Adaptive mesh method for topology optimization of fluid flow

In order to solve the topology optimization problems of fluid flow and obtain higher resolution of the interface with a minimum of additional expense, an automatic local adaptive mesh refinement method is proposed. The optimization problem is solved by a simple but robust optimality criteria (OC) algorithm. A material distribution information based adaptive mesh method is adopted during the optimization process. The optimization procedure is provided and verified with several benchmark examples.     

The Limits of Porous Materials in the Topology Optimization of Stokes Flows

We consider a problem concerning the distribution of a solid material in a given bounded control volume with the goal to minimize the potential power of the Stokes flow with given velocities at the boundary through the material-free part of the domain.We also study the relaxed problem of the optimal distribution of the porous material with a spatially varying Darcy permeability tensor, where the governing equations are known as the Darcy–Stokes, or Brinkman, equations. We show that the introduction of the requirement of zero power dissipation due to the flow through the porous material into the relaxed problem results in it becoming a well-posed mathematical problem, which admits optimal solutions that have extreme permeability properties (i.e., assume only zero or infinite permeability); thus, they are also optimal in the original (non-relaxed) problem. Two numerical techniques are presented for the solution of the constrained problem. One is based on a sequence of optimal Brinkman flows with increasing viscosities, from the mathematical point of view nothing but the exterior penalty approach applied to the problem. Another technique is more special, and is based on the “sizing” approximation of the problem using a mix of two different porous materials with high and low permeabilities, respectively. This paper thus complements the study of Borrvall and Petersson (Internat. J. Numer. Methods Fluids, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 77–107, 2003), where only sizing optimization problems are treated.     

Shape and topology optimization for elliptic boundary value problems using a piecewise constant level set method

The aim of this paper is to propose a variational piecewise constant level set method for solving elliptic shape and topology optimization problems. The original model is approximated by a two-phase optimal shape design problem by the ersatz material approach. Under the piecewise constant level set framework, we first reformulate the two-phase design problem to be a new constrained optimization problem with respect to the piecewise constant level set function. Then we solve it by the projection Lagrangian method. A gradient-type iterative algorithm is presented. Comparisons between our numerical results and those obtained by level set approaches show the effectiveness, accuracy and efficiency of our algorithm.     

Shape optimization for Stokes flow

This paper is concerned with a shape sensitivity analysis of a viscous incompressible fluid driven by Stokes equations. The structures of continuous shape gradients with respect to the shape of the variable domain for some given cost functionals are established by introducing the Piola transformation and then deriving the state derivative and its associated adjoint state. Finally we give the finite element approximation of the problem and a gradient type algorithm is effectively used for our problem.     

Optimal shape design for fluid flow using topological perturbation technique

This paper is concerned with an optimal shape design problem in fluid mechanics. The fluid flow is governed by the Stokes equations. The theoretical analysis and the numerical simulation are discussed in two and three-dimensional cases. The proposed approach is based on a sensitivity analysis of a design function with respect to the insertion of a small obstacle in the fluid flow domain. An asymptotic expansion is derived for a large class of cost functions using small topological perturbation technique. A fast and accurate numerical algorithm is proposed. The efficiency of the method is illustrated by some numerical examples.     

Comparison of refinement criteria for structured adaptive mesh refinement

We have investigated and analyzed the grid convergence issues for an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code. We have found that the numerical results for the AMR grid may have a larger error than those for the unrefined uniform grid. After a detailed analysis, we have found that the numerical solution at the coarse-fine interface between different levels of the grid converges only in the first-order accuracy. Therefore, the error near the coarse-fine interface can quickly dominate the error in the other regions if the coarse-fine interface is active and not covered by the fine grid. We propose, implement, and compare several refinement criteria. Some of them can catch the large-error region near the coarse-fine interface and refine them with the fine grid.     

Composite penalty method of a low order anisotropic nonconforming finite element for the Stokes problem

Composite penalty method of a low order anisotropic nonconforming quadrilateral finite element for the Stokes problem is presented. This method with a large penalty parameter can achieve the same accuracy as the stand method with a small penalty parameter and the convergence rate of this method is two times as that of the standard method under the condition of the same order penalty parameter. The superconvergence for velocity is established as well. The results of this paper are also valid to the most of the known nonconforming finite element methods.     

A new fictitious domain method in shape optimization

The present paper is concerned with investigating the capability of the smoothness preserving fictitious domain method from Mommer (IMA J. Numer. Anal. 26:503–524, 2006) to shape optimization problems. We consider the problem of maximizing the Dirichlet energy functional in the class of all simply connected domains with fixed volume, where the state equation involves an elliptic second order differential operator with non-constant coefficients. Numerical experiments in two dimensions validate that we arrive at a fast and robust algorithm for the solution of the considered class of problems. The proposed method can be applied to three dimensional shape optimization problems.     

A fourth-order approximate projection method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on locally-refined periodic domains

In this follow-up of our previous work [30], the author proposes a high-order semi-implicit method for numerically solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on locally-refined periodic domains. Fourth-order finite-volume stencils are employed for spatially discretizing various operators in the context of structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). Time integration adopts a fourth-order, semi-implicit, additive Runge–Kutta method to treat the non-stiff convection term explicitly and the stiff diffusion term implicitly. The divergence-free condition is fulfilled by an approximate projection operator. Altogether, these components yield a simple algorithm for simulating incompressible viscous flows on periodic domains with fourth-order accuracies both in time and in space. Results of numerical tests show that the proposed method is superior to previous second-order methods in terms of accuracy and efficiency. A major contribution of this work is the analysis of a fourth-order approximate projection operator.     

An error indicator for mortar element solutions to the Stokes problem

We are interested in the mortar spectral element discretizationof the Stokes problem in a two-dimensional polygonal domain.We propose a family of residual type error indicators and weprove estimates which allow us to compare them with the error.We explain how these indicators can be used for adaptivity,and we present some numerical experiments.     

Shape inverse problem for Stokes–Brinkmann equations

In this paper, we propose an imaging technique for the detection of porous inclusions in a stationary flow governed by Stokes–Brinkmann equations. We introduce the velocity method to perform the shape deformation, and derive the structure of shape gradient for the cost functional based on the continuous adjoint method and the function space parametrization technique. Moreover, we present a gradient-type algorithm to the shape inverse problem. The numerical results demonstrate the proposed algorithm is feasible and effective for the quite high Reynolds numbers problems.     

Nonstationary monotone iterative methods for nonlinear partial differential equations

A simple technique is given in this paper for the construction and analysis of monotone iterative methods for a class of nonlinear partial differential equations. With the help of the special nonlinear property we can construct nonstationary parameters which can speed up the iterative process in solving the nonlinear system. Picard, Gauss–Seidel, and Jacobi monotone iterative methods are presented and analyzed for the adaptive solutions. The adaptive meshes are generated by the 1-irregular mesh refinement scheme which together with the M-matrix of the finite element stiffness matrix lead to existence–uniqueness–comparison theorems with simple upper and lower solutions as initial iterates. Some numerical examples, including a test problem with known analytical solution, are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the adaptive and monotone properties. Numerical results of simulations on a MOSFET with the gate length down to 34 nm are also given.     

Multilevel parametrization for aerodynamical optimization of 3D shapes

We introduce and discuss a combination of methods and options that aim at the aerodynamical optimization of a flow around an arbitrary aircraft shape. The flow is governed by the Euler equations, discretized by a mixed element-volume method on a fixed unstructured tetrahedrization. The shape parametrization relies on the skin of the above mesh through a hierarchical representation. Descent-type and one-shot algorithms are devised and adapted to the solution of a few model problems.     

Some equivalent problems in set optimization

Given a set-valued optimization problem (P), there is more than one way of defining the solutions associated with it. Depending on the decision maker’s preference, we consider the vector criterion or the set criterion. Both criteria of solution are considered together to solve problem (P) by reducing the feasible set.