Cell face velocity alternatives in a structured colocated grid for the unsteady Navier–Stokes equations

The use of a colocated variable arrangement for the numerical solution of fluid flow is becoming more and more popular due to its coding simplicity. The inherent decoupling of the pressure and velocity fields in this arrangement can be handled via a special interpolation procedure for the calculation of the cell face velocity named pressure‐weighted interpolation method (PWIM) (AIAA J. 1983; 21 (11):1525–1532). In this paper a discussion on the alternatives to extend PWIM to unsteady flows is presented along with a very simple criterion to ascertain if a given interpolation practice will produce steady results that are relaxation dependent or time step dependent. Following this criterion it will be shown that some prior schemes presented as time step independent are actually not, although by using special interpolations can be readily adapted to be. A systematic way of deriving different cell face velocity expressions will be presented and new formulae free of Δt dependence will be derived. Several computational exercises will accompany the theoretical discussion to support our claims. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of adjoint‐based and feature‐based grid adaptation for functional outputs

Adjoint‐based and feature‐based grid adaptive strategies are compared for their robustness and effectiveness in improving the accuracy of functional outputs such as lift and drag coefficients. The output‐based adjoint approach strives to improve the adjoint error estimates that relate the local residual errors to the global error in an output function via adjoint variables as weight functions. A conservative adaptive indicator that takes into account the residual errors in both the primal (flow) and dual (adjoint) solutions is implemented for the adjoint approach. The physics‐based feature approach strives to identify and resolve significant features of the flow to improve functional accuracy. Adaptive indicators that represent expansions and compressions in the flow direction and gradients normal to the flow direction are implemented for the feature approach. The adaptive approaches are compared for functional outputs of three‐dimensional arbitrary Mach number flow simulations on mixed‐element unstructured meshes. Grid adaptation is performed with h‐refinement and results are presented for inviscid, laminar and turbulent flows. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种有效的网格自适应方法

针对网格自适应方法中的移动网格变形法进行了研究,该方法通过采用最小二乘有限元法求解div-curl方程组,使雅可比行列式值等于给定的监测函数值,以改变网格节点的位置,从而获得期望的网格边界及大小分布。文末给出的4个二维和三维问题的算例表明,本文方法是非常有效的。     

非正交同位网格下压力与速度耦合算法

发展了一种在非正交同位网格下以笛卡儿速度分量作为动量方程的独立变量、压力与速度耦合的S IM-PLER算法。该算法的特点是显式处理界面速度中的压力交叉导数项,得出压力与压力修正方程,使得压力及压力修正值与界面逆变速度直接耦合。通过对分汊通道内的流动问题进行验证计算,结果表明该算法可以有效而准确地模拟复杂区域内的流动与换热问题。     

基于Voronoi cells的二维不规则自适应网格的生成及其应用

基于Voronoi cells的数据结构和算法，给出了一种二维不规则自适应网格的生成方法，用VisualC＋＋语言在微机上开发了Windows环境下网格自动生成的可视化软件。既可以得到Voronoi cells网格，也可得到相应的Delaunay triangles网格，网格生成的实例表明，本文方法所得到的网格非常适合于多尺度系统的流动问题的计算，具有较好的应用前景。     

A parallel unstructured dynamic mesh adaptation algorithm for 3‐D unsteady flows

An unstructured dynamic mesh adaptation and load balancing algorithm has been developed for the efficient simulation of three‐dimensional unsteady inviscid flows on parallel machines. The numerical scheme was based on a cell‐centred finite‐volume method and the Roe's flux‐difference splitting. Second‐order accuracy was achieved in time by using an implicit Jacobi/Gauss–Seidel iteration. The resolution of time‐dependent solutions was enhanced by adopting an h‐refinement/coarsening algorithm. Parallelization and load balancing were concurrently achieved on the adaptive dynamic meshes for computational speed‐up and efficient memory redistribution. A new tree data structure for boundary faces was developed for the continuous transfer of the communication data across the parallel subdomain boundary. The parallel efficiency was validated by applying the present method to an unsteady shock‐tube problem. The flows around oscillating NACA0012 wing and F‐5 wing were also calculated for the numerical verification of the present dynamic mesh adaptation and load balancing algorithm. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effusing core at the center of A potential vortex

Experiments were carried out to measure the base pressure distribution of a flow field induced by a potential vortex with its axis normal to a stationary disk. The center base pressure coefficient of the vortex, C₀(0), was found to be proportional to Reynolds number from Re = 2.0 × 10³ to Re > 2.5 × 10⁴, where Re is based on the disk radius and azimuthal velocity at the disk edge. This behavior of C₀(0) is at variance with the experimental results of Phillips (Phys. Fluids, 27, 2215, 1984) and Khoo (M. Eng. Thesis, Natl. Univ. Singapore, 1984), which showed vastly different trends depending on Re. Plausible reasons are suggested for the apparent discrepancies observed. Finally, the extent of the effusing core at the center, r₁ (taken to be the radial position where departure from the outer potential flow took place), was found to be proportional to Re^−1/2 for all Re values considered.     

Three‐dimensional vortex simulation of unsteady flow in hydraulic turbines

On the basis of the Helmholtz decomposition, a grid‐free numerical scheme is provided for the solution of unsteady flow in hydraulic turbines. The Lagrangian vortex method is utilized to evaluate the convection and stretch of the vorticity, and the BEM is used to solve the Neumann problem to define the potential flow. The no‐slip boundary condition is satisfied by generating vortex sticks at the solid surface. A semi‐analytical regularization technique is applied to evaluate the singular boundary surface integrals of the potential velocity and its gradients accurately. The fast multipole method was extended to evaluate the velocity and velocity gradients induced by the discretized vortex blobs in the Lagrangian vortex method. The successful simulation for the unsteady flow through a hydraulic turbine's runner has manifested the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fast nested multi‐grid viscous flow solver for adaptive Cartesian/Quad grids

A nested multi‐grid solution algorithm has been developed for an adaptive Cartesian/Quad grid viscous flow solver. Body‐fitted adaptive Quad (quadrilateral) grids are generated around solid bodies through ‘surface extrusion’. The Quad grids are then overlapped with an adaptive Cartesian grid. Quadtree data structures are employed to record both the Quad and Cartesian grids. The Cartesian grid is generated through recursive sub‐division of a single root, whereas the Quad grids start from multiple roots—a forest of Quadtrees, representing the coarsest possible Quad grids. Cell‐cutting is performed at the Cartesian/Quad grid interface to merge the Cartesian and Quad grids into a single unstructured grid with arbitrary cell topologies (i.e., arbitrary polygons). Because of the hierarchical nature of the data structure, many levels of coarse grids have already been built in. The coarsening of the unstructured grid is based on the Quadtree data structure through reverse tree traversal. Issues arising from grid coarsening are discussed and solutions are developed. The flow solver is based on a cell‐centered finite volume discretization, Roe's flux splitting, a least‐squares linear reconstruction, and a differentiable limiter developed by Venkatakrishnan in a modified form. A local time stepping scheme is used to handle very small cut cells produced in cell‐cutting. Several cycling strategies, such as the saw‐tooth, W‐ and V‐cycles, have been studies. The V‐cycle has been found to be the most efficient. In general, the multi‐grid solution algorithm has been shown to greatly speed up convergence to steady state—by one to two orders. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical capture of wing tip vortex improved by mesh adaptation

This paper presents a mesh adaptation procedure linked to a finite volume solver, the goal of which is to increase the precision of the numerical simulation of a wing tip vortex flow. The adaptation scheme is applied to hexahedron meshes and hybrid meshes made up of tetrahedrons and prisms. To evaluate the ability of each type of element to capture the physics of a tip vortex, a specific test case is studied and results obtained numerically from this test case are compared with experimental results. The error estimator of the adaptation scheme is derived from a solution scalar variable. It is shown that the element anisotropy as well as the adaptation algorithms used have an impact on the precision of the solution. Adaptation of hexahedrons allows a better capture of the tip vortex far from the vortex root, even though the adaptation of those hexahedrons barely changes the number of nodes used to achieve a specified precision, contrary to the adaptation of hybrid meshes. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Large eddy simulation of aircraft wake vortex with self-adaptive grid method

A self-adaptive-grid method is applied to numerical simulation of the evolution of aircraft wake vortex with the large eddy simulation(LES). The Idaho Falls(IDF)measurement of run 9 case is simulated numerically and compared with that of the field experimental data. The comparison shows that the method is reliable in the complex atmospheric environment with crosswind and ground effect. In addition, six cases with different ambient atmospheric turbulences and Brunt V¨ais¨al¨a(BV) frequencies are computed with the LES. The main characteristics of vortex are appropriately simulated by the current method. The onset time of rapid decay and the descending of vortices are in agreement with the previous measurements and the numerical prediction. Also, secondary structures such as baroclinic vorticity and helical structures are also simulated.Only approximately 6 million grid points are needed in computation with the present method, while the number can be as large as 34 million when using a uniform mesh with the same core resolution. The self-adaptive-grid method is proved to be practical in the numerical research of aircraft wake vortex.     

一种基于三角形非结构化网格SIMPLE算法的程序设计

为了深入研究解决流动问题的基本算法,提出了一种三角形非结构化网格上SIMPLE算法的计算机程序设计。利用FORTRAN语言的特点,采用自定义变量存储控制单元以及界面信息。单元变量中定义了指向相邻单元和界面的指针,通过对网格文件所提供拓扑信息的读取对这些指针进行赋值,从而建立计算所需的基本数据结构。这样,就避免了采用数组直接存储网格拓扑信息,大大增加了程序的可读性、拓展性和二次开发潜力。通过顶盖驱动流、后台阶流以及圆柱绕流几个经典计算流体力学算例的验证,该程序计算收敛良好,精度较高,所得结果符合物理实际。因而,可在此基础上开发更具实际应用价值的三维程序。     

A simplified adaptive Cartesian grid system for solving the 2D shallow water equations

This paper presents a new simplified grid system that provides local refinement and dynamic adaptation for solving the 2D shallow water equations (SWEs). Local refinement is realized by simply specifying different subdivision levels to the cells on a background uniform coarse grid that covers the computational domain. On such a non‐uniform grid, the structured property of a regular Cartesian mesh is maintained and neighbor information is determined by simple algebraic relationships, i.e. data structure becomes unnecessary. Dynamic grid adaptation is achieved by changing the subdivision level of a background cell. Therefore, grid generation and adaptation is greatly simplified and straightforward to implement. The new adaptive grid‐based SWE solver is tested by applying it to simulate three idealized test cases and promising results are obtained. The new grid system offers a simplified alternative to the existing approaches for providing adaptive mesh refinement in computational fluid dynamics. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种新的准结构网格生成方法

在有限元分析中,高质量的结构网格可以有效地提高有限元分析的精度,但结构网格的几何适应性差,针对复杂边界的二维计算模型,现有的方法很难自动生成高质量的结构网格;而非结构网格几何适应性很好,但存在计算效率低和精度差等问题。提出了一种新的准结构网格生成方法,能够实现复杂区域的网格自动生成并且具有高网格质量。该方法首先对计算区域运用Delaunay三角剖分技术生成粗背景网格;然后利用背景网格,使用优化的Voronoi图生成过渡的蜂巢网格;最后,通过中心圆方法对蜂巢网格单元进行结构网格剖分。分析NACA0012翼型数值模拟结果表明,提出的新准结构网格生成方法能够对边界复杂的模型自动生成高质量的网格,并且通过三种不同拓扑类型网格计算结果相互对比及与实验结果对比,证明准结构网格具有高计算精度。     

The structure of water-air bubble grid turbulence in a square duct

Local measurements of void fraction and continuous phase velocity field in water-air bubble, grid turbulence were conducted in a channel of vertical, square test section. The measured statistics indicate that, due mainly to the interaction of mean shear with the dispersed phase, the turbulence structure of the flow is modified. The observed change is characterized by a strong spatial dependence of void fraction and liquid flow properties, and the emergence of two spatial regions controlled by different physical processes. Intensity measurements indicate significant departure from isotropy in the flow. Two distinct regimes corresponding to low and high values of void fraction have been also identified. The autocorrelation and spectra measurements indicate that for low void fraction the scales of turbulence decrease while for higher values of void fraction increase again and inverse cascade is observed.     

Formation of vortex breakdown in conical–cylindrical cavities

Numerical simulations in confined rotating flows were performed in this work, in order to verify and characterize the formation of the vortex breakdown phenomenon. Cylindrical and conical–cylindrical geometries, both closed, were used in the simulations. The rotating flow is induced by the bottom wall, which rotates at constant angular velocity. Firstly the numerical results were compared to experimental results available in references, with the purpose to verify the capacity of the computational code to predict the vortex breakdown phenomenon. Further, several simulations varying the parameters which govern the characteristics of the flows analyzed in this work, i.e., the Reynolds number and the aspect ratio, were performed. In these simulations, the limits for the transitional regime and the vortex breakdown formation were verified. Steady and transient cases, with and without turbulence modeling, were simulated. In general, some aspects of the process of vortex breakdown in conical–cylindrical geometries were observed to be different from that in cylinders.     

Application of local grid refinement to vortex motion due to a solitary wave passing over a submerged body

A numerical method based on the streamfunction–vorticity formulation is applied to simulate the two‐dimensional, transient, viscous flow with a free surface. This method successfully uses the locally refined grid in an inviscid–viscous model to explore the processes of vortex formation due to a solitary wave passing over a submerged bluff body. The two particular bodies considered here are a blunt rectangular block and a semicircular cylinder. Flow visualization to track dyelines is carried out in the laboratory in order to confirm the validity of the numerical results. Numerical results examined by different grid configurations ensure the locally refined grid to be useful in practical application. Flow phenomena, including the vortex motion and wave patterns during non‐linear wave–structure interaction, are also discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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 robust multi‐grid pressure‐based algorithm for multi‐fluid flow at all speeds

This paper reports on the implementation and testing, within a full non‐linear multi‐grid environment, of a new pressure‐based algorithm for the prediction of multi‐fluid flow at all speeds. The algorithm is part of the mass conservation‐based algorithms (MCBA) group in which the pressure correction equation is derived from overall mass conservation. The performance of the new method is assessed by solving a series of two‐dimensional two‐fluid flow test problems varying from turbulent low Mach number to supersonic flows, and from very low to high fluid density ratios. Solutions are generated for several grid sizes using the single grid (SG), the prolongation grid (PG), and the full non‐linear multi‐grid (FMG) methods. The main outcomes of this study are: (i) a clear demonstration of the ability of the FMG method to tackle the added non‐linearity of multi‐fluid flows, which is manifested through the performance jump observed when using the non‐linear multi‐grid approach as compared to the SG and PG methods; (ii) the extension of the FMG method to predict turbulent multi‐fluid flows at all speeds. The convergence history plots and CPU‐times presented indicate that the FMG method is far more efficient than the PG method and accelerates the convergence rate over the SG method, for the problems solved and the grids used, by a factor reaching a value as high as 15. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

网格自适应技术在复杂外形流场模拟中的应用

建立了一套适用于非结构混合网格自适应方法,针对激波和涡的不同特征采用不同加密探测器,各向异性加密棱柱单元并沿物面法向方向剖分所有棱柱层,各向异性剖分四面体单元,并保证四面体与棱柱交界面上网格协调。构造Hermit插值近似投影物面新加网格点和基于Laplacian光滑方法对空间网格进行优化。通过网格自适应加密,使用Roe格式计算高超声速球头绕流的红玉现象得到明显减轻。F16飞机含激波和脱体涡的流场自适应计算表明,网格加密集中在激波面和涡核附近区域,激波和涡计算更准确。