A pressure‐based unstructured grid method for all‐speed flows

An all‐speed algorithm based on the SIMPLE pressure‐correction scheme and the ‘retarded‐density’ approach has been formulated and implemented within an unstructured grid, finite volume (FV) scheme for both incompressible and compressible flows, the latter involving interaction of shock waves. The collocated storage arrangement for all variables is adopted, and the checkerboard oscillations are eliminated by using a pressure‐weighted interpolation method, similar to that of Rhie and Chow [Numerical study of the turbulent flow past an airfoil with trailing edge separation. AIAA Journal 1983; 21 : 1525]. The solution accuracy is greatly enhanced when a higher‐order convection scheme combined with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) are used. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A time‐accurate pseudo‐compressibility approach based on an unstructured hybrid finite volume technique applied to unsteady turbulent premixed flame propagation

A preconditioning approach based on the artificial compressibility formulation is extended to solve the governing equations for unsteady turbulent reactive flows with heat release, at low Mach numbers, on an unstructured hybrid grid context. Premixed reactants are considered and a flamelet approach for combustion modelling is adopted using a continuous quenched mean reaction rate. An overlapped cell‐vertex finite volume method is adopted as a discretisation scheme. Artificial dissipation terms for hybrid grids are explicitly added to ensure a stable, discretised set of equations. A second‐order, explicit, hybrid Runge–Kutta scheme is applied for the time marching in pseudo‐time. A time derivative of the dependent variable is added to recover the time accuracy of the preconditioned set of equations. This derivative is discretised by an implicit, second‐order scheme. The resulting scheme is applied to the calculation of an infinite planar (one‐dimensional) turbulent premixed flame propagating freely in reactants whose turbulence is supposed to be frozen, homogeneous and isotropic. The accuracy of the results obtained with the proposed method proves to be excellent when compared to the data available in the literature. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accurate numerical estimation of interphase momentum transfer in Lagrangian–Eulerian simulations of dispersed two-phase flows

The Lagrangian–Eulerian (LE) approach is used in many computational methods to simulate two-way coupled dispersed two-phase flows. These include averaged equation solvers, as well as direct numerical simulations (DNS) and large-eddy simulations (LES) that approximate the dispersed-phase particles (or droplets or bubbles) as point sources. Accurate calculation of the interphase momentum transfer term in LE simulations is crucial for predicting qualitatively correct physical behavior, as well as for quantitative comparison with experiments. Numerical error in the interphase momentum transfer calculation arises from both forward interpolation/approximation of fluid velocity at grid nodes to particle locations, and from backward estimation of the interphase momentum transfer term at particle locations to grid nodes. A novel test that admits an analytical form for the interphase momentum transfer term is devised to test the accuracy of the following numerical schemes: (1) fourth-order Lagrange Polynomial Interpolation (LPI-4), (3) Piecewise Cubic Approximation (PCA), (3) second-order Lagrange Polynomial Interpolation (LPI-2) which is basically linear interpolation, and (4) a Two-Stage Estimation algorithm (TSE). A number of tests are performed to systematically characterize the effects of varying the particle velocity variance, the distribution of particle positions, and fluid velocity field spectrum on estimation of the mean interphase momentum transfer term. Numerical error resulting from backward estimation is decomposed into statistical and deterministic (bias and discretization) components, and their convergence with number of particles and grid resolution is characterized. It is found that when the interphase momentum transfer is computed using values for these numerical parameters typically encountered in the literature, it can incur errors as high as 80% for the LPI-4 scheme, whereas TSE incurs a maximum error of 20%. The tests reveal that using multiple independent simulations and higher number of particles per cell are required for accurate estimation using current algorithms. The study motivates further testing of LE numerical methods, and the development of better algorithms for computing interphase transfer terms.     

A simple high‐resolution advection scheme

A simple, robust, mass‐conserving numerical scheme for solving the linear advection equation is described. The scheme can estimate peak solution values accurately even in regions where spatial gradients are high. Such situations present a severe challenge to classical numerical algorithms. Attention is restricted to the case of pure advection in one and two dimensions since this is where past numerical problems have arisen. The authors' scheme is of the Godunov type and is second‐order in space and time. The required cell interface fluxes are obtained by MUSCL interpolation and the exact solution of a degenerate Riemann problem. Second‐order accuracy in time is achieved via a Runge–Kutta predictor–corrector sequence. The scheme is explicit and expressed in finite volume form for ease of implementation on a boundary‐conforming grid. Benchmark test problems in one and two dimensions are used to illustrate the high‐spatial accuracy of the method and its applicability to non‐uniform grids. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The (9,5) HOC formulation for the transient Navier–Stokes equations in primitive variable

We recently proposed an improved (9,5) higher order compact (HOC) scheme for the unsteady two‐dimensional (2‐D) convection–diffusion equations. Because of using only five points at the current time level in the discretization procedure, the scheme was seen to be computationally more efficient than its predecessors. It was also seen to capture very accurately the solution of the unsteady 2‐D Navier–Stokes (N–S) equations for incompressible viscous flows in the stream function–vorticity (ψ – ω) formulation. In this paper, we extend the scope of the scheme for solving the unsteady incompressible N–S equations based on primitive variable formulation on a collocated grid. The parabolic momentum equations are solved for the velocity field by a time‐marching strategy and the pressure is obtained by discretizing the elliptic pressure Poisson equation by the steady‐state form of the (9,5) scheme with the Neumann boundary conditions. In particular, for pressure, we adopt a strategy on the collocated grid in conjunction with ideas borrowed from the staggered grid approach in finite volume. We first apply this extension to a problem having analytical solution and then to the famous lid‐driven square cavity problem. We also apply our formulation to the backward‐facing step problem to see how the method performs for external flow problems. The results are presented and are compared with established numerical results. This new approach is seen to produce excellent comparison in all the cases. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Godunov‐type fractional semi‐implicit method based on staggered grid for dam‐break modeling

A semi‐implicit finite volume model based upon staggered grid is presented for solving shallow water equation. The model employs a time‐splitting scheme that uses a predictor–corrector method for the advection term. The fluxes are calculated based on a Riemann solver in the prediction step and a downwind scheme in the correction step. A simple TVD scheme is employed for shock capturing purposes in which the Minmond limiter is used for flux functions. As a consequence of using staggered grid, an ADI method is adopted for solving the discretized equations for 2‐D problems. Several 1‐D and 2‐D flows have been modeled with satisfactory results when compared with analytical and experimental test cases. The model is also capable of simulating supercritical as well as subcritical flow. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Edge‐based reconstruction schemes for unstructured tetrahedral meshes

In this paper, we consider edge‐based reconstruction (EBR) schemes for solving the Euler equations on unstructured tetrahedral meshes. These schemes are based on a high‐accuracy quasi‐1D reconstruction of variables on an extended stencil along the edge‐based direction. For an arbitrary tetrahedral mesh, the EBR schemes provide higher accuracy in comparison with most second‐order schemes at rather low computational costs. The EBR schemes are built in the framework of vertex‐centered formulation for the point‐wise values of variables. Here, we prove the high accuracy of EBR schemes for uniform grid‐like meshes, introduce an economical implementation of quasi‐one‐dimensional reconstruction and the resulting new scheme of EBR family, estimate the computational costs, and give new verification results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi‐stage high order semi‐Lagrangian schemes for incompressible flows in Cartesian geometries

Efficient transport algorithms are essential to the numerical resolution of incompressible fluid‐flow problems. Semi‐Lagrangian methods are widely used in grid based methods to achieve this aim. The accuracy of the interpolation strategy then determines the properties of the scheme. We introduce a simple multi‐stage procedure, which can easily be used to increase the order of accuracy of a code based on multilinear interpolations. This approach is an extension of a corrective algorithm introduced by Dupont & Liu (2003, 2007). This multi‐stage procedure can be easily implemented in existing parallel codes using a domain decomposition strategy, as the communication pattern is identical to that of the multilinear scheme. We show how a combination of a forward and backward error correction can provide a third‐order accurate scheme, thus significantly reducing diffusive effects while retaining a non‐dispersive leading error term. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient and accurate algebraic interface capturing method for unstructured grids in 2 and 3 dimensions: The THINC method with quadratic surface representation

We present in this paper an efficient and accurate volume of fluid (VOF) type scheme to compute moving interfaces on unstructured grids with arbitrary quadrilateral mesh elements in 2D and hexahedral elements in 3D. Being an extension of the multi‐dimensional tangent of hyperbola interface capturing (THINC) reconstruction proposed by the authors in Cartesian grid, an algebraic VOF scheme is devised for arbitrary quadrilateral and hexahedral elements. The interface is cell‐wisely approximated by a quadratic surface, which substantially improves the numerical accuracy. The same as the other THINC type schemes, the present method does not require the explicit geometric representation of the interface when computing numerical fluxes and thus is very computationally efficient and straightforward in implementation. The proposed scheme has been verified by benchmark tests, which reveal that this scheme is able to produce high‐quality numerical solutions of moving interfaces in unstructured grids and thus a practical method for interfacial multi‐phase flow simulations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fractional two‐step implicit algorithm using curvilinear collected grids

An efficient fractional two‐step implicit algorithm is reported to simulate incompressible fluid flows in a boundary‐fitted curvilinear collocated grid system. Using the finite volume method, the convection terms are discretized by the high‐accuracy Roe's scheme to minimize numerical diffusion. An implicitness coefficient Π is introduced to accelerate the rate of convergence. It is demonstrated that the proposed algorithm links the fractional step method to the pressure correction procedure, and the SIMPLEC method could be considered as a special case of the fractional two‐step implicit algorithm (when Π=1). The proposed algorithm is applicable to unsteady flows and steady flows. Three benchmark two‐dimensional laminar flows are tested to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Performance is measured by sensitivity analyses of the efficiency, accuracy, grid density, grid skewness and Reynolds number on the solutions. Results show that the model is efficient and robust. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite‐volume‐type VOF method on dynamically adaptive quadtree grids

This paper describes a finite‐volume volume‐of‐fluid (VOF) method for simulating viscous free surface flows on dynamically adaptive quadtree grids. The scheme is computationally efficient in that it provides relatively fine grid resolution at the gas–liquid interface and coarse grid density in regions where flow variable gradients are small. Special interpolations are used to ensure volume flux conservation where differently sized neighbour cells occur. The numerical model is validated for advection of dyed fluid in unidirectional and rotating flows, and for two‐dimensional viscous sloshing in a rectangular tank. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multi‐moment transport model on cubed‐sphere grid

A conservative, single‐cell‐based semi‐Lagrangian transport model is proposed in this paper. Using multi‐moment concept, an additional moment, i.e. volume‐integrated average (VIA), is treated as the model variable besides the point value (PV) updated in the traditional semi‐Lagrangian schemes. A quadratic interpolation function is constructed based on local degrees of freedom defined within each single cell. The PV moment is advanced by the semi‐Lagrangian formulation, whereas the VIA moment is updated by a finite volume formulation to rigorously ensure the numerical conservation. The numerical fluxes are computed from the PV moments defined along the boundary edges of the control volume. The scheme is extended to the spherical geometry through the application of the cubed‐sphere grid that eliminates the polar singularity in the conventional longitude/latitude coordinates by using the quasi‐uniform grid spacing covering the whole sphere. The single‐cell‐based scheme is well suited for the treatment of the connections between different patches. A simple quasi‐monotone limiter to the PV moment is applied to suppress non‐physical oscillations. The proposed scheme has been validated via representative benchmark tests and the performance is competitive to other existing transport schemes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neural networks for BEM analysis of steady viscous flows

This paper presents a new neural network‐boundary integral approach for analysis of steady viscous fluid flows. Indirect radial basis function networks (IRBFNs) which perform better than element‐based methods for function interpolation, are introduced into the BEM scheme to represent the variations of velocity and traction along the boundary from the nodal values. In order to assess the effect of IRBFNs, the other features used in the present work remain the same as those used in the standard BEM. For example, Picard‐type scheme is utilized in the iterative procedure to deal with the non‐linear convective terms while the calculation of volume integrals and velocity gradients are based on the linear finite element‐based method. The proposed IRBFN‐BEM is verified on the driven cavity viscous flow problem and can achieve a moderate Reynolds number of 1400 using a relatively coarse uniform mesh. The results obtained such as the velocity profiles along the horizontal and vertical centrelines as well as the properties of the primary vortex are in very good agreement with the benchmark solution. Furthermore, the secondary vortices are also captured by the present method. Thus, it appears that an ability to represent the boundary solution accurately can significantly improve the overall solution accuracy of the BEM. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel optimization technique for explicit finite‐difference schemes with application to AeroAcoustics

The present paper addresses the optimization of finite‐difference schemes when these are to be used for numerically approximating spatial derivatives in aeroacoustics evolution problems. With that view in mind, finite‐difference operators are firstly detailed from a theoretical point of view. Secondly, time, the way such operators can be optimized in a spectral‐like sense is recalled, before the main limitations of such an optimization are highlighted. This leads us to propose an alternative optimization approach of innovative character. Such a novel optimization technique consists of enhancing the scheme's formal accuracy through a minimization of its leading‐order truncation error. This so‐called intrinsic optimization procedure is first detailed, before it is thoroughly analyzed, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. The second part of the paper focuses on two particular intrinsically optimized schemes, which are carefully assessed via a direct comparison against their standard and/or spectral‐like optimized counterparts, such a comparative exercise being conducted utilizing several academic test cases of increasing complexity. There, it is shown how intrinsically optimized schemes indeed constitute an advantageous alternative to either the standard or the spectral‐like optimized ones, being allotted with both (i) the better scalability of the former scheme with respect to grid convergence effects when the grid density increases and (ii) the higher accuracy of the latter scheme when the discretization level becomes marginal. Thanks to that, such intrinsically optimized schemes offer very good trade‐offs in terms of (i) accuracy; (ii) robustness; and (iii) numerical efficiency (CPU cost). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A finite volume method for numerical grid generation

A novel method to generate body‐fitted grids based on the direct solution for three scalar functions is derived. The solution for scalar variables ξ, η and ζ is obtained with a conventional finite volume method based on a physical space formulation. The grid is adapted or re‐zoned to eliminate the residual error between the current solution and the desired solution, by means of an implicit grid‐correction procedure. The scalar variables are re‐mapped and the process is reiterated until convergence is obtained. Calculations are performed for a variety of problems by assuming combined Dirichlet–Neumann and pure Dirichlet boundary conditions involving the use of transcendental control functions, as well as functions designed to effect grid control automatically on the basis of boundary values. The use of dimensional analysis to build stable exponential functions and other control functions is demonstrated. Automatic procedures are implemented: one based on a finite difference approximation to the Cristoffel terms assuming local‐boundary orthogonality, and another designed to procure boundary orthogonality. The performance of the new scheme is shown to be comparable with that of conventional inverse methods when calculations are performed on benchmark problems through the application of point‐by‐point and whole‐field solution schemes. Advantages and disadvantages of the present method are critically appraised. Copyright © 1999 National Research Council of Canada.     

A bore-capturing finite volume method for open-channel flows

A high-resolution finite volume hydrodynamic solver is presented for open-channel flows based on the 2D shallow water equations. This Godunov-type upwind scheme uses an efficient Harten–Lax–van Leer (HLL) approximate Riemann solver capable of capturing bore waves and simulating supercritical flows. Second-order accuracy is achieved by means of MUSCL reconstruction in conjunction with a Hancock two-stage scheme for the time integration. By using a finite volume approach, the computational grid can be irregular which allows for easy boundary fitting. The method can be applied directly to model 1D flows in an open channel with a rectangular cross-section without the need to modify the scheme. Such a modification is normally required for solving the 1D St Venant equations to take account of the variation of channel width. The numerical scheme and results of three test problems are presented in this paper. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel non‐upwind,interconnected, multi‐grid,overlapping numerical procedure for problems involving fluid flow

A novel numerical procedure for heat, mass and momentum transfer in fluid flow is presented. The new scheme is passed on a non‐upwind, interconnected, multi‐grid, overlapping (NIMO) finite‐difference algorithm. In 2D flows, the NIMO algorithm solves finite‐difference equations for each dependent variable on four overlapping grids. The finite‐difference equations are formulated using the control‐volume approach, such that no interpolations are needed for computing the convective fluxes. For a particular dependent variable, four fields of values are produced. The NIMO numerical procedure is tested against the exact solution of two test problems. The first test problem is an oblique laminar 2D flow with a double step abrupt change in a passive scalar variable for infinite Peclet number. The second test problem is a rotating radial flow in an annular sector with a single step abrupt change in a passive scalar variable for infinite Peclet number. The NIMO scheme produced essentially the exact solution using different uniform and non‐uniform square and rectangular grids for 45 and 30° angle of inclination. All other schemes were unable to capture the exact solution, especially for the rectangular and non‐uniform grids. The NIMO scheme was also successful in predicting the exact solution for the rotating radial flow, using a uniform cylindrical‐polar coordinate grid. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Central finite volume methods for ideal and shallow water magnetohydrodynamics

We propose two‐dimensional central finite volume methods based on our multidimensional extensions of Nessyahu and Tadmor's one‐dimensional non‐oscillatory central scheme and a constrained transport‐type method to solve ideal magnetohydrodynamic problems (MHD) and shallow water magnetohydrodynamic problems (SMHD). The main numerical scheme is second‐order accurate both in space and time and uses an original Cartesian grid coupled to a Cartesian‐ or diamond‐staggered dual grid to by‐pass the resolution of the Riemann problems at the cell interfaces. To treat the non‐vanishing magnetic field/flux divergence we have constructed an adaptation of Evans and Hawley's constrained transport method specifically designed for central schemes. Our numerical results show the efficiency and the potential of the scheme. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A finite volume scheme preserving extremum principle for convection–diffusion equations on polygonal meshes

We propose a nonlinear finite volume scheme for convection–diffusion equation on polygonal meshes and prove that the discrete solution of the scheme satisfies the discrete extremum principle. The approximation of diffusive flux is based on an adaptive approach of choosing stencil in the construction of discrete normal flux, and the approximation of convection flux is based on the second‐order upwind method with proper slope limiter. Our scheme is locally conservative and has only cell‐centered unknowns. Numerical results show that our scheme can preserve discrete extremum principle and has almost second‐order accuracy. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A hybrid FVM–LBM method for single and multi‐fluid compressible flow problems

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has established itself as an alternative approach to solve the fluid flow equations. In this work we combine LBM with the conventional finite volume method (FVM), and propose a non‐iterative hybrid method for the simulation of compressible flows. LBM is used to calculate the inter‐cell face fluxes and FVM is used to calculate the node parameters. The hybrid method is benchmarked for several one‐dimensional and two‐dimensional test cases. The results obtained by the hybrid method show a steeper and more accurate shock profile as compared with the results obtained by the widely used Godunov scheme or by a representative flux vector splitting scheme. Additional features of the proposed scheme are that it can be implemented on a non‐uniform grid, study of multi‐fluid problems is possible, and it is easily extendable to multi‐dimensions. These features have been demonstrated in this work. The proposed method is therefore robust and can possibly be applied to a variety of compressible flow situations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.