A Fast,Matrix-free Implicit Method for Computing Low Mach Number Flows on Unstructured Grids

A fast, matrix-free implicit method has been developed to solve low Mach number flow problems on unstructured grids. The preconditioned compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes equations are integrated in time using a linearized implicit scheme. A newly developed fast, matrix-free implicit method, GMRES + LU?SGS, is then applied to solve the resultant system of linear equations. A variety of computations has been made for a wide range of flow conditions, for both in viscid and viscous flows, in both 2D and 3D to validate the developed method and to evaluate the effectiveness of the GMRES + LU?SGS method. The numerical results obtained indicate that the use of the GMRES + LU?SGS method leads to a significant increase in performance over the LU?SGS method, while maintaining memory requirements similar to its explicit counterpart. An overall speedup factor from one to more than two order of magnitude for all test cases in comparison with the explicit method is demonstrated.     

基于全隐式无分裂算法求解三维N-S方程

基于多块结构网格,本文研究和发展了三维N-S方程的全隐式无分裂算法.对流项的离散运用Roe格式,粘性项的离散利用中心型格式.在每一次隐式时间迭代中,运用GMRES方法直接求解隐式离散引起的大型稀疏线性方组.为了降低内存需求以及矩阵与向量之间的运算操作数,Jacobian矩阵的一种逼近方法被应用在本文的算法之中.计算结果与实验结果基本吻合,表明本文的全隐式无分裂方法是有效和可行的.     

On the Computation of Compressible Turbulent Flows on Unstructured Grids

An accurate, fast, matrix-free implicit method has been developed to solve compressible turbulent How problems using the Spalart and Allmaras one equation turbulence model on unstructured meshes. The mean-flow and turbulence-model equations are decoupled in the time integration in order to facilitate the incorporation of different turbulence models and reduce memory requirements. Both mean flow and turbulent equations are integrated in time using a linearized implicit scheme. A recently developed, fast, matrix-free implicit method, GMRES+LU-SGS, is then applied to solve the resultant system of linear equations. The spatial discretization is carried out using a hybrid finite volume and finite element method, where the finite volume approximation based on a containment dual control volume rather than the more popular median-dual control volume is used to discretize the inviscid fluxes, and the finite element approximation is used to evaluate the viscous flux terms. The developed method is used to compute a variety of turbulent flow problems in both 2D and 3D. The results obtained are in good agreement with theoretical and experimental data and indicate that the present method provides an accurate, fast, and robust algorithm for computing compressible turbulent flows on unstructured meshes.     

Hybrid finite element/volume method for 3D incompressible flows with heat transfer

An implicit hybrid finite element (FE)/volume solver has been extended to incompressible flows coupled with the energy equation. The solver is based on the segregated pressure correction or projection method on staggered unstructured hybrid meshes. An intermediate velocity field is first obtained by solving the momentum equations with the matrix-free implicit cell-centred finite volume (FV) method. The pressure Poisson equation is solved by the node-based Galerkin FE method for an auxiliary variable. The auxiliary variable is used to update the velocity field and the pressure field. The pressure field is carefully updated by taking into account the velocity divergence field. Our current staggered-mesh scheme is distinct from other conventional ones in that we store the velocity components at cell centres and the auxiliary variable at vertices. The Generalized Minimal Residual (GMRES) matrix-free strategy is adapted to solve the governing equations in both FE and FV methods. The presented 2D and 3D numerical examples show the robustness and accuracy of the numerical method.     

An implicit pseudo‐spectral multi‐domain method for the simulation of incompressible flows

A pseudo‐spectral method for the solution of incompressible flow problems based on an iterative solver involving an implicit treatment of linearized convective terms is presented. The method allows the treatment of moderately complex geometries by means of a multi‐domain approach and it is able to cope with non‐constant fluid properties and non‐orthogonal problem domains. In addition, the fully implicit scheme yields improved stability properties as opposed to semi‐implicit schemes commonly employed. Key components of the method are a Chebyshev collocation discretization, a special pressure–correction scheme, and a restarted GMRES method with a preconditioner derived from a fast direct solver. The performance of the proposed method is investigated by considering several numerical examples of different complexity, and also includes comparisons to alternative solution approaches based on finite‐volume discretizations. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implicit solution of time spectral method for periodic unsteady flows

The present paper investigates the implicit solution of time spectral model for periodic unsteady flows. In the time spectral model, the physical time derivative is approximated using spectral method. The robustness issues associated with implicit solution of time spectral model are analyzed and validated by numerical results. It is found that spectral approximation of the time derivative weakens the diagonal dominance property of the Jacobian matrix, resulting in the deterioration of stability and convergence speed. In this paper we propose to solve the coupled governing equations implicitly using multigrid preconditioned generalized minimal residual (GMRES) method, which demonstrates favorable convergence speed. Also it is demonstrated that the current method is insensitive to the variations of frequency and number of harmonics. Comparison of computation results with dual time step unsteady computation validates the high efficiency of the current method. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of three solvers for viscoelastic fluid flow problems

The computational efficiency of three numerical schemes has been examined for the solution of a linearized system of equations resulting from the finite element discretization of a viscoelastic fluid flow problem. The first scheme is a modified frontal solver, which solves the linear system of equations directly. The other two, one based on a biconjugate gradient stabilized (BiCGStab) method and another based on a generalized minimal residual (GMRES) method, are iterative schemes. The stick-slip problem and the four-to-one contraction problem were analyzed and the viscoelastic fluid was assumed to obey the Oldroyd-B model. The two iterative schemes are superior to the direct scheme in terms of CPU time consumed and the BiCGStab scheme is even faster than the GMRES scheme. The range of convergence for both iterative schemes is compatible with that of the direct scheme.     

A Hybrid Domain Decomposition and Multigrid Method for the Acceleration of Compressible Viscous Flow Calculations on Unstructured Triangular Meshes

This paper is concerned with the formulation and the evaluation of a hybrid solution method that makes use of domain decomposition and multigrid principles for the calculation of two-dimensional compressible viscous flows on unstructured triangular meshes. More precisely, a non-overlapping additive domain decomposition method is used to coordinate concurrent subdomain solutions with a multigrid method. This hybrid method is developed in the context of a flow solver for the Navier-Stokes equations which is based on a combined finite element/finite volume formulation on unstructured triangular meshes. Time integration of the resulting semi-discrete equations is performed using a linearized backward Euler implicit scheme. As a result, each pseudo time step requires the solution of a sparse linear system. In this study, a non-overlapping domain decomposition algorithm is used for advancing the solution at each implicit time step. Algebraically, the Schwarz algorithm is equivalent to a Jacobi iteration on a linear system whose matrix has a block structure. A substructuring technique can be applied to this matrix in order to obtain a fully implicit scheme in terms of interface unknowns. In the present approach, the interface unknowns are numerical fluxes. The interface system is solved by means of a full GMRES method. Here, the local system solves that are induced by matrix-vector products with the interface operator, are performed using a multigrid by volume agglomeration method. The resulting hybrid domain decomposition and multigrid solver is applied to the computation of several steady flows around a geometry of NACA0012 airfoil.     

Spectral p‐multigrid discontinuous Galerkin solution of the Navier–Stokes equations

Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods are very well suited for the construction of very high‐order approximations of the Euler and Navier–Stokes equations on unstructured and possibly nonconforming grids, but are rather demanding in terms of computational resources. In order to improve the computational efficiency of this class of methods, a high‐order spectral element DG approximation of the Navier–Stokes equations coupled with a p‐multigrid solution strategy based on a semi‐implicit Runge–Kutta smoother is considered here. The effectiveness of the proposed approach in the solution of compressible shockless flow problems is demonstrated on 2D inviscid and viscous test cases by comparison with both a p‐multigrid scheme with non‐spectral elements and a spectral element DG approach with an implicit time integration scheme. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A hybrid time stepping scheme combining explicit Runge–Kutta with implicit LU‐SGS for Navier–Stokes equations

A hybrid time stepping scheme is developed and implemented by a combination of explicit Runge–Kutta with implicit LU‐SGS scheme at the level of system matrix. In this method, the explicit scheme is applied to those grid cells of blocks that have large local time steps; meanwhile, the implicit scheme is applied to other grid cells of blocks that have smaller allowable local time steps in the same flow field. As a result, the discretized governing equations can be expressed as a compound of explicit and implicit matrix operator. The proposed method has been used to compute the steady transonic turbulent flow over the RAE 2822 airfoil. The numerical results are found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental data. In the validation case, the present scheme saved at least 50% of the memory resources compared with the fully implicit LU‐SGS. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A matrix‐free preconditioned Newton/GMRES method for unsteady Navier–Stokes solutions

The unsteady compressible Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations are discretized using the Osher approximate Riemann solver with fully implicit time stepping. The resulting non‐linear system at each time step is solved iteratively using a Newton/GMRES method. In the solution process, the Jacobian matrix–vector products are replaced by directional derivatives so that the evaluation and storage of the Jacobian matrix is removed from the procedure. An effective matrix‐free preconditioner is proposed to fully avoid matrix storage. Convergence rates, computational costs and computer memory requirements of the present method are compared with those of a matrix Newton/GMRES method, a four stage Runge–Kutta explicit method, and an approximate factorization sub‐iteration method. Effects of convergence tolerances for the GMRES linear solver on the convergence and the efficiency of the Newton iteration for the non‐linear system at each time step are analysed for both matrix‐free and matrix methods. Differences in the performance of the matrix‐free method for laminar and turbulent flows are highlighted and analysed. Unsteady turbulent Navier–Stokes solutions of pitching and combined translation–pitching aerofoil oscillations are presented for unsteady shock‐induced separation problems associated with the rotor blade flows of forward flying helicopters. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solution of the discretized incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with the GMRES method

We describe some experiences using interative solution methods of GMRES type to solve the discretized Navier-Stokes equations. The discretization combined with a pressure correction scheme leads to two different systems of equations: the momentum equations and the pressure equation. It appears that a fast solution method for the pressure equation is obtained by applying the recently proposed GMRESR method, or GMRES combined with a MILU preconditioner. The diagonally scaled momentum equations are solved by GMRES(m), a restarted version of GMRES.     

Reduced augmented Lagrangian bi-conjugate gradient method for impact-contact problems

To avoid the numerical oscillation of the penalty method and non-compatibility with explicit operators of conventional Lagrange multiplier methods used in transient contact problems to enforce surface contact conditions, a new approach to enforcing surface contact constraints for the transient nonlinear finite element problems, referred to as “the reduced augmented Lagrangian bi-conjugate gradient method (ALCG)”, is developed in this paper. Based on the nonlinear constrained optimization theory and is compatible with the explicit time integration scheme, this approach can also be used in implicit scheme naturally. The new surface contact constraint method presented has significant advantages over the widely adopted penalty function methods and the conventional Lagrangian multiplier methods. The surface contact constraints are satisfied more accurately for each step by the algorithm, so the oscillation of numerical solution for the explicit scheme is depressed. Through the development of new iteration strategy for solving nonlinear equations, ALCG method improves the computational efficiency greatly. Project supported by State Education Commission Doctoral Foundation and Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province.     

EFFECTS OF IMPLICIT PRECONDITIONERS ON SOLUTION ACCELERATION SCHEMES IN CFD

Several solution acceleration techniques, used to obtain steady state CFD solutions as quickly as possible, are applied to an implicit, upwind Euler solver to evaluate their effectiveness. The implicit system is solved using either ADI or ILU and the solution acceleration techniques evaluated are quasi-Newton iteration, Jacobian freezing, multigrid and GMRES. ILU is a better preconditioner than ADI because it can use larger time steps. Adding GMRES does not always improve the convergence. However, GMRES preconditioned with ILU and multigrid can take advantage of Jacobian freezing to produce an efficient scheme that is relatively independent of grid size and grid quality.     

Compressible viscous flow calculations using compatible finite element approximations

We discuss in this paper the numerical simulation of compressible viscous flows by a combination of finite element methods for the space approximation, an implicit second-order multistep scheme for the time discretization and GMRES iterative methods for solving the non-linear problems encountered at each time step. Numerical results corresponding to flows around aerofoils and aerospace vehicles illustrate the possibilities of these methods.     

An implicit mixed finite-volume–finite-element method for solving 3D turbulent compressible flows

The development of new aeronautic projects require accurate and efficient simulations of compressible flows in complex geometries. It is well known that most flows of interest are at least locally turbulent and that the modelling of this turbulence is critical for the reliability of the computations. A turbulence closure model which is both cheap and reasonably accurate is an essential part of a compressible code. An implicit algorithm to solve the 2D and 3D compressible Navier–Stokes equations on unstructured triangular/tetrahedral grids has been extended to turbulent flows. This numerical scheme is based on second-order finite element–finite volume discretization: the diffusive and source terms of the Navier–Stokes equations are computed using a finite element method, while the other terms are computed with a finite volume method. Finite volume cells are built around each node by means of the medians. The convective fluxes are evaluated with the approximate Riemann solver of Roe coupled with the van Albada limiter. The standard k–ϵ model has been introduced to take into account turbulence. Implicit integration schemes with efficient numerical methods (CGS, GMRES and various preconditioning techniques) have also been implemented. Our interest is to present the whole method and to demonstrate its limitations on some well-known test cases in three-dimensional geometries. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A nonlinear finite element model for the stress analysis of soft solids with a growing mass

The paper presents a new finite element (FE) model for the stress analysis of soft solids with a growing mass based on the work of Lubarda and Hoger (2002). Contrary to the traditional numerical methods emphasizing on the influence of growth on constitutive equations, an equivalent body force is firstly detected, which is resulted from the linearization of the nonlinear equation and acts as the driver for material growth in the numerical aspect. In the algorithm, only minor correction on the traditional tangent modulus is needed to take the growth effects into consideration and its objectivity could be guaranteed comparing with the traditional method. To solve the resulted equation in time domain, both explicit and implicit integration algorithms are developed, where the growth tensor is updated as an internal variable of Gauss point. The explicit updating scheme shows higher efficiency, while the implicit one seems to be more robust and accurate. The algorithm validation and its good performance are demonstrated by several two-dimensional examples, including free growth, constrained growth and stress dependent growth.     

A finite element method to solve the Navier-Stokes equations using the method of characteristics

We present a simple and efficient finite element method to solve the Navier-Stokes equations in primitive variables V, p. It uses (a) an explicit advection step, by upwind differencing. Improvement with regard to the classical upwind differencing scheme of the first order is realized by accurate calculation of the characteristic curve across several elements, and higher order interpolation; (b) an implicit diffusion step, avoiding any theoretical limitation on the time increment, and (c) determination of the pressure field by solving the Poisson equation. Two laminar flow calculations are presented and compared to available numerical and experimental results.     

Three-dimensional unsteady flow simulations: Alternative strategies for a volume-averaged calculation

This work builds on a SIMPLE-type code to produce two numerical codes of greatly improved speed and accuracy for solution of the Navier–Stokes equations. Both implicit and explicit codes employ an improved QUICK (quadratic upstream interpolation for convective kinematics) scheme to finite difference convective terms for non-uniform grids. The PRIME (update pressure implicit, momentum explicit) algorithm is used as the computational procedure for the implicit code. Use of both the ICCG (incomplete Cholesky decomposition, conjugate gradient) method and the MG (multigrid) technique to enhance solution execution speed is illustrated. While the implicit code is first-order in time, the explicit is second-order accurate. Two- and three-dimensional forced convection and sidewall-heated natural convection flows in a cavity are chosen as test cases. Predictions with the new schemes show substantial computational savings and very good agreement when compared to previous simulations and experimental data.     

NEWTON–GMRES ALGORITHM APPLIED TO COMPRESSIBLE FLOWS

This paper addresses the resolution of non-linear problems arising from an implicit time discretization in CFD problems. We study the convergence of the Newton–GMRES algorithm with a Jacobian approximated by a finite difference scheme and with restarting in GMRES. In our numerical experiments we observe, as predicted by the theory, the impact of the matrix-free approximations. A second-order scheme clearly improves the convergence in the Newton process.