A stabilized finite element method for the Stokes problem based on polynomial pressure projections

A new stabilized finite element method for the Stokes problem is presented. The method is obtained by modification of the mixed variational equation by using local L² polynomial pressure projections. Our stabilization approach is motivated by the inherent inconsistency of equal‐order approximations for the Stokes equations, which leads to an unstable mixed finite element method. Application of pressure projections in conjunction with minimization of the pressure–velocity mismatch eliminates this inconsistency and leads to a stable variational formulation. Unlike other stabilization methods, the present approach does not require specification of a stabilization parameter or calculation of higher‐order derivatives, and always leads to a symmetric linear system. The new method can be implemented at the element level and for affine families of finite elements on simplicial grids it reduces to a simple modification of the weak continuity equation. Numerical results are presented for a variety of equal‐order continuous velocity and pressure elements in two and three dimensions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A 3‐D non‐hydrostatic pressure model for small amplitude free surface flows

A three‐dimensional, non‐hydrostatic pressure, numerical model with k–ε equations for small amplitude free surface flows is presented. By decomposing the pressure into hydrostatic and non‐hydrostatic parts, the numerical model uses an integrated time step with two fractional steps. In the first fractional step the momentum equations are solved without the non‐hydrostatic pressure term, using Newton's method in conjunction with the generalized minimal residual (GMRES) method so that most terms can be solved implicitly. This method only needs the product of a Jacobian matrix and a vector rather than the Jacobian matrix itself, limiting the amount of storage and significantly decreasing the overall computational time required. In the second step the pressure–Poisson equation is solved iteratively with a preconditioned linear GMRES method. It is shown that preconditioning reduces the central processing unit (CPU) time dramatically. In order to prevent pressure oscillations which may arise in collocated grid arrangements, transformed velocities are defined at cell faces by interpolating velocities at grid nodes. After the new pressure field is obtained, the intermediate velocities, which are calculated from the previous fractional step, are updated. The newly developed model is verified against analytical solutions, published results, and experimental data, with excellent agreement. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A hybrid pressure‐based solver for nonideal single‐phase fluid flows at all speeds

This paper describes the implementation of a numerical solver that is capable of simulating compressible flows of nonideal single‐phase fluids. The proposed method can be applied to arbitrary equations of state and is suitable for all Mach numbers. The pressure‐based solver uses the operator‐splitting technique and is based on the PISO/SIMPLE algorithm: the density, velocity, and temperature fields are predicted by solving the linearized versions of the balance equations using the convective fluxes from the previous iteration or time step. The overall mass continuity is ensured by solving the pressure equation derived from the continuity equation, the momentum equation, and the equation of state. Nonphysical oscillations of the numerical solution near discontinuities are damped using the Kurganov‐Tadmor/Kurganov‐Noelle‐Petrova (KT/KNP) scheme for convective fluxes. The solver was validated using different test cases, where analytical and/or numerical solutions are present or can be derived: (1) A convergent‐divergent nozzle with three different operating conditions; (2) the Riemann problem for the Peng‐Robinson equation of state; (3) the Riemann problem for the covolume equation of state; (4) the development of a laminar velocity profile in a circular pipe (also known as Poiseuille flow); (5) a laminar flow over a circular cylinder; (6) a subsonic flow over a backward‐facing step at low Reynolds numbers; (7) a transonic flow over the RAE 2822 airfoil; and (8) a supersonic flow around a blunt cylinder‐flare model. The spatial approximation order of the scheme is second order. The mesh convergence of the numerical solution was achieved for all cases. The accuracy order for highly compressible flows with discontinuities is close to first order and, for incompressible viscous flows, it is close to second order. The proposed solver is named rhoPimpleCentralFoam and is implemented in the open‐source CFD library OpenFOAM^®. For high speed flows, it shows a similar behavior as the KT/KNP schemes (implemented as rhoCentralFoam‐solver, Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2010), and for flows with small Mach numbers, it behaves like solvers that are based on the PISO/SIMPLE algorithm.     

Towards petascale spectral simulations for transition analysis in wall bounded flow

An efficient parallel spectral method for direct numerical simulations of transitional and turbulent flows is described in this paper. The parallelization is classically based on a bidimensional domain decomposition, but has been specifically developed for a solenoidal Fourier–Chebyshev spectral approximation where in one Fourier direction, the number of modes is very large compared with the two other directions. The approach therefore differs from classical libraries developed for cubic Fourier boxes. The strategy uses message‐passing interface (MPI) for message‐passing among nodes and is fairly portable. One of the originalities of this paper is the use of an efficient hybrid programming with MPI for internodes communications and a coarse grain parallelism using OpenMP for core shared‐memory computation, instead of the classical hybrid programming with MPI and a fine granularity parallelism at the loop level with OpenMP directives. This hybrid parallelism has been tested on the recent generation of high‐performance parallel supercomputers involving a few tens of cores per node. Performances are evaluated on different low‐frequency and high‐frequency processors massively parallel platforms. We demonstrate that spectral methods, which are known to be inherently ill‐fitted for the new generation of high‐performance distributed‐memory computers, can be implemented efficiently using this hybrid programming with good scalability and a very fast wall‐clock time per iteration. New numerical experiments are therefore now accessible on petascale computers, while keeping the attractive features of spectral methods such as accuracy, exponential convergence, computational efficiency and conservative properties. This is illustrated by a direct numerical simulation of the transition of the boundary layers developing from the entrance section of a plane channel and interacting to merge into a fully turbulent flow. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A higher resolution edge‐based finite volume method for the simulation of the oil–water displacement in heterogeneous and anisotropic porous media using a modified IMPES method

In this article, we present a higher‐order finite volume method with a ‘Modified Implicit Pressure Explicit Saturation’ (MIMPES) formulation to model the 2D incompressible and immiscible two‐phase flow of oil and water in heterogeneous and anisotropic porous media. We used a median‐dual vertex‐centered finite volume method with an edge‐based data structure to discretize both, the elliptic pressure and the hyperbolic saturation equations. In the classical IMPES approach, first, the pressure equation is solved implicitly from an initial saturation distribution; then, the velocity field is computed explicitly from the pressure field, and finally, the saturation equation is solved explicitly. This saturation field is then used to re‐compute the pressure field, and the process follows until the end of the simulation is reached. Because of the explicit solution of the saturation equation, severe time restrictions are imposed on the simulation. In order to circumvent this problem, an edge‐based implementation of the MIMPES method of Hurtado and co‐workers was developed. In the MIMPES approach, the pressure equation is solved, and the velocity field is computed less frequently than the saturation field, using the fact that, usually, the velocity field varies slowly throughout the simulation. The solution of the pressure equation is performed using a modification of Crumpton's two‐step approach, which was designed to handle material discontinuity properly. The saturation equation is solved explicitly using an edge‐based implementation of a modified second‐order monotonic upstream scheme for conservation laws type method. Some examples are presented in order to validate the proposed formulation. Our results match quite well with others found in literature. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Large eddy simulation of incompressible free round jet with discontinuous Galerkin method

In the paper, discontinuous Galerkin method is applied to simulation of incompressible free round turbulent jet using large eddy simulation with eddy viscosity approach. The solution algorithm is based on the classical projection method, but instead of the solution of the Poisson equation, a parabolic equation is advanced in pseudo‐time, which provides the pressure field ensuring the proper pressure–velocity coupling. For time and pseudo‐time integration, explicit Runge–Kutta method is employed. The computational meshes consist of hexahedral elements with flat faces. Within a given finite element, all flow variables are expressed with modal expansions of the same order (including velocity and pressure). Discretisation of the viscous terms in the Navier–Stokes equations and Laplacian in the Poisson equation is stabilised with mixed finite element approach. The correctness of the solution algorithm is verified in a commonly used test case of laminar flow in 3D lid‐driven cavity. The results of computations of the free jet are compared with experimental and numerical reference data, the latter obtained from the high‐order pseudospectral code. The statistics of centerline flow velocity – mean velocity and its fluctuations – show satisfactory agreement with the reference data. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A numerical strategy for the direct 3D simulation of the expansion of bubbles into a molten polymer during a foaming process

In the framework of the foam process modelling, this paper presents a numerical strategy for the direct 3D simulation of the expansion of gas bubbles into a molten polymer. This expansion is due to a gas overpressure. The polymer is assumed to be incompressible and to behave as a pseudo‐plastic fluid. Each bubble is governed by a simple ideal gas law. The velocity and the pressure fields, defined in the liquid by a Stokes system, are subsequently extended to each bubble in a way of not perturbing the interface velocity. Hence, a global velocity–pressure‐mixed system is solved over the whole computational domain, thanks to a discretization based on an unstructured first‐order finite element. Since dealing with an Eulerian approach, an interface capturing method is used to follow the bubble evolution. For each bubble, a pure advection equation is solved by using a space–time discontinuous‐Galerkin method, coupled with an r‐adaptation technique. Finally, the numerical strategy is achieved by considering a global mesh expansion motion, which conserves the amount of liquid into the computational domain during the expansion. The expansion of one bubble is firstly considered, and the simulations are compared with an analytical model. The formation of a cellular structure is then investigated by considering the expansion of 64 bubbles in 2D and the expansion of 400 bubbles in 3D. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of temporal and spatial high‐order schemes for two‐fluid seven‐equation two‐pressure model and its applications in two‐phase flow benchmark problems

Current existing main nuclear thermal‐hydraulics (T‐H) system analysis codes, such as RALAP5, TRACE, and CATHARE, play a crucial role in the nuclear engineering field for the design and safety analysis of nuclear reactor systems. However, two‐fluid model used in these T‐H system analysis codes is ill posed, easily leading to numerical oscillations, and the classical first‐order methods for temporal and special discretization are widely employed for numerical simulations, yielding excessive numerical diffusion. Two‐fluid seven‐equation two‐pressure model is of particular interest due to the inherent well‐posed advantage. Moreover, high‐order accuracy schemes have also attracted great attention to overcome the challenge of serious numerical diffusion induced by low‐order time and space schemes for accurately simulating nuclear T‐H problems. In this paper, the semi‐implicit solution algorithm with high‐order accuracy in space and time is developed for this well‐posed two‐fluid model and the robustness and accuracy are verified and assessed against several important two‐phase flow benchmark tests in the nuclear engineering T‐H field, which include two linear advection problems, the oscillation problem of the liquid column, the Ransom water faucet problem, the reversed water faucet problem, and the two‐phase shock tube problem. The following conclusions are achieved. (1) The proposed semi‐implicit solution algorithm is robust in solving two‐phase flows, even for fast transients and discontinuous solutions. (2) High‐order schemes in both time and space could prevent excessive numerical diffusion effectively and the numerical simulation results are more accurate than those of first‐order time and space schemes, which demonstrates the advantage of using high‐order schemes.     

Applications of the artificial compressibility method for turbulent open channel flows

A three‐dimensional (3‐D) numerical method for solving the Navier–Stokes equations with a standard k–ε turbulence model is presented. In order to couple pressure with velocity directly, the pressure is divided into hydrostatic and hydrodynamic parts and the artificial compressibility method (ACM) is employed for the hydrodynamic pressure. By introducing a pseudo‐time derivative of the hydrodynamic pressure into the continuity equation, the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations are changed from elliptic‐parabolic to hyperbolic‐parabolic equations. In this paper, a third‐order monotone upstream‐centred scheme for conservation laws (MUSCL) method is used for the hyperbolic equations. A system of discrete equations is solved implicitly using the lower–upper symmetric Gauss–Seidel (LU‐SGS) method. This newly developed numerical method is validated against experimental data with good agreement. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unstructured pressure‐correction solver based on a consistent discretization of the Poisson equation

A finite volume incompressible flow solver is presented for three‐dimensional unsteady flows based on an unstructured tetrahedral mesh, with collocation of the flow variables at the cell vertices. The solver is based on the pressure‐correction method, with an explicit prediction step of the momentum equations followed by a Poisson equation for the correction step to enforce continuity. A consistent discretization of the Poisson equation was found to be essential in obtaining a solution. The correction step was solved with the biconjugate gradient stabilized (Bi‐CGSTAB) algorithm coupled with incomplete lower–upper (ILU) preconditioning. Artificial dissipation is used to prevent the formation of instabilities. Flow solutions are presented for a stalling airfoil, vortex shedding past a bridge deck and flow in model alveoli. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element analysis of vortex shedding using equal order interpolations

An operator splitting and element‐by‐element conjugated gradient solver, and equal order interpolations are applied for solving time dependent Navier–Stokes (NS) equations to simulate flow induced vortex shedding in the present study. In addition, the convection term is corrected by balanced tensor diffusivity, which can stabilize the numerical simulation and overcome the numerical oscillations. The evolution of the interested flowing properties with time is analyzed by using spectral analysis. The developed code has been validated by the application of two examples: a driven cavity flow and a flow induced vortex vibration. Results from the first example for Reynolds number Re=10³ and Re=10⁴ are compared with other numerical simulations. Results from the second example, uniform flow past a square rod over a wide range of high Reynolds numbers from Re=10³～10⁵, are compared with experimental data and other numerical studies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

An implicit two‐dimensional non‐hydrostatic model for free‐surface flows

An implicit finite volume model in sigma coordinate system is developed to simulate two‐dimensional (2D) vertical free surface flows, deploying a non‐hydrostatic pressure distribution. The algorithm is based on a projection method which solves the complete 2D Navier–Stokes equations in two steps. First the pressure term in the momentum equations is excluded and the resultant advection–diffusion equations are solved. In the second step the continuity and the momentum equation with only the pressure terms are solved to give a block tri‐diagonal system of equation with pressure as the unknown. This system can be solved by a direct matrix solver without iteration. A new implicit treatment of non‐hydrostatic pressure, similar to the lower layers is applied to the top layer which makes the model free of any hydrostatic pressure assumption all through the water column. This treatment enables the model to evaluate both free surface elevation and wave celerity more accurately. A series of numerical tests including free‐surface flows with significant vertical accelerations and nonlinear behaviour in shoaling zone are performed. Comparison between numerical results, analytical solutions and experimental data demonstrates a satisfactory performance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

考虑磁头表面高度不连续性气膜润滑的数值模拟与有效算法

随着磁头滑块的飞行高度不断降低,给气体润滑方程的数值求解带来了诸如计算时间过长、甚至计算发散等方面的问题。为了获得1Tbit/in2的存储密度,磁头滑块尾部的最小飞行高度接近1.5nm。本文基于作者提出的修正气膜润滑方程的线性流率(LFR)模型,考虑磁头滑块表面高度的不连续性,建立了基于有限体积法的气膜润滑方程离散格式,并把网格自适应技术与多重网格法应用到离散方程的迭代算法中,发展了可模拟最小飞行高度为0.5nm时磁头滑块压力分布的数值模拟方法与有效算法。文中以一个具有复杂表面形状的磁头滑块为例,检验了计算方法与算法的有效性。数值结果表明:在磁头滑块最小飞行高度较低时,必须要考虑滑块表面高度的不连续性,否则就得不到收敛的数值计算结果;与FK-Boltzmann模型相比,LFR模型具有较高的计算效率,采用网格自适应技术与多重网格法能有效地提高求解气膜润滑方程的计算效率。     

A FE‐based algorithm for the inverse natural convection problem

Several numerical algorithms for solving inverse natural convection problems are revisited and studied. Our aim is to identify the unknown strength of a time‐varying heat source via a set of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations obtained by the so‐called finite element consistent splitting scheme (CSS) in order to get a good approximation of the unknown heat source from both the measured data and model results, by minimizing a functional that measures discrepancies between model and measured data. Viewed as an optimization problem, the solutions are obtained by means of the conjugate gradient method. A second‐order CSS in time involving the direct problem, the adjoint problem, the sensitivity problem and a system of sensitivity functions is used in order to enhance the numerical accuracy obtained for the unknown heat source function. A spatial discretization of all field equations is implemented using equal‐order and mixed finite element methods. Numerical experiments validate the proposed optimization algorithms that are in good agreement with the existing results. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐order filtering for control volume flow simulation

A general methodology is presented in order to obtain a hierarchy of high‐order filter functions, starting from the standard top‐hat filter, naturally linked to control volumes flow simulations. The goal is to have a new filtered variable better represented in its high resolved wavenumber components by using a suitable deconvolution. The proposed formulation is applied to the integral momentum equation, that is the evolution equation for the top‐hat filtered variable, by performing a spatial reconstruction based on the approximate inversion of the averaging operator. A theoretical analysis for the Burgers' model equation is presented, demonstrating that the local de‐averaging is an effective tool to obtain a higher‐order accuracy. It is also shown that the subgrid‐scale term, to be modeled in the deconvolved balance equation, has a smaller absolute importance in the resolved wavenumber range for increasing deconvolution order. A numerical analysis of the procedure is presented, based on high‐order upwind and central fluxes reconstruction, leading to congruent control volume schemes. Finally, the features of the present high‐order conservative formulation are tested in the numerical simulation of a sample turbulent flow: the flow behind a backward‐facing step. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduced‐order modelling of an adaptive mesh ocean model

A novel proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) model has been developed for use with an advanced unstructured mesh finite‐element ocean model, the Imperial College Ocean Model (ICOM, described in detail below), which includes many recent developments in ocean modelling and numerical analysis. The advantages of the POD model developed here over existing POD approaches are the ability:

• 1. To increase accuracy when representing geostrophic balance (the balance between the Coriolis terms and the pressure gradient). This is achieved through the use of two sets of geostrophic basis functions where each one is calculated by basis functions for velocities u and v.
• 2. To speed up the POD simulation. To achieve this a new numerical technique is introduced, whereby a time‐dependent matrix in the discretized equation is rapidly constructed from a series of time‐independent matrices. This development imparts considerable efficiency gains over the often‐used alternative of calculating each finite element over the computational domain at each time level.
• 3. To use dynamically adaptive meshes in the above POD model.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On parallel pre‐conditioners for pressure Poisson equation in LES of complex geometry flows

This paper presents an assessment of fast parallel pre‐conditioners for numerical solution of the pressure Poisson equation arising in large eddy simulation of turbulent incompressible flows. Focus is primarily on the pre‐conditioners suitable for domain decomposition based parallel implementation of finite volume solver on non‐uniform structured Cartesian grids. Bi‐conjugate gradient stabilized method has been adopted as the Krylov solver for the linear algebraic system resulting from the discretization of the pressure Poisson equation. We explore the performance of multigrid pre‐conditioner for the non‐uniform grid and compare its performance with additive Schwarz pre‐conditioner, Jacobi and SOR(k) pre‐conditioners. Numerical experiments have been performed to assess the suitability of these pre‐conditioners for a wide range of non‐uniformity (stretching) of the grid in the context of large eddy simulation of a typical flow problem. It is seen that the multigrid preconditioner shows the best performance. Further, the SOR(k) preconditioner emerges as the next best alternative. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of high‐Reynolds number flow around circular cylinders by a three‐step FEM–BEM model

An innovative computational model, developed to simulate high‐Reynolds number flow past circular cylinders in two‐dimensional incompressible viscous flows in external flow fields is described in this paper. The model, based on transient Navier–Stokes equations, can solve the infinite boundary value problems by extracting the boundary effects on a specified finite computational domain, using the projection method. The pressure is assumed to be zero at infinite boundary and the external flow field is simulated using a direct boundary element method (BEM) by solving a pressure Poisson equation. A three‐step finite element method (FEM) is used to solve the momentum equations of the flow. The present model is applied to simulate high‐Reynolds number flow past a single circular cylinder and flow past two cylinders in which one acts as a control cylinder. The simulation results are compared with experimental data and other numerical models and are found to be feasible and satisfactory. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preconditioned Krylov subspace methods used in solving two‐dimensional transient two‐phase flows

This paper investigates the performance of preconditioned Krylov subspace methods used in a previously presented two‐fluid model developed for the simulation of separated and intermittent gas–liquid flows. The two‐fluid model has momentum and mass balances for each phase. The equations comprising this model are solved numerically by applying a two‐step semi‐implicit time integration procedure. A finite difference numerical scheme with a staggered mesh is used. Previously, the resulting linear algebraic equations were solved by a Gaussian band solver. In this study, these algebraic equations are also solved using the generalized minimum residual (GMRES) and the biconjugate gradient stabilized (Bi‐CGSTAB) Krylov subspace iterative methods preconditioned with incomplete LU factorization using the ILUT(p, τ) algorithm. The decrease in the computational time using the iterative solvers instead of the Gaussian band solver is shown to be considerable. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.