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.     

Three‐dimensional immersed boundary conditions for moving solids in the lattice‐Boltzmann method

This paper establishes the range of validity for a previously published three‐dimensional moving solid boundary condition for the lattice‐Boltzmann method. This method was reasonably formulated from a mass and momentum balance perspective, but was only verified for a small range of (primarily two‐dimensional) problems. One of the advantages of this boundary condition is that it offers resolution at the sub‐grid scale, allowing for accurate and stable calculation of the force and torque for solids which are moving through a lattice, even for small solid sizes relative to the computational grid size. We verify the boundary condition for creeping flows by comparison to analytical solutions that include both the force and the torque on fixed and moving spheres, and then follow this with comparisons to experimental and empirical results for both fixed as well moving spheres in inertial flows. Finally, we compare simulation results to numerical results of other investigators for the settling of an offset sphere and the drafting–kissing–tumbling of two sedimenting spheres. We found that an accurate calculation of the collision‐operator weighting used to obtain sub‐grid‐scale resolution was necessary in order to prevent spikes in the velocities, forces, and moments when solid objects cross‐computational cells. The wide range of comparisons collected and presented in this paper can be used to establish the validity of other numerical models, in addition to the one examined here. Published in 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coupling the lattice‐Boltzmann and spectrin‐link methods for the direct numerical simulation of cellular blood flow

The implementation of a spectrin‐link (SL) red blood cell (RBC) membrane method coupled with a lattice‐Boltzmann (LB) fluid solver is discussed. Details of the methodology are included along with subtleties associated with its integration into a massively parallel hybrid LB finite element (FE) suspension flow solver. A comparison of the computational performance of the coupled LB–SL method with that of the previously implemented LB–FE is given for an isolated RBC and for a dense suspension in Hagen–Poiseuille flow. Validating results for RBCs isolated in shear and parachuting in microvessel flow are also presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of the lattice‐Boltzmann method to study flow and dispersion in channels with and without expansion and contraction geometry

The lattice‐Boltzmann (LB) method, derived from lattice gas automata, is a relatively new technique for studying transport problems. The LB method is investigated for its accuracy to study fluid dynamics and dispersion problems. Two problems of relevance to flow and dispersion in porous media are addressed: (i) Poiseuille flow between parallel plates (which is analogous to flow in pore throats in two‐dimensional porous networks), and (ii) flow through an expansion–contraction geometry (which is analogous to flow in pore bodies in two‐dimensional porous networks). The results obtained from the LB simulations are compared with analytical solutions when available, and with solutions obtained from a finite element code (FIDAP) when analytical results are not available. Excellent agreement is found between the LB results and the analytical/FIDAP solutions in most cases, indicating the utility of the lattice‐Boltzmann method for solving fluid dynamics and dispersion problems. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulation of sharp gas–liquid interface using VOF method and adaptive grid local refinement around the interface

The volume of fluid (VOF) method is used to perform two‐phase simulations (gas–liquid). The governing Navier–Stokes conservation equations of the flow field are numerically solved on two‐dimensional axisymmetric or three‐dimensional unstructured grids, using Cartesian velocity components, following the finite volume approximation and a pressure correction method. A new method of adaptive grid local refinement is developed in order to enhance the accuracy of the predictions, to capture the sharp gas–liquid interface and to speed up the calculations. Results are compared with experimental measurements in order to assess the efficiency of the method. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element analysis of filling stage in die‐casting process using marker surface method and adaptive grid refinement technique

The marker surface method and the adaptive grid refinement technique have been applied to the three‐dimensional (3‐D) finite element analysis of the filling stage in the die‐casting process. Especially, the marker surface plugging technique and the marker surface regeneration technique incorporated in the marker surface method have been proposed for the efficient analysis of 3‐D practical problems. Through the marker surface plugging technique, new parts of marker surface are effective lycreated in order to eliminate the gaps between the parts of marker surface or between the edge of marker surface and cavity wall. By using the marker surface regeneration technique, the marker surface including a great number of marker elements is recreated on the basis of its original shape in order to decrease the number of marker elements and computational time. A3‐D example used as the benchmark test and a typical industrial problem of the die‐casting process have been analysed. The numerical results have been in good agreement with the experimental results and the efficiency of the adaptive grid refinement technique has been verified. It has been shown that the proposed techniques incorporated in the marker surface method and the adaptive grid refinement technique can be effectively applied to general industrial problems. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparative study of lattice‐Boltzmann and finite volume methods for the simulation of laminar flow through a 4:1 planar contraction

In the present paper, a comparative study of numerical solutions for Newtonian fluids based on the lattice‐Boltzmann method (LBM) and the classical finite volume method (FVM) is presented for the laminar flow through a 4:1 planar contraction at a Reynolds number of value one, Re=1. In this study, the stress field for LBM is directly obtained from the distribution function. The calculations of the stress based on the FVM‐data use the evaluations of velocity gradients with finite differences. The stress field for both LBM and FVM is expressed in the present study in terms of the shear stress and the first normal stress difference. The lateral and axial profiles of the velocity, the shear stress and the first normal stress difference for both methods are investigated. It is shown that the LBM results for the velocity and the stresses are in excellent agreement with the FVM results. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparative study of lattice Boltzmann methods using bounce‐back schemes and immersed boundary ones for flow acoustic problems

In order to find applicable treatments of moving boundary conditions based on the lattice Boltzmann method in flow acoustic problems, three bounce‐back (BB) methods and four kinds of immersed boundary (IB) methods are compared. We focused on fluid–solid boundary conditions for flow acoustic problems especially the simulations of sound waves from moving boundaries. BB methods include link bounce‐back, interpolation bounce‐back and unified interpolation bounce‐back methods. Five IB methods are explicit and implicit direct‐forcing (Explicit‐IB and Implicit‐IB), two kinds of partially saturated computational methods and ghost fluid method. In order to reduce the spurious pressure generated by the fresh grid node changing from solid domain to fluid domain for BB methods and sharp IB methods, we proposed two new kinds of treatments and compared them with two existing ones. Simulations of the benchmark problems prove that the local evolutionary iteration (LI) is the best one in treatments of the fresh nodes. In addition, for standing boundary problems, although BB methods have a little higher accuracy, all the methods have similar accuracy. However, for moving boundary problems, IB methods are more appropriate than BB methods, because IB methods' smooth interpolation of pressure eld produces less disturbing spurious pressure waves. With improved treatments of fresh nodes, BB methods are also acceptable for moving boundary acoustic problems. In comparative tests in respective type, unified interpolation bounce‐back with LI, Implicit‐IB, and ghost fluid with LI are the best choices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lattice Boltzmann method for the fractional sub‐diffusion equation

A lattice Boltzmann model for the fractional sub‐diffusion equation is presented. By using the Chapman–Enskog expansion and the multiscale time expansion, several higher‐order moments of equilibrium distribution functions and a series of partial differential equations in different time scales are obtained. Furthermore, the modified partial differential equation of the fractional sub‐diffusion equation with the second‐order truncation error is obtained. In the numerical simulations, comparisons between numerical results of the lattice Boltzmann models and exact solutions are given. The numerical results agree well with the classical ones. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A filter‐based,mass‐conserving lattice Boltzmann method for immiscible multiphase flows

Some issues of He–Chen–Zhang lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) method (referred as HCZ model) (J. Comput. Physics 1999; 152 :642–663) for immiscible multiphase flows with large density ratio are assessed in this paper. An extended HCZ model with a filter technique and mass correction procedure is proposed based on HCZ's LBE multiphase model. The original HCZ model is capable of maintaining a thin interface but is prone to generating unphysical oscillations in surface tension and index function at moderate values of density ratio. With a filtering technique, the monotonic variation of the index function across the interface is maintained with larger density ratio. Kim's surface tension formulation for diffuse–interface method (J. Comput. Physics 2005; 204 :784–804) is then used to remove unphysical oscillation in the surface tension. Furthermore, as the density ratio increases, the effect of velocity divergence term neglected in the original HCZ model causes significant unphysical mass sources near the interface. By keeping the velocity divergence term, the unphysical mass sources near the interface can be removed with large density ratio. The long‐time accumulation of the modeling and/or numerical errors in the HCZ model also results in the error of mass conservation of each dispersed phase. A mass correction procedure is devised to improve the performance of the method in this regard. For flows over a stationary and a rising bubble, and capillary waves with density ratio up to 100, the present approach yields solutions with interface thickness of about five to six lattices and no long‐time diffusion, significantly advancing the performance of the LBE method for multiphase flow simulations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of local grid refinement to vortex motion due to a solitary wave passing over a submerged body

A numerical method based on the streamfunction–vorticity formulation is applied to simulate the two‐dimensional, transient, viscous flow with a free surface. This method successfully uses the locally refined grid in an inviscid–viscous model to explore the processes of vortex formation due to a solitary wave passing over a submerged bluff body. The two particular bodies considered here are a blunt rectangular block and a semicircular cylinder. Flow visualization to track dyelines is carried out in the laboratory in order to confirm the validity of the numerical results. Numerical results examined by different grid configurations ensure the locally refined grid to be useful in practical application. Flow phenomena, including the vortex motion and wave patterns during non‐linear wave–structure interaction, are also discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A higher‐order accuracy lattice Boltzmann model for the wave equation

A lattice Boltzmann model with higher‐order accuracy for the wave motion is proposed. The new model is based on the technique of the higher‐order moment of equilibrium distribution functions and a series of lattice Boltzmann equations in different time scales. The forms of moments are derived from the binary wave equation by designing the higher‐order dissipation and dispersion terms. The numerical results agree well with classical ones. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparative study of direct‐forcing immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann methods for stationary complex boundaries

In this study, we assess several interface schemes for stationary complex boundary flows under the direct‐forcing immersed boundary‐lattice Boltzmann methods (IB‐LBM) based on a split‐forcing lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE). Our strategy is to couple various interface schemes, which were adopted in the previous direct‐forcing immersed boundary methods (IBM), with the split‐forcing LBE, which enables us to directly use the direct‐forcing concept in the lattice Boltzmann calculation algorithm with a second‐order accuracy without involving the Navier–Stokes equation. In this study, we investigate not only common diffuse interface schemes but also a sharp interface scheme. For the diffuse interface scheme, we consider explicit and implicit interface schemes. In the calculation of velocity interpolation and force distribution, we use the 2‐ and 4‐point discrete delta functions, which give the second‐order approximation. For the sharp interface scheme, we deal with the exterior sharp interface scheme, where we impose the force density on exterior (solid) nodes nearest to the boundary. All tested schemes show a second‐order overall accuracy when the simulation results of the Taylor–Green decaying vortex are compared with the analytical solutions. It is also confirmed that for stationary complex boundary flows, the sharper the interface scheme, the more accurate the results are. In the simulation of flows past a circular cylinder, the results from each interface scheme are comparable to those from other corresponding numerical schemes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A local mesh refinement approach for large‐eddy simulations of turbulent flows

In this paper, a local mesh refinement (LMR) scheme on Cartesian grids for large‐eddy simulations is presented. The approach improves the calculation of ghost cell pressures and velocities and combines LMR with high‐order interpolation schemes at the LMR interface and throughout the rest of the computational domain to ensure smooth and accurate transition of variables between grids of different resolution. The approach is validated for turbulent channel flow and flow over a matrix of wall‐mounted cubes for which reliable numerical and experimental data are available. Comparisons of predicted first‐order and second‐order turbulence statistics with the validation data demonstrated a convincing agreement. Importantly, it is shown that mean streamwise velocities and fluctuating turbulence quantities transition smoothly across coarse‐to‐fine and fine‐to‐coarse interfaces. © 2016 The Authors International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

A boundary condition for arbitrary shaped inlets in lattice–Boltzmann simulations

We introduce a mass‐flux‐based inlet boundary condition for the lattice‐Boltzmann method. The proposed boundary condition requires minimal amount of boundary data, it produces a steady‐state velocity field which is accurate close to the inlet even for arbitrary inlet geometries, and yet it is simple to implement. We demonstrate its capability for both simple and complex inlet geometries by numerical experiments. For simple inlet geometries, we show that the boundary condition provides very accurate inlet velocities when Re?1. Even with moderate Reynolds number, the inlet velocities are accurate for practical purposes. Furthermore, the potential of our boundary condition to produce inlet velocities which convincingly adapt to complex inlet geometries is highlighted with two specific examples. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A lattice Boltzmann model for the compressible Euler equations with second‐order accuracy

In this paper, we propose a new lattice Boltzmann model for the compressible Euler equations. The model is based on a three‐energy‐level and three‐speed lattice Boltzmann equation by using a method of higher moments of the equilibrium distribution functions. In order to obtain second‐order accuracy, we employ the ghost field distribution functions to remove the non‐physical viscous parts. We also use the conditions of the higher moment of the ghost field equilibrium distribution functions to obtain the equilibrium distribution functions. In the numerical examples, we compare the numerical results of this scheme with those obtained by other lattice Boltzmann models for the compressible Euler equations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lattice‐Boltzmann and finite element simulations of fluid flow in a SMRX Static Mixer Reactor

A detailed comparison between the finite element method (FEM) and the lattice‐Boltzmann method (LBM) is presented. As a realistic test case, three‐dimensional fluid flow simulations in an SMRX static mixer were performed. The SMRX static mixer is a piece of equipment with excellent mixing performance and it is used as a highly efficient chemical reactor for viscous systems like polymers. The complex geometry of this mixer makes such three‐dimensional simulations non‐trivial. An excellent agreement between the results of the two simulation methods was found. Furthermore, the numerical results for the pressure drop as a function of the flow rate were close to experimental measurements. Results show that the relatively simple LBM is a good alternative to traditional methods. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A lattice Boltzmann model for simulation of compressible flows

This paper presents a new model of lattice Boltzmann method for full compressible flows. On the basis of multi‐speed model, an extra potential energy distribution function is introduced to recover the full compressible Navier–Stokes equations with a flexible specific‐heat ratio and Prandtl number. The Chapman–Enskog expansion of the kinetic equations is performed, and the two‐dimension‐seventeen‐velocity density equilibrium distribution functions are obtained. The governing equations are discretized using the third order monotone upwind scheme for scalar conservation laws finite volume scheme. The van Albada limiter is used to avoid spurious oscillations. In order to verify the accuracy of this double‐distribution‐function model, the Riemann problems, Couette flows, and flows around a NACA0012 airfoil are simulated. It is found that the proposed lattice Boltzmann model is suitable for compressible flows, even for strong shock wave problem, which has an extremely large pressure ratio, 100,000. Copyright © 2014 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.