A local adaptive grid procedure for incompressible flows with multigridding and equidistribution concepts

An adaptive grid solution procedure is developed for incompressible flow problems in which grid refinement based on an equidistribution law is performed in high-error-estimate regions that are flagged from a preliminary coarse grid solution. Solutions on the locally refined and equidistributed meshes are obtained using boundary conditions interpolated from the preliminary coarse grid solution, and solutions on both the refined and coarse grid regions are successively improved using a multigrid approach. For this purpose, suitable correction terms for the coarse grid equations are derived for all variables in the flagged regions. This procedure with Local Adaptation, Multigridding and Equidistribution (LAME) concepts is applied to various flow problems to demonstrate the accuracy improvements obtained using this method.     

A modified adaptive grid method for recirculating flows

In this study a method of equidistribution of a weight function for grid adaption is modified to produce a smoother grid which yields a more accurate solution. In the original scheme the weight function was estimated on each grid independently and a large variation in the values of the, weight function could generate a highly skewed and non-uniform grid which produced large errors. In this study the weight function is smoothed by coupling neighbouring weight functions. Abrupt changes in the weight function are alleviated and a smoother grid distribution is obtained. With relatively minor modifications of the original weight function it is demonstrated in this study that the solution can be improved. The test cases presented are the one-dimensional convection-diffusion equation, a laminar polar cavity flow, a laminar backwardfacing step flow and a turbulent reacting sudden expansion pipe flow. Numerical efficiencies ranging from factors of five to 10 are achieved over uniform grid methods.     

A one-dimensional moving grid solution for the coupled non-linear equations governing multiphase flow in porous media. 1: Model development

A straightforward moving grid finite element method is developed to solve the one-dimensional coupled system of non-linear partial differential equations (PDEs) governing two- and three-phase flow in porous media. The method combines features from a number of self-adaptive grid techniques. These techniques are the equidistribution, the moving grid finite element and the local grid refinement/coarsening methods. Two equidistribution criteria, based on solution gradient and curvature, are employed and nodal distributions are computed iterativcly. Using the developed approach, an intermingle-free nodal distribution is guaranteed. The method involves examination of a single representative gradient to facilitate the application of moving grid algorithms to solve a non-linear coupled set of PDEs and includes a feature to limit mass balance error during nodal redistribution. The finite element part of the developed algorithm is verified against an existing finite difference model. A numerical simulation example involving a single-front two-phase flow problem is presented to illustrate model performance. Additional simulation examples are given in Part 2 of this paper. These examples include single and double moving fronts in two- and three-phase flow systems incorporating source/sink terms. Simulation sensitivity to the moving grid parameters is also explored in Part 2.     

Adaptive grid computation of three-dimensional natural convection in horizontal high-pressure mercury lamps

A three-dimensional model has been developed to compute the thermofluid transport within a discharge arctube. The model has proved very useful for guiding the choice of design parameters to optimize the lamp performance. However, uncertainties exist with respect to quantitative aspects of the physical model, especially those related to radiation heat transfer. In the present work a grid refinement procedure and an adaptive grid method are used to improve the quantitative accuracy of the model and to help improve the physical modelling. The adaptive grid method, based on the multiple one-dimensional equidistribution concept, can responsively redistribute the grids to optimize the grid resolutions. Adaptive grid solutions modify the predicted maximum gas temperature, the buoyancy-induced convection strength, the location of the high-temperature core, and the wall temperature profiles. The adaptive grid solutions show more consistent trends when compared to the measurements. On the basis of the quantitatively more definite information, adjustments can be made with regard to the uncertainties of the physical model.     

Efficient computation of unsteady vortical flow using flow-adaptive time-dependent grids

The objective of this study is to efficiently simulate vortex-dominated highly unsteady flows. In such flows, the locations as well as the extent of the regions requiring fine-mesh resolution vary with time. A technique has been developed to simulate these flows on a temporally adapting grid in which the adaption is based on the evolving flow solution. The flow in an axisymmetric constriction has been selected as an illustrative problem. The multiple and disparate length scales inherent in this complex flow make this problem ideally suited for evaluating the adaptive-grid technique. Adaption is based on the equidistribution of a weight function, through the use of forcing functions. The significance of this is that the method can be implemented into existing flow-analysis systems with minimal changes. The grid-generation equations developed are viewed as grid-transport equations. The time-dependent control functions perform the role of the convective speed in this transport mechanism. The equations provide the efficiency and flow tracking capability of parabolic equations, while maintaining the smoothness of computationally expensive elliptic equations. The efficiency and flow tracking capability of the approach is demonstrated for both steady and unsteady flows.     

The development of a structured mesh grid adaption technique for resolving shock discontinuities in upwind Navier-Stokes codes

A technique is described for the adaptation of a structured control volume mesh during the iterative solution process of the Navier-Stokes equations. The scalar equidistribution method is adopted, in conjunction with a Laplace-like grid solver to make a curvilinear body-fitted grid sensitive to local flow gradients. Hence, whilst the total number of grid nodes remains constant during a computation, their relative position is continuously adjusted to promote clustering of cells in regions where gradients are high. The focus of this work is in compressible aerodynamics, where such clustering would be desirable in regions containing shocks but also in boundary layers. The technique is three-dimensional and operates in a series of user-defined grid subdomains or patches. These patches act as reference frames within which grid activity takes place. Bi-cubic splines are extensively used to define the aerodynamic surfaces forming the calculation boundaries and to ensure that grid movement does not compromise surface integrity. The technique is applied to aerofoils, wing surfaces, transonic ducts and nozzles and a supersonic wedge cascade. Significant sharpening of both normal and oblique shock discontinuities is demonstrated over static grid simulations and with fewer overall grid nodes. The technique is successful in both inviscid and viscous (turbulent) simulations.     

Finite element methods for one-dimensional combustion problems

Three adaptive finite element methods based on equidistribution, elliptic grid generation and hybrid techniques are used to study a system of reaction–diffusion equations. It is shown that these techniques must employ sub-equidistributing meshes in order to avoid ill-conditioned matrices and ensure the convergence of the Newton method. It is also shown that elliptic grid generation methods require much longer computer times than hybrid and static rezoning procedures. The paper also includes characteristic, Petrov–Galerkin and flux-corrected transport algorithms which are used to study a linear convection–reaction–diffusion equation that has an analytical solution. The flux-corrected transport technique yields monotonic solutions in good agreement with the analytical solution, whereas the Petrov–Galerkin method with quadratic upstream-weighted functions results in very diffused temperature profiles. The characteristic finite element method which uses a Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation overpredicts the flame front location and exhibits overshoots and undershoots near the temperature discontinuity. These overshoots and undershoots are due to the interpolation of the results of the Lagrangian operator onto the fixed Eulerian grid used to solve the reaction–diffusion operator, and indicate that characteristic finite element methods are not able to eliminate numerical diffusion entirely.     

A moving grid method applied to one-dimensional non-stationary flame propagation

The paper presents applications of a moving grid method to the combined problem of ignition and premixed flame propagation in a closed vessel. This method belongs to the general class of adaptive grid techniques for the numerical integration of evolutionary partial differential equations and is based on the method of lines with variable node position. In the present case the motion of the grid and the solution of the partial differential equations are strongly coupled by an implicit formulation. The problem is reduced to an initial value problem for a stiff differential-algebraic system. The continuously moving grid is determined by the equidistribution of a positive function which depends on the solution of the partial differential equations. A differential-algebraic system solver is used for the time integration of the initial value problem. The numerical results of the test problems demonstrate the computational efficiency and the capability of the method to resolve the main features of the solution.     

Boundary conformed co-ordinate systems for selected two-dimensional fluid flow problems. Part I: Generation of BFGs

In this paper the generation of general curvilinear co-ordinate systems for use in selected two-dimensional fluid flow problems is presented. The curvilinear co-ordinate systems are obtained from the numerical solution of a system of Poisson equations. The computational grids obtained by this technique allow for curved grid lines such that the boundary of the solution domain coincides with a grid line. Hence, these meshes are called boundary fitted grids (BFG). The physical solution area is mapped onto a set of connected rectangles in the transformed (computational) plane which form a composite mesh. All numerical calculations are performed in the transformed plane. Since the computational domain is a rectangle and a uniform grid with mesh spacings Δξ = Δη = 1 (in two-dimensions) is used, the computer programming is substantially facilitated. By means of control functions, which form the r.h.s. of the Poisson equations, the clustering of grid lines or grid points is governed. This allows a very fine resolution at certain specified locations and includes adaptive grid generation. The first two sections outline the general features of BFGs, and in section 3 the general transformation rules along with the necessary concepts of differential geometry are given. In section 4 the transformed grid generation equations are derived and control functions are specified. Expressions for grid adaptation arc also presented. Section 5 briefly discusses the numerical solution of the transformed grid generation equations using sucessive overrelaxation and shows a sample calculation where the FAS (full approximation scheme) multigrid technique was employed. In the companion paper (Part II), the application of the BFG method to selected fluid flow problems is addressed.     

Enhancing control of grid distribution in algebraic grid generation

Three techniques are presented to enhance the control of grid-point distribution for a class of algebraic grid generation methods known as the two-, four- and six-boundary methods. First, multidimensional stretching functions are presented, and a technique is devised to construct them based on the desired distribution of grid points along certain boundaries. Second, a normalization procedure is proposed which allows more effective control over orthogonality of grid lines at boundaries and curvature of grid lines near boundaries. And third, interpolating functions based on tension splines are introduced to control curvature of grid lines in the interior of the spatial domain. In addition to these three techniques, consistency conditions are derived which must be satisfied by all user-specified data employed in the grid generation process to control grid-point distribution. The usefulness of the techniques developed in this study was demonstrated by using them in conjunction with the two- and four-boundary methods to generate several grid systems, including a three-dimensional grid system in the coolant passage of a radial turbine blade with serpentine channels and pin fins.     

Dynamical properties and chaos synchronization of a new chaotic complex nonlinear system

In this paper, we introduce a new chaotic complex nonlinear system and study its dynamical properties including invariance, dissipativity, equilibria and their stability, Lyapunov exponents, chaotic behavior, chaotic attractors, as well as necessary conditions for this system to generate chaos. Our system displays 2 and 4-scroll chaotic attractors for certain values of its parameters. Chaos synchronization of these attractors is studied via active control and explicit expressions are derived for the control functions which are used to achieve chaos synchronization. These expressions are tested numerically and excellent agreement is found. A Lyapunov function is derived to prove that the error system is asymptotically stable.     

Using a Moving Mesh PDE for Cell Centres to Adapt a Finite Volume Grid

The paper is concerned with a grid adaptation approach based on a moving mesh partial differential equation. A method is proposed for discretizing this equation with a cell-centred finite volume method so that solution-dependent relocation of a fixed number of grid points without changing their topology becomes available as an attractive add-on for many finite volume solvers. Several interpolation strategies to determine appropriate cell corners from moved cell centre points are discussed and compared to each other. For a turbulent hill flow, numerical results are presented for two-dimensional adaptation based on an equidistribution of the gradient of the streamwise velocity and the production of turbulent kinetic energy.     

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.     

Numerical method for calculation of the incompressible flow in general curvilinear co‐ordinates with double staggered grid

A solution methodology has been developed for incompressible flow in general curvilinear co‐ordinates. Two staggered grids are used to discretize the physical domain. The first grid is a MAC quadrilateral mesh with pressure arranged at the centre and the Cartesian velocity components located at the middle of the sides of the mesh. The second grid is so displaced that its corners correspond to the centre of the first grid. In the second grid the pressure is placed at the corner of the first grid. The discretized mass and momentum conservation equations are derived on a control volume. The two pressure grid functions are coupled explicitly through the boundary conditions and implicitly through the velocity of the field. The introduction of these two grid functions avoids an averaging of pressure and velocity components when calculating terms that are generated in general curvilinear co‐ordinates. The SIMPLE calculation procedure is extended to the present curvilinear co‐ordinates with double grids. Application of the methodology is illustrated by calculation of well‐known external and internal problems: viscous flow over a circular cylinder, with Reynolds numbers ranging from 10 to 40, and lid‐driven flow in a cavity with inclined walls are examined. The numerical results are in close agreement with experimental results and other numerical data. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

求解弹性力学问题的有理单元法

传统的位移有限元法采用多项式形式的位移试函数,对于边数大于4的多边形单元,构造满足单元间协调性要求的多项式形式位移插值函数是一件困难的工作。本文利用逆距离权插值的思想并考虑到单元节点的分布,建立了边数大于4多边形单元上的有理函数形式的形函数。利用有理试函数,采用Galerkin法推导出求解平面弹性力学问题的有理单元法。采用有理单元法求解弹性力学问题,求解区域根据需要可以划分为任意多边形单元,极大地提高了网格划分的灵活性。有理单元法不依赖等参变换,不同单元的形函数表达形式统一,方便计算程序的编写。     

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.     

Asymptotic homogenization modeling of smart composite generally orthotropic grid-reinforced shells: Part II– Applications

A comprehensive micromechanical model for the analysis of thin smart composite grid-reinforced shells with an embedded periodic grid of generally orthotropic cylindrical reinforcements that may also exhibit piezoelectric properties is developed and applied to examples of practical importance. Details on derivation of a general homogenized smart shell model are provided in Part I of this work. The present paper solves the obtained unit cell problems and develops expressions for the effective elastic, piezoelectric and thermal expansion coefficients for the grid reinforced smart composite shell. Thus obtained effective coefficients are universal in nature and can be used to study a wide variety of boundary value problems. The applicability of the model is illustrated by means of several examples including cylindrical reinforced smart composite shells, and multi-layer smart shells. The derived expressions allow tailoring the effective properties of a smart grid-reinforced shell to meet the requirements of a particular application by changing certain geometric or physical parameters.     

Lag synchronization of hyperchaotic complex nonlinear systems

In this paper, we study the lag synchronization (LS) of n-dimensional hyperchaotic complex nonlinear systems. The idea of the nonlinear control technique based on the complex Lyapunov function with lag in time is used to propose a scheme to investigate LS of hyperchaotic attractors of these systems. Both complex Lyapunov and control functions are introduced. For illustration, the scheme is applied to two hyperchaotic complex Lorenz systems. The real and complex control functions are derived analytically to achieve LS and to show that the complex error dynamical systems are globally stable. Numerical results are calculated to test the validity of the analytical expressions of control functions to achieve LS of two identical hyperchaotic attractors.     

Design of an Optimal Grid for Finite Element Methods

ABSTRACT Finite element solutions of improved quality are obtained by optimizing the location of nodes of the finite element grid, while keeping the number of degrees of freedom fixed. The formulation of the grid optimization problem is based on the reduction of error associated with interpolation of the exact solution, using functions from the finite element space. Element sizes are selected as design variables: length in R1 and area in R2. Analytically derived optimality conditions are presented and an approximation to these conditions is introduced to obtain a set of operationally useful equations that can be used as guidelines for construction of improved grids. Example problems are given for illustration.     

Electro-elastic green's functions for a piezoelectric half-space and their application

I.IntroductionItiswell'knownthatoneofthemostpowerfultoolsinlinearfieldtheoriesistheGreen'sfunction.Fore1asticity,considerableresearchcanbefoundintheliterature.However,theGreen'sfunctionforpiezoe1ectricityisratherlimitedduetotheanisotropyandelectromechanic…