Numerical solution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with an upwind compact difference scheme

A new finite difference method for the discretization of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is presented. The scheme is constructed on a staggered‐mesh grid system. The convection terms are discretized with a fifth‐order‐accurate upwind compact difference approximation, the viscous terms are discretized with a sixth‐order symmetrical compact difference approximation, the continuity equation and the pressure gradient in the momentum equations are discretized with a fourth‐order difference approximation on a cell‐centered mesh. Time advancement uses a three‐stage Runge–Kutta method. The Poisson equation for computing the pressure is solved with preconditioning. Accuracy analysis shows that the new method has high resolving efficiency. Validation of the method by computation of Taylor's vortex array is presented. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Study of a staggered fourth‐order compact scheme for unsteady incompressible viscous flows

The objective of this paper is the development and assessment of a fourth‐order compact scheme for unsteady incompressible viscous flows. A brief review of the main developments of compact and high‐order schemes for incompressible flows is given. A numerical method is then presented for the simulation of unsteady incompressible flows based on fourth‐order compact discretization with physical boundary conditions implemented directly into the scheme. The equations are discretized on a staggered Cartesian non‐uniform grid and preserve a form of kinetic energy in the inviscid limit when a skew‐symmetric form of the convective terms is used. The accuracy and efficiency of the method are demonstrated in several inviscid and viscous flow problems. Results obtained with different combinations of second‐ and fourth‐order spatial discretizations and together with either the skew‐symmetric or divergence form of the convective term are compared. The performance of these schemes is further demonstrated by two challenging flow problems, linear instability in plane channel flow and a two‐dimensional dipole–wall interaction. Results show that the compact scheme is efficient and that the divergence and skew‐symmetric forms of the convective terms produce very similar results. In some but not all cases, a gain in accuracy and computational time is obtained with a high‐order discretization of only the convective and diffusive terms. Finally, the benefits of compact schemes with respect to second‐order schemes is discussed in the case of the fully developed turbulent channel flow. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implicit weighted essentially non‐oscillatory schemes for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

A class of lower–upper/approximate factorization (LUAF) implicit weighted essentially non‐oscillatory (ENO; WENO) schemes for solving the two‐dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in a generalized co‐ordinate system is presented. The algorithm is based on the artificial compressibility formulation, and symmetric Gauss–Seidel relaxation is used for computing steady state solutions while symmetric successive overrelaxation is used for treating time‐dependent flows. WENO spatial operators are employed for inviscid fluxes and central differencing for viscous fluxes. Internal and external viscous flow test problems are presented to verify the numerical schemes. The use of a WENO spatial operator not only enhances the accuracy of solutions but also improves the convergence rate for the steady state computation as compared with using the ENO counterpart. It is found that the present solutions compare well with exact solutions, experimental data and other numerical results. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order scheme for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with open boundary condition

We present a numerical scheme to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with open boundary condition. After replacing the incompressibility constraint by the pressure Poisson equation, the key is how to give an appropriate boundary condition for the pressure Poisson equation. We propose a new boundary condition for the pressure on the open boundary. Some numerical experiments are presented to verify the accuracy and stability of scheme. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fourth‐order accurate compact‐difference discretization method for Helmholtz and incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

A fourth‐order accurate solution method for the three‐dimensional Helmholtz equations is described that is based on a compact finite‐difference stencil for the Laplace operator. Similar discretization methods for the Poisson equation have been presented by various researchers for Dirichlet boundary conditions. Here, the complicated issue of imposing Neumann boundary conditions is described in detail. The method is then applied to model Helmholtz problems to verify the accuracy of the discretization method. The implementation of the solution method is also described. The Helmholtz solver is used as the basis for a fourth‐order accurate solver for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Numerical results obtained with this Navier–Stokes solver for the temporal evolution of a three‐dimensional instability in a counter‐rotating vortex pair are discussed. The time‐accurate Navier–Stokes simulations show the resolving properties of the developed discretization method and the correct prediction of the initial growth rate of the three‐dimensional instability in the vortex pair. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flux‐difference splitting‐based upwind compact schemes for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

Third‐order and fifth‐order upwind compact finite difference schemes based on flux‐difference splitting are proposed for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in conjunction with the artificial compressibility (AC) method. Since the governing equations in the AC method are hyperbolic, flux‐difference splitting (FDS) originally developed for the compressible Euler equations can be used. In the present upwind compact schemes, the split derivatives for the convective terms at grid points are linked to the differences of split fluxes between neighboring grid points, and these differences are computed by using FDS. The viscous terms are approximated with a sixth‐order central compact scheme. Comparisons with 2D benchmark solutions demonstrate that the present compact schemes are simple, efficient, and high‐order accurate. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementing a high‐order accurate implicit operator scheme for solving steady incompressible viscous flows using artificial compressibility method

This paper uses a fourth‐order compact finite‐difference scheme for solving steady incompressible flows. The high‐order compact method applied is an alternating direction implicit operator scheme, which has been used by Ekaterinaris for computing two‐dimensional compressible flows. Herein, this numerical scheme is efficiently implemented to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in the primitive variables formulation using the artificial compressibility method. For space discretizing the convective fluxes, fourth‐order centered spatial accuracy of the implicit operators is efficiently obtained by performing compact space differentiation in which the method uses block‐tridiagonal matrix inversions. To stabilize the numerical solution, numerical dissipation terms and/or filters are used. In this study, the high‐order compact implicit operator scheme is also extended for computing three‐dimensional incompressible flows. The accuracy and efficiency of this high‐order compact method are demonstrated for different incompressible flow problems. A sensitivity study is also conducted to evaluate the effects of grid resolution and pseudocompressibility parameter on accuracy and convergence rate of the solution. The effects of filtering and numerical dissipation on the solution are also investigated. Test cases considered herein for validating the results are incompressible flows in a 2‐D backward facing step, a 2‐D cavity and a 3‐D cavity at different flow conditions. Results obtained for these cases are in good agreement with the available numerical and experimental results. The study shows that the scheme is robust, efficient and accurate for solving incompressible flow problems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of wide and compact fourth‐order formulations of the Navier–Stokes equations

In this study the numerical performances of wide and compact fourth‐order formulation of the steady 2D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations will be investigated and compared with each other. The benchmark driven cavity flow problem will be solved using both wide and compact fourth‐order formulations and the numerical performances of both formulations will be presented and also the advantages and disadvantages of both formulations will be discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐order accurate numerical solutions of incompressible flows with the artificial compressibility method

A high‐order accurate, finite‐difference method for the numerical solution of incompressible flows is presented. This method is based on the artificial compressibility formulation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Fourth‐ or sixth‐order accurate discretizations of the metric terms and the convective fluxes are obtained using compact, centred schemes. The viscous terms are also discretized using fourth‐order accurate, centred finite differences. Implicit time marching is performed for both steady‐state and time‐accurate numerical solutions. High‐order, spectral‐type, low‐pass, compact filters are used to regularize the numerical solution and remove spurious modes arising from unresolved scales, non‐linearities, and inaccuracies in the application of boundary conditions. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated for test problems. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fourth‐order compact formulation of Navier–Stokes equations and driven cavity flow at high Reynolds numbers

A new fourth‐order compact formulation for the steady 2‐D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is presented. The formulation is in the same form of the Navier–Stokes equations such that any numerical method that solve the Navier–Stokes equations can easily be applied to this fourth‐order compact formulation. In particular, in this work the formulation is solved with an efficient numerical method that requires the solution of tridiagonal systems using a fine grid mesh of 601 × 601. Using this formulation, the steady 2‐D incompressible flow in a driven cavity is solved up to Reynolds number with Re = 20 000 fourth‐order spatial accuracy. Detailed solutions are presented. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of a preconditioned high‐order accurate artificial compressibility‐based incompressible flow solver in wide range of Reynolds numbers

In the present study, the preconditioned incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations with the artificial compressibility method formulated in the generalized curvilinear coordinates are numerically solved by using a high‐order compact finite‐difference scheme for accurately and efficiently computing the incompressible flows in a wide range of Reynolds numbers. A fourth‐order compact finite‐difference scheme is utilized to accurately discretize the spatial derivative terms of the governing equations, and the time integration is carried out based on the dual time‐stepping method. The capability of the proposed solution methodology for the computations of the steady and unsteady incompressible viscous flows from very low to high Reynolds numbers is investigated through the simulation of different 2‐dimensional benchmark problems, and the results obtained are compared with the existing analytical, numerical, and experimental data. A sensitivity analysis is also performed to evaluate the effects of the size of the computational domain and other numerical parameters on the accuracy and performance of the solution algorithm. The present solution procedure is also extended to 3 dimensions and applied for computing the incompressible flow over a sphere. Indications are that the application of the preconditioning in the solution algorithm together with the high‐order discretization method in the generalized curvilinear coordinates provides an accurate and robust solution method for simulating the incompressible flows over practical geometries in a wide range of Reynolds numbers including the creeping flows.     

A stress‐based least‐squares finite‐element model for incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

In this paper we present a stress‐based least‐squares finite‐element formulation for the solution of the Navier–Stokes equations governing flows of viscous incompressible fluids. Stress components are introduced as independent variables to make the system first order. Continuity equation becomes an algebraic equation and is eliminated from the system with suitable modifications. The h and p convergence are verified using the exact solution of Kovasznay flow. Steady flow past a large circular cylinder in a channel is solved to test mass conservation. Transient flow over a backward‐facing step problem is solved on several meshes. Results are compared with that obtained using vorticity‐based first‐order formulation for both benchmark problems. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multigrid solution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations for three‐dimensional recirculating flow: coupled and decoupled smoothers compared

A comparison of multigrid methods for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in three dimensions is presented. The continuous equations are discretised on staggered grids using a second‐order monotonic scheme for the convective terms and implemented in defect correction form. The convergence characteristics of a decoupled method (SIMPLE) are compared with those of the cellwise coupled method (SCGS). The convergence rates obtained for computations of the three‐dimensional lid‐driven cavity problem are found to be very similar to those obtained for computations of the corresponding two‐dimensional problem with comparable grid density. Although the convergence rate of SCGS is thus superior to that of SIMPLE, the decoupled method is found to be more efficient computationally and requires less computing time for a given level of convergence. The linewise implementation of the coupled method (CLGS) is also investigated and shown to be more efficient than SCGS, although the convergence rate and computing time required per cycle are both found to depend on the direction of sweep. The optimal implementation of CLGS is found to be only marginally more effective than SIMPLE, but a change to the structure of the data storage would increase the advantage. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An implicit edge‐based ALE method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

A new finite volume method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, expressed in arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) form, is presented. The method uses a staggered storage arrangement for the pressure and velocity variables and adopts an edge‐based data structure and assembly procedure which is valid for arbitrary n‐sided polygonal meshes. Edge formulas are presented for assembling the ALE form of the momentum and pressure equations. An implicit multi‐stage time integrator is constructed that is geometrically conservative to the precision of the arithmetic used in the computation. The method is shown to be second‐order‐accurate in time and space for general time‐dependent polygonal meshes. The method is first evaluated using several well‐known unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes problems before being applied to a periodically forced aeroelastic problem and a transient free surface problem. Published in 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Chimera method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

The Chimera method was developed three decades ago as a meshing simplification tool. Different components are meshed independently and then glued together using a domain decomposition technique to couple the equations solved on each component. This coupling is achieved via transmission conditions (in the finite element context) or by imposing the continuity of fluxes (in the finite volume context). Historically, the method has then been used extensively to treat moving objects, as the independent meshes are free to move with respect to the others. At each time step, the main task consists in recomputing the interpolation of the transmission conditions or fluxes. This paper presents a Chimera method applied to the Navier–Stokes equations. After an introduction on the Chimera method, we describe in two different sections the two independent steps of the method: the hole cutting to create the interfaces of the subdomains and the coupling of the subdomains. Then, we present the Navier–Stokes solver considered in this work. Implementation aspects are then detailed in order to apply efficiently the method to this specific parallel Navier–Stokes solver. We conclude with some examples to demonstrate the reliability and application of the proposed method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Combined compact difference method for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

This paper presents a numerical method for solving the two‐dimensional unsteady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in a vorticity–velocity formulation. The method is applicable for simulating the nonlinear wave interaction in a two‐dimensional boundary layer flow. It is based on combined compact difference schemes of up to 12th order for discretization of the spatial derivatives on equidistant grids and a fourth‐order five‐ to six‐alternating‐stage Runge–Kutta method for temporal integration. The spatial and temporal schemes are optimized together for the first derivative in a downstream direction to achieve a better spectral resolution. In this method, the dispersion and dissipation errors have been minimized to simulate physical waves accurately. At the same time, the schemes can efficiently suppress numerical grid‐mesh oscillations. The results of test calculations on coarse grids are in good agreement with the linear stability theory and comparable with other works. The accuracy and the efficiency of the current code indicate its potential to be extended to three‐dimensional cases in which full boundary layer transition happens. Copyright © 2011 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.     

A dimension split method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in three dimensions

In this paper, we describe a new method for the three‐dimensional steady incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, which is called the dimension split method (DSM). The basic idea of DSM is that the three‐dimensional space is split up into a cluster of two‐dimensional manifolds and then the three‐dimensional solution is approximated by the solutions on these two‐dimensional manifolds. Through introducing some technologies, such as SUPG stabilization, multigrid method, and such, we firstly make DSM feasible in the computation of real flow. Because of split property of DSM, all computation is carried out on these two‐dimensional manifolds, namely, a series of two‐dimensional problems only need to be solved in the computation of three‐dimensional problem, which greatly reduces the difficulty and the computational cost in the mesh generation. Moreover, these two‐dimensional problems can be computed simultaneously and a coarse‐grained parallel algorithm would be constructed, whereas the two‐dimensional manifold is considered as the computation unit. In the last, we explore the behavior and the accuracy of the proposed method in two numerical examples. Firstly, error estimates, performance of multigrid method, and parallel algorithm are well‐demonstrated by the known analytical solution case. Secondly, the computations of three‐dimensional lid‐driven cavity flows with different Reynolds numbers are compared with other numerical simulations. Results show that the present implementation is able to exhibit good stability and accuracy properties for real flows. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementation of high‐order compact finite‐difference method to parabolized Navier–Stokes schemes

The numerical solution to the parabolized Navier–Stokes (PNS) and globally iterated PNS (IPNS) equations for accurate computation of hypersonic axisymmetric flowfields is obtained by using the fourth‐order compact finite‐difference method. The PNS and IPNS equations in the general curvilinear coordinates are solved by using the implicit finite‐difference algorithm of Beam and Warming type with a high‐order compact accuracy. A shock‐fitting procedure is utilized in both compact PNS and IPNS schemes to obtain accurate solutions in the vicinity of the shock. The main advantage of the present formulation is that the basic flow variables and their first and second derivatives are simultaneously computed with the fourth‐order accuracy. The computations are carried out for a benchmark case: hypersonic axisymmetric flow over a blunt cone at Mach 8. A sensitivity study is performed for the basic flowfield, including profiles and their derivatives obtained from the fourth‐order compact PNS and IPNS solutions, and the effects of grid size and numerical dissipation term used are discussed. The present results for the flowfield variables and also their derivatives are compared with those of other basic flow models to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. The present work represents the first known application of a high‐order compact finite‐difference method to the PNS schemes, which are computationally more efficient than Navier–Stokes solutions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Colocated schemes for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on non‐smooth grids for two‐dimensional problems

The accuracy of colocated finite volume schemes for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on non‐smooth curvilinear grids is investigated. A frequently used scheme is found to be quite inaccurate on non‐smooth grids. In an attempt to improve the accuracy on such grids, three other schemes are described and tested. Two of these are found to give satisfactory results. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.