundary is obtained, the elastic forces acting at the discrete nodes of the membrane are computed using a finite element model. We then use the immersed boundary method to calculate the hydrodynamic effects and fluid–structure interaction effects such as membrane deformation. The present scheme has been validated by several examples including an oscillatory membrane initially placed in a still fluid, capsule membranes in shear flows and large deformation of red blood cells subjected to stretching force.     

Burton–Miller-type singular boundary method for acoustic radiation and scattering

This paper proposes the singular boundary method (SBM) in conjunction with Burton and Miller?s formulation for acoustic radiation and scattering. The SBM is a strong-form collocation boundary discretization technique using the singular fundamental solutions, which is mathematically simple, easy-to-program, meshless and introduces the concept of source intensity factors (SIFs) to eliminate the singularities of the fundamental solutions. Therefore, it avoids singular numerical integrals in the boundary element method (BEM) and circumvents the troublesome placement of the fictitious boundary in the method of fundamental solutions (MFS). In the present method, we derive the SIFs of exterior Helmholtz equation by means of the SIFs of exterior Laplace equation owing to the same order of singularities between the Laplace and Helmholtz fundamental solutions. In conjunction with the Burton–Miller formulation, the SBM enhances the quality of the solution, particularly in the vicinity of the corresponding interior eigenfrequencies. Numerical illustrations demonstrate efficiency and accuracy of the present scheme on some benchmark examples under 2D and 3D unbounded domains in comparison with the analytical solutions, the boundary element solutions and Dirichlet-to-Neumann finite element solutions.     

Space–time discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for two-fluid flows

A novel numerical method for two-fluid flow computations is presented, which combines the space–time discontinuous Galerkin finite element discretization with the level set method and cut-cell based interface tracking. The space–time discontinuous Galerkin (STDG) finite element method offers high accuracy, an inherent ability to handle discontinuities and a very local stencil, making it relatively easy to combine with local hp-refinement. The front tracking is incorporated via cut-cell mesh refinement to ensure a sharp interface between the fluids. To compute the interface dynamics the level set method (LSM) is used because of its ability to deal with merging and breakup. Also, the LSM is easy to extend to higher dimensions. Small cells arising from the cut-cell refinement are merged to improve the stability and performance. The interface conditions are incorporated in the numerical flux at the interface and the STDG discretization ensures that the scheme is conservative as long as the numerical fluxes are conservative. The numerical method is applied to one and two dimensional two-fluid test problems using the Euler equations.     

A nonconforming finite element method for the Cahn–Hilliard equation

This paper reports a fully discretized scheme for the Cahn–Hilliard equation. The method uses a convexity-splitting scheme to discretize in the temporal variable and a nonconforming finite element method to discretize in the spatial variable. And, the scheme can preserve the mass conservation and energy dissipation properties of the original problem. Some typical phase transition phenomena are also observed through the numerical examples.     

A new method for obtaining three-dimensional eigenrays

This report describes a new method,the self-searching method,tofind eigenrays in an ocean where there is a three-dimensional sound speedperturbation blob on a uniform sound speed background.Compared with thetraditional shooting method,this method can reduce the number of ray calcula-tions by about two orders of magnitude,and an eigenray can be found by com-puter program without manual intervention.     

Uncertainty propagation in SEA for structural–acoustic coupled systems with non-deterministic parameters

Considering limited available information on uncertainties in structural - acoustic coupled systems, two methods namely the vertex method and the Legendre orthogonal polynomial based method for predicting their dynamic behavior are developed based on the Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) approach. For the vertex method, an efficient program for determining coordinates of all vertices of the rectangular spanned by entries of the involved interval input vector is coded, which is well suited for an interval input vector in arbitrary dimension. Instead of calculating the extremum of the response of interest, a method for determining its minimal and maximal point vectors dimension by dimension with respect to uncertain parameters is proposed based on the Legendre orthogonal polynomial approximation. Following the theoretical analysis of the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed methods, their validation is performed by one numerical example and two applications.     

A full Eulerian finite difference approach for solving fluid–structure coupling problems

A new simulation method for solving fluid–structure coupling problems has been developed. All the basic equations are numerically solved on a fixed Cartesian grid using a finite difference scheme. A volume-of-fluid formulation [Hirt, Nichols, J. Comput. Phys. 39 (1981) 201], which has been widely used for multiphase flow simulations, is applied to describing the multi-component geometry. The temporal change in the solid deformation is described in the Eulerian frame by updating a left Cauchy-Green deformation tensor, which is used to express constitutive equations for nonlinear Mooney–Rivlin materials. In this paper, various verifications and validations of the present full Eulerian method, which solves the fluid and solid motions on a fixed grid, are demonstrated, and the numerical accuracy involved in the fluid–structure coupling problems is examined.     

A high-order accurate unstructured finite volume Newton–Krylov algorithm for inviscid compressible flows

A fast implicit Newton–Krylov finite volume algorithm has been developed for high-order unstructured steady-state computation of inviscid compressible flows. The matrix-free generalized minimal residual (GMRES) algorithm is used for solving the linear system arising from implicit discretization of the governing equations, avoiding expensive and complex explicit computation of the high-order Jacobian matrix. The solution process has been divided into two phases: start-up and Newton iterations. In the start-up phase an approximate solution with the general characteristics of the steady-state flow is computed by using a defect correction procedure. At the end of the start-up phase, the linearization of the flow field is accurate enough for steady-state solution, and a quasi-Newton method is used, with an infinite time step and very rapid convergence. A proper limiter implementation for efficient convergence of the high-order discretization is discussed and a new formula for limiting the high-order terms of the reconstruction polynomial is introduced. The accuracy, fast convergence and robustness of the proposed high-order unstructured Newton–Krylov solver for different speed regimes is demonstrated for the second, third and fourth-order discretization. The possibility of reducing computational cost required for a given level of accuracy by using high-order discretization is examined.     

Local-linear-prediction analysis for underwater acoustic target radiated noise

Local-linear-prediction in phase space is performed for the underwater acoustic target radiated noise. Relation curve of average prediction error versus neighboring points' number is calculated. The result is used in judging the nonlinearity of radiated noise time series, and obtaining the appropriate form and coefficients of predicting model. The line and continuous spectral component are predicted respectively. Choice of some model parameters minimizing the prediction error is also discussed.