| Abstract: | An entropy‐based approach is presented for assessment of computational accuracy in incompressible flow problems. It is shown that computational entropy can serve as an effective parameter in detecting erroneous or anomalous predictions of mass and momentum transport in the flow field. In the present paper, the fluid flow equations and second law of thermodynamics are discretized by a Galerkin finite‐element method with linear, isoparametric triangular elements. It is shown that a weighted entropy residual is closely related to truncation error; this relationship is examined in an application problem involving incompressible flow through a converging channel. In particular, regions exhibiting anomalous flow behaviour, such as under‐predicted velocities, appear together with analogous trends in the weighted entropy residual. It is anticipated that entropy‐based error detection can provide important steps towards improved accuracy in computational fluid flow. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
