Assessment of different reconstruction techniques for implementing the NVSF schemes on unstructured meshes

Three new far‐upwind reconstruction techniques, New‐Technique 1, 2, and 3, are proposed in this paper, which localize the normalized variable and space formulation (NVSF) schemes and facilitate the implementation of standard bounded high‐resolution differencing schemes on arbitrary unstructured meshes. By theoretical analysis, it is concluded that the three new techniques overcome two inherent drawbacks of the original technique found in the literature. Eleven classic high‐resolution NVSF schemes developed in the past decades are selected to evaluate performances of the three new techniques relative to the original technique. Under the circumstances of arbitrary unstructured meshes, stretched meshes, and uniform triangular meshes, for each NVSF scheme, the accuracies and convergence properties, when implementing the four aforementioned far‐upwind reconstruction techniques respectively, are assessed by the pure convection of several scalar profiles. The numerical results clearly show that New‐Technique‐2 leads to a better performance in terms of overall accuracy and convergence behavior for the 11 NVSF schemes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel multidimensional solution reconstruction and edge‐based limiting procedure for unstructured cell‐centered finite volumes with application to shallow water dynamics

On unstructured meshes, the cell‐centered finite volume (CCFV) formulation, where the finite control volumes are the mesh elements themselves, is probably the most used formulation for numerically solving the two‐dimensional nonlinear shallow water equations and hyperbolic conservation laws in general. Within this CCFV framework, second‐order spatial accuracy is achieved with a Monotone Upstream‐centered Schemes for Conservation Laws‐type (MUSCL) linear reconstruction technique, where a novel edge‐based multidimensional limiting procedure is derived for the control of the total variation of the reconstructed field. To this end, a relatively simple, but very effective modification to a reconstruction procedure for CCFV schemes, is introduced, which takes into account geometrical characteristics of computational triangular meshes. The proposed strategy is shown not to suffer from loss of accuracy on grids with poor connectivity. We apply this reconstruction in the development of a second‐order well‐balanced Godunov‐type scheme for the simulation of unsteady two‐dimensional flows over arbitrary topography with wetting and drying on triangular meshes. Although the proposed limited reconstruction is independent from the Riemann solver used, the well‐known approximate Riemann solver of Roe is utilized to compute the numerical fluxes, whereas the Green–Gauss divergence formulation for gradient computations is implemented. Two different stencils for the Green–Gauss gradient computations are implemented and critically tested, in conjunction with the proposed limiting strategy, on various grid types, for smooth and nonsmooth flow conditions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Higher‐order bounded differencing schemes for compressible and incompressible flows

In recent years, three higher‐order (HO) bounded differencing schemes, namely AVLSMART, CUBISTA and HOAB that were derived by adopting the normalized variable formulation (NVF), have been proposed. In this paper, a comparative study is performed on these schemes to assess their numerical accuracy, computational cost as well as iterative convergence property. All the schemes are formulated on the basis of a new dual‐formulation in order to facilitate their implementations on unstructured meshes. Based on the proposed dual‐formulation, the net effective blending factor (NEBF) of a high‐resolution (HR) scheme can now be measured and its relevance on the accuracy and computational cost of a HR scheme is revealed on three test problems: (1) advection of a scalar step‐profile; (2) 2D transonic flow past a circular arc bump; and (3) 3D lid‐driven incompressible cavity flow. Both density‐based and pressure‐based methods are used for the computations of compressible and incompressible flow, respectively. Computed results show that all the schemes produce solutions which are nearly as accurate as the third‐order QUICK scheme; however, without the unphysical oscillations which are commonly inherited from the HO linear differencing scheme. Generally, it is shown that at higher value of NEBF, a HR scheme can attain better accuracy at the expense of computational cost. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved multislope MUSCL reconstruction on unstructured grids for shallow water equations

In shallow water flow and transport modeling, the monotonic upstream‐centered scheme for conservation laws (MUSCL) is widely used to extend the original Godunov scheme to second‐order accuracy. The most important step in MUSCL‐type schemes is MUSCL reconstruction, which calculate‐extrapolates the values of independent variables from the cell center to the edge. The monotonicity of the scheme is preserved with the help of slope limiters that prevent the occurrence of new extrema during reconstruction. On structured grids, the calculation of the slope is straightforward and usually based on a 2‐point stencil that uses the cell centers of the neighbor cell and the so‐called far‐neighbor cell of the edge under consideration. On unstructured grids, the correct choice for the upwind slope becomes nontrivial. In this work, 2 novel total variation diminishing schemes are developed based on different techniques for calculating the upwind slope and the downwind slope. An additional treatment that stabilizes the scheme is discussed. The proposed techniques are compared to 2 existing MUSCL reconstruction techniques, and a detailed discussion of the results is given. It is shown that the proposed MUSCL reconstruction schemes obtain more accurate results with less numerical diffusion and higher efficiency.     

An efficient high order direct ALE ADER finite volume scheme with a posteriori limiting for hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics

In this paper, we present a new family of direct arbitrary–Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) finite volume schemes for the solution of hyperbolic balance laws on unstructured meshes in multiple space dimensions. The scheme is designed to be high‐order accurate both in space and time, and the mesh motion, which provides the new mesh configuration at the next time step, is taken into account in the final finite volume scheme that is based directly on a space‐time conservation formulation of the governing PDE system. To improve the computational efficiency of the algorithm, high order of accuracy in space is achieved using the a posteriori MOOD limiting strategy that allows the reconstruction procedure to be carried out with only one reconstruction stencil for any order of accuracy. We rely on an element‐local space‐time Galerkin finite element predictor on moving curved meshes to obtain a high‐order accurate one‐step time discretization, while the mesh velocity is computed by means of a suitable nodal solver algorithm that might also be supplemented with a local rezoning procedure to improve the mesh quality. Next, the old mesh configuration at time level tⁿ is connected to the new one at t^n + 1 by straight edges, hence providing unstructured space‐time control volumes, on the boundary of which the numerical flux has to be integrated. Here, we adopt a quadrature‐free integration, in which the space‐time boundaries of the control volumes are split into simplex sub‐elements that yield constant space‐time normal vectors and Jacobian matrices. In this way, the integrals over the simplex sub‐elements can be evaluated once and for all analytically during a preprocessing step. We apply the new high‐order direct ALE algorithm to the Euler equations of compressible gas dynamics (also referred to as hydrodynamics equations) as well as to the magnetohydrodynamics equations and we solve a set of classical test problems in two and three space dimensions. Numerical convergence rates are provided up to fifth order of accuracy in 2D and 3D for both hyperbolic systems considered in this paper. Finally, the efficiency of the new method is measured and carefully compared against the original formulation of the algorithm that makes use of a WENO reconstruction technique and Gaussian quadrature formulae for the flux integration: depending on the test problem, the new class of very efficient direct ALE schemes proposed in this paper can run up to ≈12 times faster in the 3D case. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Connections between the discontinuous Galerkin method and high‐order flux reconstruction schemes

With high‐order methods becoming more widely adopted throughout the field of computational fluid dynamics, the development of new computationally efficient algorithms has increased tremendously in recent years. One of the most recent methods to be developed is the flux reconstruction approach, which allows various well‐known high‐order schemes to be cast within a single unifying framework. Whilst a connection between flux reconstruction and the more widely adopted discontinuous Galerkin method has been established elsewhere, it still remains to fully investigate the explicit connections between the many popular variants of the discontinuous Galerkin method and the flux reconstruction approach. In this work, we closely examine the connections between three nodal versions of tensor‐product discontinuous Galerkin spectral element approximations and two types of flux reconstruction schemes for solving systems of conservation laws on quadrilateral meshes. The different types of discontinuous Galerkin approximations arise from the choice of the solution nodes of the Lagrange basis representing the solution and from the quadrature approximation used to integrate the mass matrix and the other terms of the discretization. By considering both linear and nonlinear advection equations on a regular grid, we examine the mathematical properties that connect these discretizations. These arguments are further confirmed by the results of an empirical numerical study. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An eigenvector‐based linear reconstruction scheme for the shallow‐water equations on two‐dimensional unstructured meshes

This paper presents a new approach to MUSCL reconstruction for solving the shallow‐water equations on two‐dimensional unstructured meshes. The approach takes advantage of the particular structure of the shallow‐water equations. Indeed, their hyperbolic nature allows the flow variables to be expressed as a linear combination of the eigenvectors of the system. The particularity of the shallow‐water equations is that the coefficients of this combination only depend upon the water depth. Reconstructing only the water depth with second‐order accuracy and using only a first‐order reconstruction for the flow velocity proves to be as accurate as the classical MUSCL approach. The method also appears to be more robust in cases with very strong depth gradients such as the propagation of a wave on a dry bed. Since only one reconstruction is needed (against three reconstructions in the MUSCL approach) the EVR method is shown to be 1.4–5 times as fast as the classical MUSCL scheme, depending on the computational application. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical investigation of the aerodynamic and acoustical properties of a shrouded rotor

The problem of shrouded rotor rotation is numerically solved basing on the Navier–Stokes equations in a noninertial coordinate system. The configuration considered is a model helicopter tail rotor.The calculations are performed using edge-based reconstruction (EBR) schemes on unstructured tetrahedral grids with the variables determined at gridpoints. The numerical results on the aerodynamic forces and the acoustic radiation intensity and direction in the far field are presented and analyzed.     

An analytical interface reconstruction algorithm in the PLIC‐VOF method for 2D polygonal unstructured meshes

Piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC) schemes have been extensively employed in the volume‐of‐fluid (VOF) method for interface capturing in numerical simulations of multiphase flows. Polygonal unstructured meshes are often adopted because of their geometric flexibility and superiority in gradient calculation. An analytical interface reconstruction algorithm in the PLIC‐VOF method for arbitrary convex polygonal cells has been proposed in this study. The line interface at a given orientation within a polygonal cell is located by an analytical technique. It has been tested successfully for four different geometric shapes that are common in polygonal meshes. The computational efficiency of the present algorithm has been compared with several published schemes in the literature. The proposed algorithm has been shown to yield higher accuracy with reduction in computational complexity. A numerical simulation of a dam‐breaking problem has been performed using the proposed analytical PLIC technique on polygonal meshes. The results are in good agreement with experimental data available in the literature, which serves as a demonstration of its performance in a real multiphase flow.     

Some considerations for high‐order ‘incremental remap’‐based transport schemes: edges,reconstructions, and area integration

The problem of two‐dimensional tracer advection on the sphere is extremely important in modeling of geophysical fluids and has been tackled using a variety of approaches. A class of popular approaches for tracer advection include ‘incremental remap’ or cell‐integrated semi‐Lagrangian‐type schemes. These schemes achieve high‐order accuracy without the need for multistage integration in time, are capable of large time steps, and tend to be more efficient than other high‐order transport schemes when applied to a large number of tracers over a single velocity field. In this paper, the simplified flux‐form implementation of the Conservative Semi‐LAgrangian Multi‐tracer scheme (CSLAM) is reformulated using quadratic curves to approximate the upstream flux volumes and Gaussian quadrature for integrating the edge flux. The high‐order treatment of edge fluxes is motivated because of poor accuracy of the CSLAM scheme in the presence of strong nonlinear shear, such as one might observe in the midlatitudes near an atmospheric jet. Without the quadratic treatment of upstream edges, we observe at most second‐order accuracy under convergence of grid resolution, which is returned to third‐order accuracy under the improved treatment. A shallow‐water barotropic instability also reveals clear evidence of grid imprinting without the quadratic correction. Consequently, these tests reveal a problem that might arise in tracer transport near nonlinearly sheared regions of the real atmosphere, particularly near cubed‐sphere panel edges. Although CSLAM is used as the foundation for this analysis, the conclusions of this paper are applicable to the general class of incremental remap schemes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A refined r‐factor algorithm for TVD schemes on arbitrary unstructured meshes

A refined r‐factor algorithm for implementing total variation diminishing (TVD) schemes on arbitrary unstructured meshes, referred to henceforth as a face‐perpendicular far‐upwind interpolation scheme for arbitrary meshes (FFISAM), is proposed based on an extensive review of the existing r‐factor algorithms available in the literature. The design principles, as well as the respective advantages and disadvantages, of the existing algorithms are first systematically analyzed before presenting the FFISAM. The FFISAM is designed to combine the merits of various existing r‐factor algorithms. The performance of the FFISAM, implemented in 10 classical TVD schemes, is evaluated against four two‐dimensional pure‐advection benchmark test cases where analytical solutions are available. The numerical results clearly show that the FFISAM leads to a better overall performance than the existing algorithms in terms of accuracy and convergence on arbitrary unstructured meshes for the 10 classical TVD schemes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐order ADER‐WENO ALE schemes on unstructured triangular meshes—application of several node solvers to hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics

In this paper, we present a class of high‐order accurate cell‐centered arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) one‐step ADER weighted essentially non‐oscillatory (WENO) finite volume schemes for the solution of nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws on two‐dimensional unstructured triangular meshes. High order of accuracy in space is achieved by a WENO reconstruction algorithm, while a local space–time Galerkin predictor allows the schemes to be high order accurate also in time by using an element‐local weak formulation of the governing PDE on moving meshes. The mesh motion can be computed by choosing among three different node solvers, which are for the first time compared with each other in this article: the node velocity may be obtained either (i) as an arithmetic average among the states surrounding the node, as suggested by Cheng and Shu, or (ii) as a solution of multiple one‐dimensional half‐Riemann problems around a vertex, as suggested by Maire, or (iii) by solving approximately a multidimensional Riemann problem around each vertex of the mesh using the genuinely multidimensional Harten–Lax–van Leer Riemann solver recently proposed by Balsara et al. Once the vertex velocity and thus the new node location have been determined by the node solver, the local mesh motion is then constructed by straight edges connecting the vertex positions at the old time level tⁿ with the new ones at the next time level t^{n + 1}. If necessary, a rezoning step can be introduced here to overcome mesh tangling or highly deformed elements. The final ALE finite volume scheme is based directly on a space–time conservation formulation of the governing PDE system, which therefore makes an additional remapping stage unnecessary, as the ALE fluxes already properly take into account the rezoned geometry. In this sense, our scheme falls into the category of direct ALE methods. Furthermore, the geometric conservation law is satisfied by the scheme by construction. We apply the high‐order algorithm presented in this paper to the Euler equations of compressible gas dynamics as well as to the ideal classical and relativistic magnetohydrodynamic equations. We show numerical convergence results up to fifth order of accuracy in space and time together with some classical numerical test problems for each hyperbolic system under consideration. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A parallel cell‐based DSMC method on unstructured adaptive meshes

A parallel DSMC method based on a cell‐based data structure is developed for the efficient simulation of rarefied gas flows on PC‐clusters. Parallel computation is made by decomposing the computational domain into several subdomains. Dynamic load balancing between processors is achieved based on the number of simulation particles and the number of cells allocated in each subdomain. Adjustment of cell size is also made through mesh adaptation for the improvement of solution accuracy and the efficient usage of meshes. Applications were made for a two‐dimensional supersonic leading‐edge flow, the axi‐symmetric Rothe's nozzle, and the open hollow cylinder flare flow for validation. It was found that the present method is an efficient tool for the simulation of rarefied gas flows on PC‐based parallel machines. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A well‐balanced stable generalized Riemann problem scheme for shallow water equations using adaptive moving unstructured triangular meshes

We propose a well‐balanced stable generalized Riemann problem (GRP) scheme for the shallow water equations with irregular bottom topography based on moving, adaptive, unstructured, triangular meshes. In order to stabilize the computations near equilibria, we use the Rankine–Hugoniot condition to remove a singularity from the GRP solver. Moreover, we develop a remapping onto the new mesh (after grid movement) based on equilibrium variables. This, together with the already established techniques, guarantees the well‐balancing. Numerical tests show the accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of the GRP moving mesh method: lake at rest solutions are preserved even when the underlying mesh is moving (e.g., mesh points are moved to regions of steep gradients), and various comparisons with fixed coarse and fine meshes demonstrate high resolution at relatively low cost. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Convergence issues in using high‐resolution schemes and lower–upper symmetric Gauss–Seidel method for steady shock‐induced combustion problems

This paper reports numerical convergence study for simulations of steady shock‐induced combustion problems with high‐resolution shock‐capturing schemes. Five typical schemes are used: the Roe flux‐based monotone upstream‐centered scheme for conservation laws (MUSCL) and weighted essentially non‐oscillatory (WENO) schemes, the Lax–Friedrichs splitting‐based non‐oscillatory no‐free parameter dissipative (NND) and WENO schemes, and the Harten–Yee upwind total variation diminishing (TVD) scheme. These schemes are implemented with the finite volume discretization on structured quadrilateral meshes in dimension‐by‐dimension way and the lower–upper symmetric Gauss–Seidel (LU–SGS) relaxation method for solving the axisymmetric multispecies reactive Navier–Stokes equations. Comparison of iterative convergence between different schemes has been made using supersonic combustion flows around a spherical projectile with Mach numbers M = 3.55 and 6.46 and a ram accelerator with M = 6.7. These test cases were regarded as steady combustion problems in literature. Calculations on gradually refined meshes show that the second‐order NND, MUSCL, and TVD schemes can converge well to steady states from coarse through fine meshes for M = 3.55 case in which shock and combustion fronts are separate, whereas the (nominally) fifth‐order WENO schemes can only converge to some residual level. More interestingly, the numerical results show that all the schemes do not converge to steady‐state solutions for M = 6.46 in the spherical projectile and M = 6.7 in the ram accelerator cases on fine meshes although they all converge on coarser meshes or on fine meshes without chemical reactions. The result is based on the particular preconditioner of LU–SGS scheme. Possible reasons for the nonconvergence in reactive flow simulation are discussed.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel weighting switch function for uniformly high‐order hybrid shock‐capturing schemes

Hybrid schemes are very efficient for complex compressible flow simulation. However, for most existing hybrid schemes in literature, empirical problem‐dependent parameters are always needed to detect shock waves and hence greatly decrease the robustness and accuracy of the hybrid scheme. In this paper, based on the nonlinear weights of the weighted essentially non‐oscillatory (WENO) scheme, a novel weighting switch function is proposed. This function approaches 1 with high‐order accuracy in smooth regions and 0 near discontinuities. Then, with the new weighting switch function, a seventh‐order hybrid compact‐reconstruction WENO scheme (HCCS) is developed. The new hybrid scheme uses the same stencil as the fifth‐order WENO scheme, and it has seventh‐order accuracy in smooth regions even at critical points. Numerical tests are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of both the switch function and HCCS. Comparisons also reveal that HCCS has lower dissipation and less computational cost than the seventh‐order WENO scheme. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Large eddy simulations of wall‐bounded flows using a simplified immersed boundary method and high‐order compact schemes

This paper presents a solution algorithm based on an immersed boundary (IB) method that can be easily implemented in high‐order codes for incompressible flows. The time integration is performed using a predictor‐corrector approach, and the projection method is used for pressure‐velocity coupling. Spatial discretization is based on compact difference schemes and is performed on half‐staggered meshes. A basic algorithm for body‐fitted meshes using the aforementioned solution method was developed by A. Tyliszczak (see article “A high‐order compact difference algorithm for half‐staggered grids for laminar and turbulent incompressible flows” in Journal of Computational Physics) and proved to be very accurate. In this paper, the formulated algorithm is adapted for use with the IB method in the framework of large eddy simulations. The IB method is implemented using its simplified variant without the interpolation (stepwise approach). The computations are performed for a laminar flow around a 2D cylinder, a turbulent flow in a channel with a wavy wall, and around a sphere. Comparisons with literature data confirm that the proposed method can be successfully applied for complex flow problems. The results are verified using the classical approach with body‐fitted meshes and show very good agreement both in laminar and turbulent regimes. The mean (velocity and turbulent kinetic energy profiles and drag coefficients) and time‐dependent (Strouhal number based on the drag coefficient) quantities are analyzed, and they agree well with reference solutions. Two subfilter models are compared, ie, the model of Vreman (see article “An eddy‐viscosity subgrid‐scale model for turbulent shear flow: algebraic theory and applications” in Physics and Fluids) and σ model (Nicoud et al, see article “Using singular values to build a subgrid‐scale model for large eddy simulations” in Physics and Fluids). The tests did not reveal evident advantages of any of these models, and from the point of view of solution accuracy, the quality of the computational meshes turned out to be much more important than the subfilter modeling.     

A nodal Godunov method for Lagrangian shock hydrodynamics on unstructured tetrahedral grids

We present a nodal Godunov method for Lagrangian shock hydrodynamics. The method is designed to operate on three‐dimensional unstructured grids composed of tetrahedral cells. A node‐centered finite element formulation avoids mesh stiffness, and an approximate Riemann solver in the fluid reference frame ensures a stable, upwind formulation. This choice leads to a non‐zero mass flux between control volumes, even though the mesh moves at the fluid velocity, but eliminates volume errors that arise due to the difference between the fluid velocity and the contact wave speed. A monotone piecewise linear reconstruction of primitive variables is used to compute interface unknowns and recover second‐order accuracy. The scheme has been tested on a variety of standard test problems and exhibits first‐order accuracy on shock problems and second‐order accuracy on smooth flows using meshes of up to O(10⁶) tetrahedra. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐order k‐exact WENO finite volume schemes for solving gas dynamic Euler equations on unstructured grids

This paper presents a family of High‐order finite volume schemes applicable on unstructured grids. The k‐exact reconstruction is performed on every control volume as the primary reconstruction. On a cell of interest, besides the primary reconstruction, additional candidate reconstruction polynomials are provided by means of very simple and efficient ‘secondary’ reconstructions. The weighted average procedure of the WENO scheme is then applied to the primary and secondary reconstructions to ensure the shock‐capturing capability of the scheme. This procedure combines the simplicity of the k‐exact reconstruction with the robustness of the WENO schemes and represents a systematic and unified way to construct High‐order accurate shock capturing schemes. To further improve the efficiency, an efficient problem‐independent shock detector is introduced. Several test cases are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and non‐oscillation property of the proposed schemes. The results show that the proposed schemes can predict the smooth solutions with uniformly High‐order accuracy and can capture the shock waves and contact discontinuities in high resolution. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A semi‐Lagrangian multi‐moment finite volume method with fourth‐order WENO projection

Numerical oscillation has been an open problem for high‐order numerical methods with increased local degrees of freedom (DOFs). Current strategies mainly follow the limiting projections derived originally for conventional finite volume methods and thus are not able to make full use of the sub‐cell information available in the local high‐order reconstructions. This paper presents a novel algorithm that introduces a nodal value‐based weighted essentially non‐oscillatory limiter for constrained interpolation profile/multi‐moment finite volume method (CIP/MM FVM) (Ii and Xiao, J. Comput. Phys., 222 (2007), 849–871) as an effort to pursue a better suited formulation to implement the limiting projection in schemes with local DOFs. The new scheme, CIP‐CSL‐WENO4 scheme, extends the CIP/MM FVM method by limiting the slope constraint in the interpolation function using the weighted essentially non‐oscillatory (WENO) reconstruction that makes use of the sub‐cell information available from the local DOFs and is built from the point values at the solution points within three neighboring cells, thus resulting a more compact WENO stencil. The proposed WENO limiter matches well the original CIP/MM FVM, which leads to a new scheme of high accuracy, algorithmic simplicity, and computational efficiency. We present the numerical results of benchmark tests for both scalar and Euler conservation laws to manifest the fourth‐order accuracy and oscillation‐suppressing property of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.