High‐order 𝒞1 finite‐element interpolating schemes—Part I: Semi‐Lagrangian linear advection

This paper is devoted to the development of accurate high‐order interpolating schemes for semi‐Lagrangian advection. The characteristic‐Galerkin formulation is obtained by using a semi‐Lagrangian temporal discretization of the total derivative. The semi‐Lagrangian method requires high‐order interpolators for accuracy. A class of ??¹ finite‐element interpolating schemes is developed and two semi‐Lagrangian methods are considered by tracking the feet of the characteristic lines either from the interpolation or from the integration nodes. Numerical stability and analytical results quantifying the amount of artificial viscosity induced by the two methods are presented in the case of the one‐dimensional linear advection equation, based on the modified equation approach. Results of test problems to simulate the linear advection of a cosine hill illustrate the performance of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fully conservative high‐order upwind multi‐moment method using moments in both upwind and downwind cells

We propose a fully conservative high‐order upwind multi‐moment method for the conservation equation. The proposed method is based on a third‐order polynomial interpolation function and semi‐Lagrangian formulation and is a variant of the constrained interpolation profile conservative semi‐Lagrangian scheme with third‐order polynomial function method. The third‐order interpolation function is constructed based on three constraints in the upwind cell (two boundary values and a cell average) and a constraint in the downwind cell (a cell center value). The proposed method shows fourth‐order accuracy in a benchmark problem (sine wave propagation). We also propose a less oscillatory formulation of the proposed method. The less oscillatory formulation can minimize numerical oscillations. These methods were validated through scalar transport problems, and compressible flow problems (shock tube and 2D explosion problems). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Particle trajectory calculations with a two‐step three‐time level semi‐Lagrangian scheme well suited for curved flows

This study proposes a new two‐step three‐time level semi‐Lagrangian scheme for calculation of particle trajectories. The scheme is intended to yield accurate determination of the particle departure position, particularly in the presence of significant flow curvature. Experiments were performed both for linear and non‐linear idealized advection problems, with different flow curvatures. Results for simulations with the proposed scheme, and with three other semi‐Lagrangian schemes, and with an Eulerian method are presented. In the linear advection problem the two‐step three‐time level scheme produced smaller root mean square errors and more accurate replication of the angular displacement of a Gaussian hill than the other schemes. In the non‐linear advection experiments the proposed scheme produced, in general, equal or better conservation of domain‐averaged quantities than the other semi‐Lagrangian schemes, especially at large Courant numbers. In idealized frontogenesis simulations the scheme performed equally or better than the other schemes in the representation of sharp gradients in a scalar field. The two‐step three‐time level scheme has some computational overhead as compared with the other three semi‐Lagrangian schemes. Nevertheless, the additional computational effort was shown to be worthwhile, due to the accuracy obtained by the scheme in the experiments with large time steps. The most remarkable feature of the scheme is its robustness, since it performs well both for small and large Courant numbers, in the presence of weak as well strong flow curvatures. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐analytical method for departure point determination

A new method for departure point determination on Cartesian grids, the semi‐analytical upwind path line tracing (SUT) method, is presented and compared to two typical departure point determination methods used in semi‐Lagrangian advection schemes, the Euler method and the four‐step Runge–Kutta method. Rigorous comparisons of the three methods were conducted for a severely curving hypothetical flow field and for advective transport in the rotation of a Gaussian concentration hill. The SUT method was shown to have equivalent accuracy to the Runge–Kutta method but with significantly improved computational efficiency. Depending on the case being simulated, the SUT method provides either far greater or equivalent computational efficiency and more certain accuracy than the Euler method. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Lagrange–Galerkin method for the two‐dimensional shallow water equations on adaptive grids

The weak Lagrange–Galerkin finite element method for the two‐dimensional shallow water equations on adaptive unstructured grids is presented. The equations are written in conservation form and the domains are discretized using triangular elements. Lagrangian methods integrate the governing equations along the characteristic curves, thus being well suited for resolving the non‐linearities introduced by the advection operator of the fluid dynamics equations. An additional fortuitous consequence of using Lagrangian methods is that the resulting spatial operator is self‐adjoint, thereby justifying the use of a Galerkin formulation; this formulation has been proven to be optimal for such differential operators. The weak Lagrange–Galerkin method automatically takes into account the dilation of the control volume, thereby resulting in a conservative scheme. The use of linear triangular elements permits the construction of accurate (by virtue of the second‐order spatial and temporal accuracies of the scheme) and efficient (by virtue of the less stringent Courant–Friedrich–Lewy (CFL) condition of Lagrangian methods) schemes on adaptive unstructured triangular grids. Lagrangian methods are natural candidates for use with adaptive unstructured grids because the resolution of the grid can be increased without having to decrease the time step in order to satisfy stability. An advancing front adaptive unstructured triangular mesh generator is presented. The highlight of this algorithm is that the weak Lagrange–Galerkin method is used to project the conservation variables from the old mesh onto the newly adapted mesh. In addition, two new schemes for computing the characteristic curves are presented: a composite mid‐point rule and a general family of Runge–Kutta schemes. Results for the two‐dimensional advection equation with and without time‐dependent velocity fields are illustrated to confirm the accuracy of the particle trajectories. Results for the two‐dimensional shallow water equations on a non‐linear soliton wave are presented to illustrate the power and flexibility of this strategy. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi‐size‐mesh multi‐time‐step algorithm for noise computation on curvilinear meshes

Aeroacoustic problems are often multi‐scale and a zonal refinement technique is thus desirable to reduce computational effort while preserving low dissipation and low dispersion errors from the numerical scheme. For that purpose, the multi‐size‐mesh multi‐time‐step algorithm of Tam and Kurbatskii [AIAA Journal, 2000, 38 (8), p. 1331–1339] allows changes by a factor of two between adjacent blocks, accompanied by a doubling in the time step. This local time stepping avoids wasting calculation time, which would result from imposing a unique time step dictated by the smallest grid size for explicit time marching. In the present study, the multi‐size‐mesh multi‐time‐step method is extended to general curvilinear grids by using a suitable coordinate transformation and by performing the necessary interpolations directly in the physical space due to multidimensional interpolations combining order constraints and optimization in the wave number space. A particular attention is paid to the properties of the Adams–Bashforth schemes used for time marching. The optimization of the coefficients by minimizing an error in the wave number space rather than satisfying a formal order is shown to be inefficient for Adams–Bashforth schemes. The accuracy of the extended multi‐size‐mesh multi‐time‐step algorithm is first demonstrated for acoustic propagation on a sinusoidal grid and for a computation of laminar trailing edge noise. In the latter test‐case, the mesh doubling is close to the airfoil and the vortical structures are crossing the doubling interface without affecting the quality of the radiated field. The applicability of the algorithm in three dimensions is eventually demonstrated by computing tonal noise from a moderate Reynolds number flow over an airfoil. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the efficiency of semi‐implicit and semi‐Lagrangian spectral methods for the calculation of incompressible flows

Classical semi‐implicit backward Euler/Adams–Bashforth time discretizations of the Navier–Stokes equations induce, for high‐Reynolds number flows, severe restrictions on the time step. Such restrictions can be relaxed by using semi‐Lagrangian schemes essentially based on splitting the full problem into an explicit transport step and an implicit diffusion step. In comparison with the standard characteristics method, the semi‐Lagrangian method has the advantage of being much less CPU time consuming where spectral methods are concerned. This paper is devoted to the comparison of the ‘semi‐implicit’ and ‘semi‐Lagrangian’ approaches, in terms of stability, accuracy and computational efficiency. Numerical results on the advection equation, Burger's equation and finally two‐ and three‐dimensional Navier–Stokes equations, using spectral elements or a collocation method, are provided. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimised composite numerical schemes in 2‐D for hyperbolic conservation laws

One of the techniques available for optimising parameters that regulate dispersion and dissipation effects in finite difference schemes is the concept of minimised integrated exponential error for low dispersion and low dissipation. In this paper, we work essentially with the two‐dimensional (2D) Corrected Lax–Friedrichs and Lax–Friedrichs schemes applied to the 2D scalar advection equation. We examine the shock‐capturing properties of these two numerical schemes, and observe that these methods are quite effective from the point of being able to control computational noise and having a large range of stability. To improve the shock‐capturing efficiency of these two methods, we derive composite methods using the idea of predictor/corrector or a linear combination of the two schemes. The optimal cfl number for some of these composite schemes are computed. Some numerical experiments are carried out in two dimensions such as cylindrical explosion, shock‐focusing, dam‐break and Riemann gas dynamics tests. The modified equations of some of the composite schemes when applied to the 2D scalar advection equation are obtained. We also perform some convergence tests to obtain the order of accuracy and show that better results in terms of shock‐capturing property are obtained when the optimal cfl obtained using minimised integrated exponential error for low dispersion and low dissipation is used. Copyright © 2011 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.     

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.     

High‐order 𝒞1 finite‐element interpolating schemes—Part II: Nonlinear semi‐Lagrangian shallow‐water models

The finite‐element, semi‐implicit, and semi‐Lagrangian methods are used on unstructured meshes to solve the nonlinear shallow‐water system. Several ??¹ approximation schemes are developed for an accurate treatment of the advection terms. The employed finite‐element discretization schemes are the P–P₁ and P₂–P₁ pairs. Triangular finite elements are attractive because of their flexibility for representing irregular boundaries and for local mesh refinement. By tracking the characteristics backward from both the interpolation and quadrature nodes and using ??¹ interpolating schemes, an accurate treatment of the nonlinear terms and, hence, of Rossby waves is obtained. Results of test problems to simulate slowly propagating Rossby modes illustrate the promise of the proposed approach in ocean modelling. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order mass‐lumping procedure for B‐spline collocation method with application to incompressible flow simulations

This paper presents new developments of the staggered spline collocation method for cost‐effective solution to the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Maximal decoupling of the velocity and the pressure is obtained by using the fractional step method of Gresho and Chan, allowing the solution to sparse elliptic problems only. In order to preserve the high‐accuracy of the B‐spline method, this fractional step scheme is used in association with a sparse approximation to the inverse of the consistent mass matrix. Such an approximation is constructed from local spline interpolation method, and represents a high‐order generalization of the mass‐lumping technique of the finite‐element method. A numerical investigation of the accuracy and the computational efficiency of the resulting semi‐consistent spline collocation schemes is presented. These schemes generate a stable and accurate unsteady Navier–Stokes solver, as assessed by benchmark computations. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An immersed smoothed point interpolation method (IS‐PIM) for fluid‐structure interaction problems

An immersed smoothed point interpolation method using 3‐node triangular background cells is proposed to solve 2D fluid‐structure interaction problems for solids with large deformation/displacement placed in incompressible viscous fluid. In the framework of immersed‐type method, the governing equations can be decomposed into 3 parts on the basis of the fictitious fluid assumption. The incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations are solved using the semi‐implicit characteristic‐based split scheme, and solids are simulated using the newly developed edge‐based smoothed point interpolation method. The fictitious fluid domain can be used to calculate the coupling force. The numerical results show that immersed smoothed point interpolation method can avoid remeshing for moving solid based on immersed operation and simulate the contact phenomenon without an additional treatment between the solid and the fluid boundary. The influence from information transfer between solid domain and fluid domain on fluid‐structure interaction problems has been investigated. The numerical results show that the proposed interpolation schemes will generally improve the accuracy for simulating both fluid flows and solid structures.     

Tracking accuracy of a semi‐Lagrangian method for advection–dispersion modelling in rivers

There is an increasing need to improve the computational efficiency of river water quality models because: (1) Monte‐Carlo‐type multi‐simulation methods, that return solutions with statistical distributions or confidence intervals, are becoming the norm, and (2) the systems modelled are increasingly large and complex. So far, most models are based on Eulerian numerical schemes for advection, but these do not meet the requirement of efficiency, being restricted to Courant numbers below unity. The alternative of using semi‐Lagrangian methods, consisting of modelling advection by the method of characteristics, is free from any inherent Courant number restriction. However, it is subject to errors of tracking that result in potential phase errors in the solutions. The aim of this article is primarily to understand and estimate these tracking errors, assuming the use of a cell‐based backward method of characteristics, and considering conditions that would prevail in practical applications in rivers. This is achieved separately for non‐uniform flows and unsteady flows, either via theoretical considerations or using numerical experiments. The main conclusion is that, tracking errors are expected to be negligible in practical applications in both unsteady flows and non‐uniform flows. Also, a very significant computational time saving compared to Eulerian schemes is achievable. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A finite volume scheme for solving anisotropic diffusion on ALE‐AMR grids

In the context of High Energy Density Physics and more precisely in the field of laser plasma interaction, Lagrangian schemes are commonly used. The lack of robustness due to strong grid deformations requires the regularization of the mesh through the use of Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian methods. Theses methods usually add some diffusion and a loss of precision is observed. We propose to use Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) techniques to reduce this loss of accuracy. This work focuses on the resolution of the anisotropic diffusion operator on Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian‐AMR grids. In this paper, we describe a second‐order accurate cell‐centered finite volume method for solving anisotropic diffusion on AMR type grids. The scheme described here is based on local flux approximation which can be derived through the use of a finite difference approximation, leading to the CCLADNS scheme. We present here the 2D and 3D extension of the CCLADNS scheme to AMR meshes. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐order numerical simulations of flow‐induced noise

In this paper, the flow/acoustics splitting method for predicting flow‐generated noise is further developed by introducing high‐order finite difference schemes. The splitting method consists of dividing the acoustic problem into a viscous incompressible flow part and an inviscid acoustic part. The incompressible flow equations are solved by a second‐order finite volume code EllipSys2D/3D. The acoustic field is obtained by solving a set of acoustic perturbation equations forced by flow quantities. The incompressible pressure and velocity form the input to the acoustic equations. The present work is an extension of our acoustics solver, with the introduction of high‐order schemes for spatial discretization and a Runge–Kutta scheme for time integration. To achieve low dissipation and dispersion errors, either Dispersion‐Relation‐Preserving (DRP) schemes or optimized compact finite difference schemes are used for the spatial discretizations. Applications and validations of the new acoustics solver are presented for benchmark aeroacoustic problems and for flow over an NACA 0012 airfoil. Copyright © 2010 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.     

Impact of the fourth‐order compact difference scheme on computational properties of 3D grids in a nonhydrostatic model

To investigate the potential of the fourth‐order compact difference scheme within the specific context of numerical atmospheric models, a linear baroclinic adjustment system is discretized, using a variety of candidates for practically meaningful staggered 3D grids. A unified method is introduced to derive the dispersion relationship of the baroclinic geostrophic adjustment process. Eight popular 3D grids are obtained by combining contemporary horizontal staggered grids, such as the Arakawa C and Eliassen grids, with optimal vertical grids, such as the Lorenz and Charney‐Phillip (CP) grids, and their time‐staggered versions. The errors produced on the 3D grids in describing the baroclinic geostrophic adjustment process relative to the differential case are compared in terms of frequency and group velocity components with the elimination of implementation error. The results show that by utilizing the fourth‐order compact difference scheme with high precision, instead of the conventional second‐order centered difference scheme, the errors in describing baroclinic geostrophic adjustment process decrease but only when using the combinations of the horizontally staggered Arakawa C grid and the vertically staggered CP or the C/CP grid, the time‐horizontally staggered Eliassen (EL) grid and vertically staggered CP or the EL/CP grid, the C grid and the vertically time‐staggered versions of Lorenz (LTS) grid or C/LTS grid, EL grid and LTS grid or EL/LTS grid. The errors were found to increase for specific waves on the rest grids. It can be concluded that errors produced on the chosen 3D grids do not universally decrease when using the fourth‐order compact difference scheme; hence, care should be taken when implementing the fourth‐order compact difference scheme, otherwise, the expected benefits may be offset by increased errors. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved third‐order weighted essentially nonoscillatory schemes with new smoothness indicators

In this article, we present two improved third‐order weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) schemes for recovering their design‐order near first‐order critical points. The schemes are constructed in the framework of third‐order WENO‐Z scheme. Two new global smoothness indicators, τ_L3 and τ_L4, are devised by a nonlinear combination of local smoothness indicators (IS_k) and reference values (IS_G) based on Lagrangian interpolation polynomial. The performances of the proposed schemes are evaluated on several numerical tests governed by one‐dimensional linear advection equation or one‐ and two‐dimensional Euler equations. Numerical results indicate that the presented schemes provide less dissipation and higher resolution than the original WENO3‐JS and subsequent WENO3‐N scheme.     

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.