Accurate and robust adaptive mesh refinement for aerodynamic simulation with multi‐block structured curvilinear mesh

A multi‐block curvilinear mesh‐based adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) method is developed to satisfy the competing objectives of improving accuracy and reducing cost. Body‐fitted curvilinear mesh‐based AMR is used to capture flow details of various length scales. A series of efforts are made to guarantee the accuracy and robustness of the AMR system. A physics‐based refinement function is proposed, which is proved to be able to detect both shock wave and vortical flow. The curvilinear mesh is refined with cubic interpolation, which guarantees the aspect ratio and smoothness. Furthermore, to enable its application in complex configurations, a sub‐block‐based refinement strategy is developed to avoid generating invalid mesh, which is the consequence of non‐smooth mesh lines or singular geometry features. A newfound problem of smaller wall distance, which negatively affects the stability and is never reported in the literature, is also discussed in detail, and an improved strategy is proposed. Together with the high‐accuracy numerical scheme, a multi‐block curvilinear mesh‐based AMR system is developed. With a series of test cases, the current method is verified to be accurate and robust and be able to automatically capture the flow details at great cost saving compared with the global refinement. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐order flux reconstruction adaptive mesh refinement method for magnetohydrodynamics on unstructured grids

We report our recent development of the high‐order flux reconstruction adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) method for magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). The resulted framework features a shock‐capturing duo of AMR and artificial resistivity (AR), which can robustly capture shocks and rotational and contact discontinuities with a fraction of the cell counts that are usually required. In our previous paper, 36 we have presented a shock‐capturing framework on hydrodynamic problems with artificial diffusivity and AMR. Our AMR approach features a tree‐free, direct‐addressing approach in retrieving data across multiple levels of refinement. In this article, we report an extension to MHD systems that retains the flexibility of using unstructured grids. The challenges due to complex shock structures and divergence‐free constraint of magnetic field are more difficult to deal with than those of hydrodynamic systems. The accuracy of our solver hinges on 2 properties to achieve high‐order accuracy on MHD systems: removing the divergence error thoroughly and resolving discontinuities accurately. A hyperbolic divergence cleaning method with multiple subiterations is used for the first task. This method drives away the divergence error and preserves conservative forms of the governing equations. The subiteration can be accelerated by absorbing a pseudo time step into the wave speed coefficient, therefore enjoys a relaxed CFL condition. The AMR method rallies multiple levels of refined cells around various shock discontinuities, and it coordinates with the AR method to obtain sharp shock profiles. The physically consistent AR method localizes discontinuities and damps the spurious oscillation arising in the curl of the magnetic field. The effectiveness of the AMR and AR combination is demonstrated to be much more powerful than simply adding AR on finer and finer mesh, since the AMR steeply reduces the required amount of AR and confines the added artificial diffusivity and resistivity to a narrower and narrower region. We are able to verify the designed high‐order accuracy in space by using smooth flow test problems on unstructured grids. The efficiency and robustness of this framework are fully demonstrated through a number of two‐dimensional nonsmooth ideal MHD tests. We also successfully demonstrate that the AMR method can help significantly save computational cost for the Orszag‐Tang vortex problem.     

Reduced‐order modelling of an adaptive mesh ocean model

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

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

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A pressure‐based unstructured grid method for all‐speed flows

An all‐speed algorithm based on the SIMPLE pressure‐correction scheme and the ‘retarded‐density’ approach has been formulated and implemented within an unstructured grid, finite volume (FV) scheme for both incompressible and compressible flows, the latter involving interaction of shock waves. The collocated storage arrangement for all variables is adopted, and the checkerboard oscillations are eliminated by using a pressure‐weighted interpolation method, similar to that of Rhie and Chow [Numerical study of the turbulent flow past an airfoil with trailing edge separation. AIAA Journal 1983; 21 : 1525]. The solution accuracy is greatly enhanced when a higher‐order convection scheme combined with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) are used. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive mesh refinement for high‐resolution finite element schemes

New a posteriori error indicators based on edgewise slope‐limiting are presented. The L₂‐norm is employed to measure the error of the solution gradient in both global and element sense. A second‐order Newton–Cotes formula is utilized in order to decompose the local gradient error from a ??₁ finite element solution into a sum of edge contributions. The slope values at edge midpoints are interpolated from the two adjacent vertices. Traditional techniques to recover (superconvergent) nodal gradient values from consistent finite element slopes are reviewed. The deficiencies of standard smoothing procedures—L₂‐projection and the Zienkiewicz–Zhu patch recovery—as applied to nonsmooth solutions are illustrated for simple academic configurations. The recovered gradient values are corrected by applying a slope limiter edge‐by‐edge so as to satisfy geometric constraints. The direct computation of slopes at edge midpoints by means of limited averaging of adjacent gradient values is proposed as an inexpensive alternative. Numerical tests for various solution profiles in one and two space dimensions are presented to demonstrate the potential of this postprocessing procedure as an error indicator. Finally, it is used to perform adaptive mesh refinement for compressible inviscid flow simulations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high‐precision unstructured adaptive mesh technique for gas–liquid two‐phase flows

Adaptive mesh techniques are used widely in the numerical simulations of fluid flows, and the simulation results with high accuracies are obtained by appropriate mesh adaptations. However, gas–liquid two‐phase flows are still difficult to be simulated on adaptive meshes, especially on unstructured adaptive meshes, because the physical phenomena near gas–liquid interfaces are highly complicated and in general, not modeled appropriately on adaptive meshes. In this paper, a high‐precision unstructured adaptive mesh technique for gas–liquid two‐phase flows is developed and verified/validated. In the unstructured adaptive mesh technique, the PLIC algorithm is employed to simulate interfacial dynamic behaviors and, therefore, the reconstruction method for the interfaces in refined cells is developed, which satisfies the gas and liquid volume conservations and geometrical conservations of interfaces. In addition, the physics‐based consideration is performed on the momentum calculations near interfaces, and the calculation method with gas and liquid momentum conservations is developed. For verification, the slotted‐disk revolution problem is solved. As a result, the unstructured adaptive mesh technique succeeds in reproducing the slotted‐disk shape accurately and well maintaining the shape after one full‐revolution. The dam‐break problem is also simulated and the momentum conservative calculation method succeeds in providing physically appropriate results, which show good agreements with experimental data. Therefore, it is confirmed that the developed unstructured adaptive mesh technique is very efficient to simulate gas–liquid two‐phase flows accurately. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A POD reduced‐order 4D‐Var adaptive mesh ocean modelling approach

Inflow and outflow boundary conditions are essential for the application of computational fluid dynamics to many engineering scenarios. In this paper we present a new boundary condition implementation that enables the simulation of flow through permeable boundaries in the Lagrangian mesh‐free method, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). Each permeable boundary is associated with an inflow or outflow zone outside the domain, in which particles are created or removed as required. The analytic boundary condition is applied by prescribing the appropriate variables for particles in an inflow or outflow zone, and extrapolating other variables from within the domain. Characteristic‐based non‐reflecting boundary conditions, described in the literature for mesh‐based methods, can be implemented within this framework. Results are presented for simple one‐dimensional flows, quasi‐one‐dimensional compressible nozzle flow, and two‐dimensional flow around a cylinder at Reynolds numbers of 40 and 100 and a Mach number of 0.1. These results establish the capability of SPH to model flows through open domains, opening a broad new class of applications. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A semi‐implicit scheme for 3D free surface flows with high‐order velocity reconstruction on unstructured Voronoi meshes

In this paper, we present a computationally efficient semi‐implicit scheme for the simulation of three‐dimensional hydrostatic free surface flow problems on staggered unstructured Voronoi meshes. For each polygonal control volume, the pressure is defined in the cell center, whereas the discrete velocity field is given by the normal velocity component at the cell faces. A piecewise high‐order polynomial vector velocity field is then reconstructed from the scalar normal velocities at the cell faces by using a new high‐order constrained least‐squares reconstruction operator. The reconstructed high‐order piecewise polynomial velocity field is used for trajectory integration in a semi‐Lagrangian approach to discretize the nonlinear convective terms in the governing PDE. For that purpose, a high‐order Taylor method is used as ODE integrator. The resulting semi‐implicit algorithm is extensively validated on a large set of different academic test problems with exact analytical solution and is finally applied to a real‐world engineering problem consisting of a curved channel upstream of two micro‐turbines of a hydroelectric power plant. For this realistic case, some experimental reference data are available from field measurements. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An unstructured grid,three‐dimensional model based on the shallow water equations

A semi‐implicit finite difference model based on the three‐dimensional shallow water equations is modified to use unstructured grids. There are obvious advantages in using unstructured grids in problems with a complicated geometry. In this development, the concept of unstructured orthogonal grids is introduced and applied to this model. The governing differential equations are discretized by means of a semi‐implicit algorithm that is robust, stable and very efficient. The resulting model is relatively simple, conserves mass, can fit complicated boundaries and yet is sufficiently flexible to permit local mesh refinements in areas of interest. Moreover, the simulation of the flooding and drying is included in a natural and straightforward manner. These features are illustrated by a test case for studies of convergence rates and by examples of flooding on a river plain and flow in a shallow estuary. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discontinuity-capturing finite element computation of unsteady flow with adaptive unstructured mesh

A discontinuity-capturing scheme of finite element method (FEM) is proposed. The unstructured-grid technique combined with a new type of adaptive mesh approach is developed for both compressible and incompressible unsteady flows, which exhibits the capability of capturing the shock waves and/or thin shear layers accurately in an unsteady viscous flow at high Reynolds number. In particular, a new testing variable, i.e., the disturbed kinetic energyE, is suggested and used in the adaptive mesh computation, which is universally applicable to the capturing of both shock waves and shear layers in the inviscid flow and viscous flow at high Reynolds number. Based on several calculated examples, this approach has been proved to be effective and efficient for the calculations of compressible and incompressible flows. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10125210), the Hundred-Talent Programme of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJCX-SW-L04, KJCX2-SW-L2)     

A local grid refinement method for three‐dimensional turbulent recirculating flows

A local grid refinement method is presented and applied to a three‐dimensional turbulent recirculating flow. It is based on the staggered grid arrangement. The computational domain is covered by block‐structured subgrids of different refinement levels. The exchange of information between the subgrids is fully conservative and all grids are treated implicitly. This allows for a simultaneous solution of one variable in all grids. All variables are stored in one‐dimensional arrays. The solver selected for the solution of the discretised finite difference equations is the preconditioned bi‐conjugate gradient (Bi‐CG) method. For the case examined (turbulent flow around a surface‐mounted cube), it was found that the latter method converges faster than the line solver. The locally refined mesh improved the accuracy of the pressure distribution on cube faces compared with a coarse mesh and yielded the same results as a fine single mesh, with a 62% gain in computer time. Copyright © 1999 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.     

Adaptive mesh refinement techniques for high‐order shock capturing schemes for multi‐dimensional hydrodynamic simulations

The numerical simulation of physical phenomena represented by non‐linear hyperbolic systems of conservation laws presents specific difficulties mainly due to the presence of discontinuities in the solution. State of the art methods for the solution of such equations involve high resolution shock capturing schemes, which are able to produce sharp profiles at the discontinuities and high accuracy in smooth regions, together with some kind of grid adaption, which reduces the computational cost by using finer grids near the discontinuities and coarser grids in smooth regions. The combination of both techniques presents intrinsic numerical and programming difficulties. In this work we present a method obtained by the combination of a high‐order shock capturing scheme, built from Shu–Osher's conservative formulation (J. Comput. Phys. 1988; 77 :439–471; 1989; 83 :32–78), a fifth‐order weighted essentially non‐oscillatory (WENO) interpolatory technique (J. Comput. Phys. 1996; 126 :202–228) and Donat–Marquina's flux‐splitting method (J. Comput. Phys. 1996; 125 :42–58), with the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) technique of Berger and collaborators (Adaptive mesh refinement for hyperbolic partial differential equations. Ph.D. Thesis, Computer Science Department, Stanford University, 1982; J. Comput. Phys. 1989; 82 :64–84; 1984; 53 :484–512). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Multidimensional Optimal Order Detection method in the three‐dimensional case: very high‐order finite volume method for hyperbolic systems

The Multidimensional Optimal Order Detection (MOOD) method for two‐dimensional geometries has been introduced by the authors in two recent papers. We present here the extension to 3D mixed meshes composed of tetrahedra, hexahedra, pyramids, and prisms. In addition, we simplify the u2 detection process previously developed and show on a relevant set of numerical tests for both the convection equation and the Euler system that the optimal high order of accuracy is reached on smooth solutions, whereas spurious oscillations near singularities are prevented. At last, the intrinsic positivity‐preserving property of the MOOD method is confirmed in 3D, and we provide simple optimizations to reduce the computational cost such that the MOOD method is very competitive compared with existing high‐order Finite Volume methods.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening for the computation of compressible flows on unstructured meshes

The compressible gas flows of interest to aerospace applications often involve situations where shock and expansion waves are present. Decreasing the characteristic dimension of the computational cells in the vicinity of shock waves improves the quality of the computed flows. This reduction in size may be accomplished by the use of mesh adaption procedures. In this paper an analysis is presented of an adaptive mesh scheme developed for an unstructured mesh finite volume upwind computer code. This scheme is tailored to refine or coarsen the computational mesh where gradients of the flow properties are respectively high or low. The refinement and coarsening procedures are applied to the classical gas dynamic problems of the stabilization of shock waves by solid bodies. In particular, situations where oblique shock waves interact with an expansion fan and where bow shocks arise around solid bodies are considered. The effectiveness of the scheme in reducing the computational time, while increasing the solution accuracy, is assessed. It is shown that the refinement procedure alone leads to a number of computational cells which is 20% larger than when alternate passes of refinement and coarsening are used. Accordingly, a reduction of computational time of the same order of magnitude is obtained. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Feature‐based adaptive mesh refinement for wingtip vortices

Feature‐based solution‐adaptive mesh refinement is an attractive strategy when it is known a priori that the resolution of certain key features is critical to achieving the objectives of a simulation. In this paper, we apply vortex characterization techniques, which are typically employed to visualize vortices, to identify regions of the computational domain for mesh refinement. We investigate different refinement strategies that are facilitated by these vortex characterization techniques to simulate the flow past a wing in a wind tunnel. Our results, which we compare with experimental data, indicate that it is necessary to refine the region within and near the vortex extent surface to obtain an accurate prediction. Application of the identified mesh refinement strategy also produced observed improvement in the results predicted for a spinning missile with deflected canards. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A three‐dimensional hydrodynamic model for shallow waters using unstructured Cartesian grids

This paper presents a three‐dimensional unstructured Cartesian grid model for simulating shallow water hydrodynamics in lakes, rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters. It is a flux‐based finite difference model that uses a cut‐cell approach to fit the bottom topography and shorelines and, at the same time, has the flexibility of discretizing complex geometries with Cartesian grids that can be arbitrarily downsized in the two horizontal directions simultaneously. Because of the use of Cartesian grids, the grid generation is very simple and does not suffer the grid generation headache often seen in many other unstructured models, as the unstructured Cartesian grid model does not have any requirements on the orthogonality of the grids. The newly developed unstructured Cartesian grid model was validated against analytical solutions for a three‐dimensional seiching case in a rectangular basin, before it was compared with another three‐dimensional model named LESS3D for circulations and salinity transport processes in an idealized embayment that is driven by tides and freshwater inflows. Model tests show that the numerical procedure used in the unstructured Cartesian grid model is robust. Similar to other unstructured models, a variable grid size has resulted in a smaller number of grids required for a reasonable model simulation, which in turn reduces the CPU time used in the model run. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new r‐ratio formulation for TVD schemes for vertex‐centered FVM on an unstructured mesh

The r‐ratio is a parameter that measures the local monotonicity, by which a number of high‐resolution and TVD schemes can be formed. A number of r‐ratio formulations for TVD schemes have been presented over the last few decades to solve the transport equation in shallow waters based on the finite volume method (FVM). However, unlike structured meshes, the coordinate directions are not clearly defined on an unstructured mesh; therefore, some r‐ratio formulations have been established by approximating the solute concentration at virtual nodes, which may be estimated from different assumptions. However, some formulations may introduce either oscillation or diffusion behavior within the vertex‐centered (VC) framework. In this paper, a new r‐ratio formulation, applied to an unstructured grid in the VC framework, is proposed and compared with the traditional r‐ratio formulations. Through seven commonly used benchmark tests, it is shown that the newly proposed r‐ratio formulation obtains better results than the traditional ones with less numerical diffusion and spurious oscillation. Moreover, three commonly used TVD schemes—SUPERBEE, MINMOD, and MUSCL—and two high‐order schemes—SOU and QUICK—are implemented and compared using the new r‐ratio formulation. The new r‐ratio formulation is shown to be sufficiently comprehensive to permit the general implementation of a high‐resolution scheme within the VC framework. Finally, the sensitivity test for different grid types demonstrates the good adaptability of this new r‐ratio formulation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two‐dimensional implicit time‐dependent calculations on adaptive unstructured meshes with time evolving boundaries

An implicit multigrid‐driven algorithm for two‐dimensional incompressible laminar viscous flows has been coupled with a solution adaptation method and a mesh movement method for boundary movement. Time‐dependent calculations are performed implicitly by regarding each time step as a steady‐state problem in pseudo‐time. The method of artificial compressibility is used to solve the flow equations. The solution mesh adaptation method performs local mesh refinement using an incremental Delaunay algorithm and mesh coarsening by means of edge collapse. Mesh movement is achieved by modeling the computational domain as an elastic solid and solving the equilibrium equations for the stress field. The solution adaptation method has been validated by comparison with experimental results and other computational results for low Reynolds number flow over a shedding circular cylinder. Preliminary validation of the mesh movement method has been demonstrated by a comparison with experimental results of an oscillating airfoil and with computational results for an oscillating cylinder. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One‐dimensional shock‐capturing for high‐order discontinuous Galerkin methods

Discontinuous Galerkin methods have emerged in recent years as an alternative for nonlinear conservation equations. In particular, their inherent structure (a numerical flux based on a suitable approximate Riemann solver introduces some stabilization) suggests that they are specially adapted to capture shocks. However, numerical fluxes are not sufficient to stabilize the solution in the presence of shocks. Thus, slope limiter methods, which are extensions of finite volume methods, have been proposed. These techniques require, in practice, mesh adaption to localize the shock structure. This is is more obvious for large elements typical of high‐order approximations. Here, a new approach based on the introduction of artificial diffusion into the original equations is presented. The order is not systematically decreased to one in the presence of the shock, large high‐order elements can be used, and several linear and nonlinear tests demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methodology. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.