A hybrid linking approach for solving the conservation equations with an adaptive mesh refinement method

Accurate numerical computation of complex flows on a single grid requires very fine meshes to capture phenomena occurring at both large and small scales. The use of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) methods, significantly reduces the involved computational time and memory. In the present article, a hybrid linking approach for solving the conservation equations with an AMR method is proposed. This method is essentially a coupling between the h-AMR and the multigrid methods. The efficiency of the present approach has been demonstrated by solving species and Navier–Stokes equations.     

Comparison of refinement criteria for structured adaptive mesh refinement

We have investigated and analyzed the grid convergence issues for an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code. We have found that the numerical results for the AMR grid may have a larger error than those for the unrefined uniform grid. After a detailed analysis, we have found that the numerical solution at the coarse-fine interface between different levels of the grid converges only in the first-order accuracy. Therefore, the error near the coarse-fine interface can quickly dominate the error in the other regions if the coarse-fine interface is active and not covered by the fine grid. We propose, implement, and compare several refinement criteria. Some of them can catch the large-error region near the coarse-fine interface and refine them with the fine grid.     

A numerical method to compute solidification and melting processes

This paper deals with thermodynamically consistent numerical predictions of solidification and melting processes of pure materials using moving grids. Till date, enthalpy-porosity-based formulations of numerical codes have been generally the popular choice, although because of an artificial numerical smearing of the interface, it is virtually impossible to reproduce a sharp melting/solidification front that is supposed to exist for phase changes of pure substances. Numerical techniques based on moving grid methods have been relatively less used as they rely on complex and time-consuming adaptive grid generations. Using the moving grid approach, the authors present a method to solve solidification and melting problems. A simple linear interpolation is used to slide grid nodes along the interface to handle the otherwise obtained grid skewness near the interface. The numerical approach employed is validated with standard test cases available in the literature. The capability of capturing very complex flow field structures and the superiority of the present approach over enthalpy-porosity-based formulations is discussed. The authors also demonstrate the ability of the set-up computer code to solve complex thermofluid processes such as occur during crystal growth in Czochralski reactors.     

Numerical multi-block grids in coastal ocean circulation modeling

In coastal ocean modeling, one desires to capture the evolution and interaction of multi-scales of physical phenomena in a complicated physical domain. With limited computer resources, an appropriate choice of the numerical grid has a key role in determining the quality of the solution of a numerical coastal ocean model. Traditionally, single-block rectangular grids have been most commonly used in coastal ocean modeling for their simplicity. An effective coastal ocean model represents the dynamics of the coastal ocean flow on a numerical grid, including the effects of complicated features such as coastlines, bottom topography (submarine canyons, seamounts, narrow straits), and multi-scale physical phenomena. These problems require a model grid system more efficient than a traditional single-block rectangular grid. The model grids must give better resolution of coastlines and boundary conditions, multi-scale physical phenomenon, and save computer resources. These grids can also easily increase horizontal resolution in a subregion of the model domain without increasing computer expense with high resolution over the entire domain. The multi-block numerical generation grid technique is used in developing a coastal ocean system applied to the Mediterranean Sea (MED) with complicated coastlines, bottom topography and multi-scale physical features. The MED coastal ocean system consists of the MED model based on the Princeton Ocean Model, numerical grid generation routines, and a grid package which allows the model to be coupled with model grids. The traditional, nine-block orthogonal grid, and eight-block curvilinear nearly orthogonal coastline-following grid are used in the study. The numerical solutions with the three grids are compared in term of effectiveness. The numerical simulations show some MED basic physical features.     

Implementing a discontinuous Galerkin method for the compressible,inviscid Euler equations in the DUNE framework

A discontinuous Galerkin scheme was implemented in the DUNE framework to solve the compressible, inviscid Euler equations in a multi-dimensional Cartesian grid. It uses a HLLC Riemann solver for the numerical fluxes in the interfaces, a total variation bounded limiter to handle discontinuities, a positivity preserving limiter for near vacuum conditions, and adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Multiresolution algorithms for the numerical solution of hyperbolic conservation laws

Given any scheme in conservation form and an appropriate uniform grid for the numerical solution of the initial value problem for one-dimensional hyperbolic conservation laws we describe a multiresolution algorithm that approximates this numerical solution to a prescribed tolerance in an efficient manner. To do so we consider the grid-averages of the numerical solution for a hierarchy of nested diadic grids in which the given grid is the finest, and introduce an equivalent multiresolution representation. The multiresolution representation of the numerical solution consists of its grid-averages for the coarsest grid and the set of errors in predicting the grid-averages of each level of resolution in this hierarchy from those of the next coarser one. Once the numerical solution is resolved to our satisfaction in a certain locality of some grid, then the prediction errors there are small for this particular grid and all finer ones; this enables us to compress data by setting to zero small components of the representation which fall below a prescribed tolerance. Therefore instead of computing the time-evolution of the numerical solution on the given grid we compute the time-evolution of its compressed multiresolution representation. Algorithmically this amounts to computing the numerical fluxes of the given scheme at the points of the given grid by a hierarchical algorithm which starts with the computation of these numerical fluxes at the points of the coarsest grid and then proceeds through diadic refinements to the given grid. At each step of refinement we add the values of the numerical flux at the center of the coarser cells. The information in the multiresolution representation of the numerical solution is used to determine whether the solution is locally well-resolved. When this is the case we replace the costly exact value of the numerical flux with an accurate enough approximate value which is obtained by an inexpensive interpolation from the coarser grid. The computational efficiency of this multiresolution algorithm is proportional to the rate of data compression (for a prescribed level of tolerance) that can be achieved for the numerical solution of the given scheme.     

Nonnegative splines, in particular of degree five

Summary. We investigate splines from a variational point of view, which have the following properties: (a) they interpolate given data, (b) they stay nonnegative, when the data are positive, (c) for a given integer they minimize the functional for all nonnegative, interpolating . We extend known results for to larger , in particular to and we find general necessary conditions for solutions of this restricted minimization problem. These conditions imply that solutions are splines in an augmented grid. In addition, we find that the solutions are in and consist of piecewise polynomials in with respect to the augmented grid. We find that for general, odd there will be no boundary arcs which means (nontrivial) subintervals in which the spline is identically zero. We show also that the occurrence of a boundary arc in an interval between two neighboring knots prohibits the existence of any further knot in that interval. For we show that between given neighboring interpolation knots, the augmented grid has at most two additional grid points. In the case of two interpolation knots (the local problem) we develop polynomial equations for the additional grid points which can be used directly for numerical computation. For the general (global) problem we propose an algorithm which is based on a Newton iteration for the additional grid points and which uses the local spline data as an initial guess. There are extensions to other types of constraints such as two-sided restrictions, also ones which vary from interval to interval. As an illustration several numerical examples including graphs of splines manufactured by MATLAB- and FORTRAN-programs are given. Received November 16, 1995 / Revised version received February 24, 1997     

RANS-simulation of premixed turbulent combustion using the level set approach

A model for premixed turbulent combustion is investigated using a RANS-approach. The evolution of the flame front is described with the help of the level set approach [1] which is used for tracking of propagating interfaces in free-surface flows, geodesics, grid generation and combustion. The fluid properties are conditioned on the flame front position using a burntunburnt probability function across the flame front. Computations are performed using the code FASTEST-3D which is a flow solver for a non-orthogonal, block-structured grid. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Characterization of multispherical and block structures of Euclidean distance matrices

This paper presents some new characterizations of Euclidean distance matrices (EDMs) of special structures. More specifically, we discuss multispherical and block-structured EDMs, each of which can be viewed as a generalization of spherical EDM. We focus on a well-known inequality that characterizes spherical EDMs and extend it to the sets of multispherical and block-structured EDMs. Some related results are also presented.     

Research on game model and complexity of retailer collecting and selling in closed-loop supply chain

A closed-loop supply chain is a complex system in which node enterprises play important roles and exert great influence. Firstly, this paper established a collecting price game model for a close-loop supply chain system with a manufacturer and a retailer who have different rationalities. It assumed that the node enterprises took the marginal utility maximization as the basis of decision-making. Secondly, through numerical simulation, we analyzed complex dynamic phenomena such as the bifurcation, chaos and continuous power spectrum and so on. Thirdly, we analyzed the influences of the system parameters; this further explained the complex nonlinear dynamics behavior from the perspective of economics. The results have significant theoretical and practical application value.     

Two-Level preconditioned Krylov subspace methods for the solution of three-dimensional heterogeneous Helmholtz problems in seismics

In this paper we address the solution of three-dimensional heterogeneous Helmholtz problems discretized with compact fourth-order finite difference methods with application to acoustic waveform inversion in geophysics. In this setting, the numerical simulation of wave propagation phenomena requires the approximate solution of possibly very large linear systems of equations. We propose an iterative two-grid method where the coarse grid problem is solved inexactly. A single cycle of this method is used as a variable preconditioner for a flexible Krylov subspace method. Numerical results demonstrate the usefulness of the algorithm on a realistic three-dimensional application. The proposed numerical method allows us to solve wave propagation problems with single or multiple sources even at high frequencies on a reasonable number of cores of a distributed memory cluster.     

An implicit numerical method of a new time distributed-order and two-sided space-fractional advection-dispersion equation

Distributed-order differential equations have recently been investigated for complex dynamical systems, which have been used to describe some important physical phenomena. In this paper, a new time distributed-order and two-sided space-fractional advection-dispersion equation is considered. Firstly, we transform the time distributed-order fractional equation into a multi-term time-space fractional partial differential equation by applying numerical integration. Then an implicit numerical method is constructed to solve the multi-term fractional equation. The uniqueness, stability and convergence of the implicit numerical method are proved. Some numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. The method and techniques can be extended to other time distributed-order and space-fractional partial differential equations.     

The role of conditioning in mesh selection algorithms for first order systems of linear two point boundary value problems

Codes for the numerical solution of two-point boundary value problems can now handle quite general problems in a fairly routine and reliable manner. When faced with particularly challenging equations, such as singular perturbation problems, the most efficient codes use a highly non-uniform grid in order to resolve the non-smooth parts of the solution trajectory. This grid is usually constructed using either a pointwise local error estimate defined at the grid points or else by using a local residual control. Similar error estimates are used to decide whether or not to accept a solution. Such an approach is very effective in general providing that the problem to be solved is well conditioned. However, if the problem is ill conditioned then such grid refinement algorithms may be inefficient because many iterations may be required to reach a suitable mesh on which to compute the solution. Even worse, for ill conditioned problems an inaccurate solution may be accepted even though the local error estimates may be perfectly satisfactory in that they are less than a prescribed tolerance. The primary reason for this is, of course, that for ill conditioned problems a small local error at each grid point may not produce a correspondingly small global error in the solution. In view of this it could be argued that, when solving a two-point boundary value problem in cases where we have no idea of its conditioning, we should provide an estimate of the condition number of the problem as well as the numerical solution. In this paper we consider some algorithms for estimating the condition number of boundary value problems and show how this estimate can be used in the grid refinement algorithm.     

Derivative free optimization methods for optimizing stirrer configurations

In this paper a numerical approach for the optimization of stirrer configurations is presented. The methodology is based on a flow solver, and a mathematical optimization tool, which are integrated into an automated procedure. The flow solver is based on the discretization of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations by means of a fully conservative finite-volume method for block-structured, boundary-fitted grids, for allowing a flexible discretization of complex stirrer geometries. Two derivative free optimization algorithms, the DFO and CONDOR are considered, they are implementations of trust region based derivative-free methods using multivariate polynomial interpolation. Both are designed to minimize smooth functions whose evaluations are considered to be expensive and whose derivatives are not available or not desirable to approximate. An exemplary application for a standard stirrer configuration illustrates the functionality and the properties of the proposed methods. It also gives a comparison of the two optimization algorithms.     

Minimization of grid orientation effects in simulation of oil recovery processes through use of an unsplit higher order scheme

We present an unsplit second-order finite difference algorithm for hyperbolic conservation laws in several variables. Although the method can be directly implemented for general hyperbolic systems, we focus in this article on reducing grid orientation effects in porous media flow. In particular, we consider miscible and immiscible displacement processes. Our main concern is to develop a scheme that can easily be implemented into existing standard finite-difference-based reservoir simulators as an option to be used if grid orientation effects occur. The principle of the scheme is to build a higher order scheme to reduce numerical dispersion and that does not split the spatial operator to reduce the effect of the grid orientation. Numerical results are presented, which show that the method presented here reduces the effect of the numerical dispersion to a level that minimizes the grid orientation effects in a computationally efficient manner. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Geometric numerical schemes for the KdV equation

Geometric discretizations that preserve certain Hamiltonian structures at the discrete level has been proven to enhance the accuracy of numerical schemes. In particular, numerous symplectic and multi-symplectic schemes have been proposed to solve numerically the celebrated Korteweg-de Vries equation. In this work, we show that geometrical schemes are as much robust and accurate as Fourier-type pseudospectral methods for computing the long-time KdV dynamics, and thus more suitable to model complex nonlinear wave phenomena.     

Two‐level Fourier analysis of multigrid for higher‐order finite‐element discretizations of the Laplacian

In this paper, we employ local Fourier analysis (LFA) to analyze the convergence properties of multigrid methods for higher‐order finite‐element approximations to the Laplacian problem. We find that the classical LFA smoothing factor, where the coarse‐grid correction is assumed to be an ideal operator that annihilates the low‐frequency error components and leaves the high‐frequency components unchanged, fails to accurately predict the observed multigrid performance and, consequently, cannot be a reliable analysis tool to give good performance estimates of the two‐grid convergence factor. While two‐grid LFA still offers a reliable prediction, it leads to more complex symbols that are cumbersome to use to optimize parameters of the relaxation scheme, as is often needed for complex problems. For the purposes of this analytical optimization as well as to have simple predictive analysis, we propose a modification that is “between” two‐grid LFA and smoothing analysis, which yields reasonable predictions to help choose correct damping parameters for relaxation. This exploration may help us better understand multigrid performance for higher‐order finite element discretizations, including for Q₂‐Q₁ (Taylor‐Hood) elements for the Stokes equations. Finally, we present two‐grid and multigrid experiments, where the corrected parameter choice is shown to yield significant improvements in the resulting two‐grid and multigrid convergence factors.     

A semi‐discrete defect correction finite element method for unsteady incompressible magnetohydrodynamics equations

In this report, we give a semi‐discrete defect correction finite element method for the unsteady incompressible magnetohydrodynamics equations. The defect correction method is an iterative improvement technique for increasing the accuracy of a numerical solution without applying a grid refinement. Firstly, the nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics equations is solved with an artificial viscosity term. Then, the numerical solutions are improved on the same grid by a linearized defect‐correction technique. Then, we give the numerical analysis including stability analysis and error analysis. The numerical analysis proves that our method is stable and has an optimal convergence rate. In order to show the effect of our method, some numerical results are shown. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

GasTurbnLab: a multidisciplinary problem solving environment for gas turbine engine design on a network of nonhomogeneous machines

Gas turbine engines are very complex (with 20–40,000 parts) and have extreme operating conditions. The important physical phenomena take place on scales from 10–100 microns to meters. A complete and accurate dynamic simulation of an entire engine is enormously demanding. Designing a complex system, like a gas turbine engine, will require fast, accurate simulations of computational models from multiple engineering disciplines along with sophisticated optimization techniques to help guide the design process. In this paper, we describe the architecture of an agent-based software framework for the simulation of various aspects of a gas turbine engine, utilizing a “network” of collaborating numerical objects through a set of interfaces among the engine parts. Moreover, we present its implementation using the Grasshopper agent middleware and provide simulation results that show the feasibility of the computational paradigm implemented.     

Numerical simulation of a continuum model for bi-directional pedestrian flow

An algorithm for an extended reactive dynamic user equilibrium model of pedestrian counterflow as a continuum is developed. It is based on a cell-centered high-resolution finite volume scheme with a fast sweeping method for an Eikonal-type equation on an orthogonal grid. A high-order total variation diminishing Runge-Kutta method is adopted for the time integration of semi-discrete equations. The numerical results demonstrate the rationality of the model and efficiency of the algorithm. Some crowd pedestrian flow phenomena, such as dynamic lane formation in bi-directional flow, are observed which are helpful for a global comprehension of pedestrian dynamics. Also, the model can be utilized with different potential applications.