A vortex axis and vortex core border grid adaptation algorithm

In the design process of hydrodynamical and aerodynamical technical applications, the numerical simulation of massively separated vortical flow is crucial for predicting, for example, lift or drag. To obtain reliable numerical results, it is mandatory to accurately predict the physical behavior of vortices. Thus, the dominant vortical flow structures have to be resolved in detail, which requires a local grid refinement and certain adaptation techniques. In this paper, a vortex flow structure adaptation algorithm is presented, which is particularly designed for local grid refinement at vortex axes positions and associated vortex core border locations. To this end, a fast and efficient vortex axis detection scheme is introduced and the algorithm for the vortex core border determination is explained. As the interaction between vortices makes the assignment of grid points to a certain vortex axis difficult, a helicity‐based vortex distinction approach in combination with a geometrical rotational sensor is developed. After describing the combined different techniques in detail, the vortex feature adaptation algorithm is applied to analytical and more realistic examples, which show that the described grid adaptation algorithm is able to enhance the grid cell resolution locally such that all significant vortical flow phenomena are resolved. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

EFFECT OF SPANWISE SYSTEM ROTATION ON SPATIALLY DEVELOPING DEAN VORTICES

Three-dimensional spatially developing Navier–Stokes calculations are carried out to simulate the flow in a curved, rotating channel. The competition between centrifugal and Coriolis forces, expressed by the ratio of the Dean number to the rotation number, gives rise to a variety of possible instability modes characterized by the presence of streamwise vortices. Cases in which the force produced by system rotation enhances or opposes the centrifugal force are treated and the effect on the ensuing instability are analysed. Evidence for a generalized Eckhaus instability of rotating Dean vortices is presented.     

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.     

NUMERICAL STUDY OF THE BLOCKAGE EFFECTS ON VISCOUS FLOW PAST A CIRCULAR CYLINDER

In various numerical solutions of flow around bluff bodies the unbounded physical domain is replaced by a restricted computational one whose extent depends on the size of the computational grid network. The truncation of the solution domain in the cross-flow direction reduces the computer time required for the solution, but introduces numerical blockage effects which influence considerably the values of the various flow parameters. In the present paper the finite element solution of steady and unsteady flow around a circular cylinder at Re=106 is presented for blockage ratios of 0·05, 0·15 and 0·25. A boundary condition was tested for which the streamfunction values at the outer boundaries were those of the irrotational solution around a circular cylinder. The size of the standing vortices decreases with the blockage ratio when the flow is steady, while the spacing of the vortices decreases in both directions with increasing blockage ratio when the wake becomes unsteady. The hydrodynamic forces on the cylinder and the Strouhal number are magnified as the blockage ratio increases. The application of the streamfunction values derived from the irrotational solution at the outer boundaries reduced blockage effects only at high blockage ratio.     

Linear stability of swirling flows computed as solutions to the quasi-cylindrical equations of motion

The linear stability of numerical solutions to the quasi-cylindrical equations of motion for swirling flows is investigated. Initial conditions are derived from Batchelor's similarity solution for a trailing line vortex. The stability calculations are performed using a second-order-accurate finite-difference scheme on a staggered grid, with the accuracy of the computed eigenvalues enhanced through Richardson extrapolation. The streamwise development of both viscous and inviscid instability modes is presented. The possible relationship to vortex breakdown is discussed.     

Numerical-analytical solution of problems of nonlinear filtration,mapped on the two-sheet region of the plane of a hodograph

A numerical solution is obtained to plane problems of nonlinear filtration, reduced using the linearizing transformation of a hodograph, to the associated boundary-value problems on two sheets of the plane of the hodograph. A study is made of flows set up by a source-source system and by a five-point area system. The article discusses the law of filtration with a limiting gradient and a piecewise-linear filtration law. The range of problems which can be reduced to linear boundary-value problems after the transformation of the hodograph is considerably broadened if mapping on non-single-sheet regions is admitted [1]. Specifically, we can consider in this manner a flow set up by two sources of differing intensity, a flow in a rectangular element of the symmetry of a grid of wells, etc. Actually, it is simplest of all to construct a flow by direct numerical solution of the problem in the two-sheet region of the plane of the hodograph, and then to return to the physical plane using known inversion formulas. Under these circumstances, it is possible to make complete use of known asymptotic solutions, which considerably reduces the volume of the calculations. Precisely this approach is used in the present work. Another scheme of a numerical solution is proposed in [2, 3].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 19–28 January–February, 1975.The authors are indebted to L. A. Chudov for his advice and his evaluation.     

An efficient low‐dissipative WENO filter scheme

This paper presents a simple and efficient procedure developed for tracing discontinuities in flow fields. Numerical experiments are carried out to test the new sensor coupled with the associated nonlinear WENO dissipation filter developed to suppress the numerical dissipation. The tests show that, for a problem containing shocks and vortices, the implementation of the new sensor and an optimized WENO scheme can obtain a stable and highly resolved solution. The numerical experiments demonstrated that the new filter scheme performs efficiently both in parallel and serial running for one‐dimensional inviscid flow problems. Direct numerical simulation of a Mach 5 turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate was carried out to demonstrate the applicability of the scheme to the DNS practices. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Response of plane viscous jet to entrance flow rate perturbation

A two‐dimensional numerical simulation solving unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is used to study the natural varicose instability of a plane jet in the Reynolds number range of 100–900. A transient train of vortices is observed at the beginning of the computation. It disappears yielding a steady flow. This flow is then used at the basis for forced excitation in order to study the space time development of instability. A Reynolds number dependant behaviour is observed which implies that viscosity directly affects the vortex dynamics. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The development of a Cartesian cut cell method for incompressible viscous flows

This paper describes the extension of the Cartesian cut cell method to applications involving unsteady incompressible viscous fluid flow. The underlying scheme is based on the solution of the full Navier–Stokes equations for a variable density fluid system using the artificial compressibility technique together with a Jameson‐type dual time iteration. The computational domain encompasses two fluid regions and the interface between them is treated as a contact discontinuity in the density field, thereby eliminating the need for special free surface tracking procedures. The Cartesian cut cell technique is used for fitting the complex geometry of solid boundaries across a stationary background Cartesian grid which is located inside the computational domain. A time accurate solution is achieved by using an implicit dual‐time iteration technique based on a slope‐limited, high‐order, Godunov‐type scheme for the inviscid fluxes, while the viscous fluxes are estimated using central differencing. Validation of the new technique is by modelling the unsteady Couette flow and the Rayleigh–Taylor instability problems. Finally, a test case for wave run‐up and overtopping over an impermeable sea dike is performed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An accurate moving grid Eulerian Lagrangian localized adjoint method for solving the one‐dimensional variable‐coefficient ADE

An accurate finite‐volume Eulerian Lagrangian localized adjoint method (ELLAM) is presented for solving the one‐dimensional variable coefficients advection dispersion equation that governs transport of solute in porous medium. The method uses a moving grid to define the solution and test functions. Consequently, the need for spatial interpolation, or equivalently numerical integration, which is a major issue in conventional ELLAM formulations, is avoided. After reviewing the one‐dimensional method of ELLAM, we present our strategy and detailed calculations for both saturated and unsaturated porous medium. Numerical results for a constant‐coefficient problem and a variable‐coefficient problem are very close to analytical and fine‐grid solutions, respectively. The strength of the developed method is shown for a large range of CFL and grid Peclet numbers. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A dissipation‐free numerical method to solve one‐dimensional hyperbolic flow equations

In this paper, a numerical method to capture the shock wave propagation in 1‐dimensional fluid flow problems with 0 numerical dissipation is presented. Instead of using a traditional discrete grid, the new numerical method is built on a range‐discrete grid, which is obtained by a direct subdivision of values around the shock area. The range discrete grid consists of 2 types: continuous points and shock points. Numerical solution is achieved by tracking characteristics and shocks for the movements of continuous and shock points, respectively. Shocks can be generated or eliminated when triggering entropy conditions in a marking step. The method is conservative and total variation diminishing. We apply this new method to several examples, including solving Burgers equation for aerodynamics, Buckley‐Leverett equation for fractional flow in porous media, and the classical traffic flow. The solutions were verified against analytical solutions under simple conditions. Comparisons with several other traditional methods showed that the new method achieves a higher accuracy in capturing the shock while using much less grid number. The new method can serve as a fast tool to assess the shock wave propagation in various flow problems with good accuracy.     

A finite volume approach for unsteady viscoelastic fluid flows

A finite volume, time‐marching for solving time‐dependent viscoelastic flow in two space dimensions for Oldroyd‐B and Phan Thien–Tanner fluids, is presented. A non‐uniform staggered grid system is used. The conservation and constitutive equations are solved using the finite volume method with an upwind scheme for the viscoelastic stresses and an hybrid scheme for the velocities. To calculate the pressure field, the semi‐implicit method for the pressure linked equation revised method is used. The discretized equations are solved sequentially, using the tridiagonal matrix algorithm solver with under‐relaxation. In both, the full approximation storage multigrid algorithm is used to speed up the convergence rate. Simulations of viscoelastic flows in four‐to‐one abrupt plane contraction are carried out. We will study the behaviour at the entrance corner of the four‐to‐one planar abrupt contraction. Using this solver, we show convergence up to a Weissenberg number We of 20 for the Oldroyd‐B model. No limiting Weissenberg number is observed even though a Phan Thien–Tanner model is used. Several numerical results are presented. Smooth and stable solutions are obtained for high Weissenberg number. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A remedy for numerical oscillations in weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Weakly Compressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (WCSPH) can lead to non‐physical oscillations in the pressure and density fields when simulating incompressible flow problems. This in turn may result in tensile instability and sometimes divergence. In this paper, it is shown that this difficulty originates from the specific form of spatial discretization used for the pressure term when solving the mass conservation equation. After describing the pressure–velocity decoupling problem associated with the so‐called colocated grid methods, a modified approach is presented that overcomes this problem using a different discretization scheme for the second derivative of pressure. The modified scheme is employed for solving a number of benchmark problems including both single‐phase and two‐phase test cases. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An adaptive gradient smoothing method (GSM) for fluid dynamics problems

In this paper, a novel adaptive gradient smoothing method (GSM) based on irregular cells and strong form of governing equations for fluid dynamics problems with arbitrary geometrical boundaries is presented. The spatial derivatives at a location of interest are consistently approximated by integrally averaging of gradients over a smoothing domain constructed around the location. Such a favorable GSM scheme corresponds to a compact stencil with positive coefficients of influence on regular cells. The error equidistribution strategy is adopted in the solution‐based adaptive GSM procedure, and adaptive grids are attained with the remeshing techniques and the advancing front method. In this paper, the adaptive GSM has been tested for solutions to both Poisson and Euler equations. The sensitivity of the GSM to the irregularity of the grid is examined in the solutions to the Poisson equation. We also investigate the effects of error indicators based on the first derivatives and second derivatives of density, respectively, to the solutions to the shock flow over the NACA0012 airfoil. The adaptive GSM effectively yields much more accurate results than the non‐adaptive GSM solver. The whole adaptive process is very stable and no spurious behaviors are observed in all testing cases. The cosmetic techniques for improving grid quality can effectively boost the accuracy of GSM solutions. It is also found that the adaptive GSM procedure using the second derivatives of density to estimate the error indicators can automatically and accurately resolve all key features occurring in the flow with discontinuities. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reynolds stress modelling of rectangular open‐channel flow

A Reynolds stress model for the numerical simulation of uniform 3D turbulent open‐channel flows is described. The finite volume method is used for the numerical solution of the flow equations and transport equations of the Reynolds stress components. The overall solution strategy is the SIMPLER algorithm, and the power‐law scheme is used to discretize the convection and diffusion terms in the governing equations. The developed model is applied to a flow at a Reynolds number of 77000 in a rectangular channel with a width to depth ratio of 2. The simulated mean flow and turbulence structures are compared with measured and computed data from the literature. The computed flow vectors in the plane normal to the streamwise direction show a small vortex, called inner secondary currents, located at the juncture of the sidewall and the free surface as well as the free surface and bottom vortices. This small vortex causes a significant increase in the wall shear stress in the vicinity of the free surface. A budget analysis of the streamwise vorticity is carried out. It is found that both production terms by anisotropy of Reynolds normal stress and by Reynolds shear stress contribute to the generation of secondary currents. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robustness of the hybrid DRP‐WENO scheme for shock flow computations

This paper describes a new variant of hybrid scheme that is constructed by a wave‐capturing scheme and a nonoscillatory scheme for flow computations in the presence of shocks. The improved fifth‐order upwind weighted essentially nonoscillatory scheme is chosen to be conjugated with the seven‐point dispersion‐relation‐preserving scheme by means of an adaptive switch function of grid‐point type. The new hybrid scheme can achieve a better resolution than the hybrid scheme which is based on the classical weighted essentially scheme. Ami Harten's multiresolution analysis algorithm is applied to density field for detecting discontinuities and setting point values of the switch function adaptively. Moreover, the tenth‐order central filter is applied in smooth part of the flow field for damping dispersion errors. This scheme can promote overall computational efficiency and yield oscillation‐free results in shock flows. The resolution properties and robustness of the new hybrid scheme are tested in both 1D and 2D linear and nonlinear cases. It performs well for computing flow problems with rich structures of weak/strong shocks and large/small vortices, such as the shock‐boundary layer interaction problem in a shock tube, which illustrates that it is very robust and accurate for direct numerical simulation of gas‐dynamics flows. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The solution of viscous incompressible jet flows using non‐staggered boundary fitted co‐ordinate methods

A new approach for the solution of the steady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in a domain bounded in part by a free surface is presented. The procedure is based on the finite difference technique, with the non‐staggered grid fractional step method used to solve the flow equations written in terms of primitive variables. The physical domain is transformed to a rectangle by means of a numerical mapping technique. In order to design an effective free solution scheme, we distinguish between flows dominated by surface tension and those dominated by inertia and viscosity. When the surface tension effect is insignificant we used the kinematic condition to update the surface; whereas, in the opposite case, we used the normal stress condition to obtain the free surface boundary. Results obtained with the improved boundary conditions for a plane Newtonian jet are found to compare well with the available two‐dimensional numerical solutions for Reynolds numbers, up to Re=100, and Capillary numbers in the range of 0≤Ca<1000. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A finite element thermally coupled flow formulation for phase‐change problems

A finite element, thermally coupled incompressible flow formulation considering phase‐change effects is presented. This formulation accounts for natural convection, temperature‐dependent material properties and isothermal and non‐isothermal phase‐change models. In this context, the full Navier–Stokes equations are solved using a generalized streamline operator (GSO) technique. The highly non‐linear phase‐change effects are treated with a temperature‐based algorithm, which provides stability and convergence of the numerical solution. The Boussinesq approximation is used in order to consider the temperature‐dependent density variation. Furthermore, the numerical solution of the coupled problem is approached with a staggered incremental‐iterative solution scheme, such that the convergence criteria are written in terms of the residual vectors. Finally, this formulation is used for the solutions of solidification and melting problems validating some numerical results with other existing solutions obtained with different methodologies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial Instabilities of the Incompressible Attachment-Line Flow Using Sparse Matrix Jacobi–Davidson Techniques

We consider the linear stability of incompressible attachment-line flow within the spatial framework. No similarity or symmetry assumptions for the instability modes are introduced and the full two-dimensional representation of the modes is used. The perturbation equations are discretized on a two-dimensional staggered grid. A high order finite difference scheme has been developed which gives rise to a large, sparse, quadratic, eigenvalue problem for the instability modes. The benefits of the Jacobi–Davidson method for the solution of this eigenvalue system are demonstrated and the approach is validated in some detail. Spatial stability results are presented subsequently. In particular, instability predictions at very high Reynolds numbers are obtained which show almost equally strong instabilities for symmetric and antisymmetric modes in this regime.     

Unsteady heat transfer in impulsive Falkner–Skan flows: Constant wall temperature case

A theoretical study of the velocity and thermal boundary-layer growth resulting from an impulsively started Falkner–Skan flow is presented in this paper. The forced convection, thermal boundary-layer is produced by the sudden increase of the surface temperature as it is set into motion. Analytical solutions for the simultaneous development of the thermal and momentum boundary layers are obtained for both small (initial, unsteady flow) and large (steady-state flow) times. These solutions are then matched numerically using a very efficient finite-difference scheme. Some considerable attention to the steady-state flow solution (large time) is also given in this paper. Results of the calculations are presented for a range of values of the Falkner–Skan exponent m and the Prandtl number Pr.