Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian discontinuous Galerkin schemes with a posteriori subcell finite volume limiting on moving unstructured meshes

We present a new family of high order accurate fully discrete one-step Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element schemes on moving unstructured meshes for the solution of nonlinear hyperbolic PDE in multiple space dimensions, which may also include parabolic terms in order to model dissipative transport processes. High order piecewise polynomials are adopted to represent the discrete solution at each time level and within each spatial control volume of the computational grid, while high order of accuracy in time is achieved by the ADER approach. In our algorithm the spatial mesh configuration can be defined in two different ways: either by an isoparametric approach that generates curved control volumes, or by a piecewise linear decomposition of each spatial control volume into simplex sub-elements. Our numerical method belongs to the category of direct Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) schemes, where a space-time conservation formulation of the governing PDE system is considered and which already takes into account the new grid geometry directly during the computation of the numerical fluxes. Our new Lagrangian-type DG scheme adopts the novel a posteriori sub-cell finite volume limiter method, in which the validity of the candidate solution produced in each cell by an unlimited ADER-DG scheme is verified against a set of physical and numerical detection criteria. Those cells which do not satisfy all of the above criteria are flagged as troubled cells and are recomputed with a second order TVD finite volume scheme. The numerical convergence rates of the new ALE ADER-DG schemes are studied up to fourth order in space and time and several test problems are simulated. Finally, an application inspired by Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) type flows is considered by solving the Euler equations and the PDE of viscous and resistive magnetohydrodynamics (VRMHD).Comment: 39 pages, 21 figure

Diffusion-Based Coarse Graining in Hybrid Continuum-Discrete Solvers: Theoretical Formulation and A Priori Tests

Coarse graining is an important ingredient in many multi-scale continuum-discrete solvers such as CFD--DEM (computational fluid dynamics--discrete element method) solvers for dense particle-laden flows. Although CFD--DEM solvers have become a mature technique that is widely used in multiphase flow research and industrial flow simulations, a flexible and easy-to-implement coarse graining algorithm that can work with CFD solvers of arbitrary meshes is still lacking. In this work, we proposed a new coarse graining algorithm for continuum--discrete solvers for dense particle-laden flows based on solving a transient diffusion equation. Via theoretical analysis we demonstrated that the proposed method is equivalent to the statistical kernel method with a Gaussian kernel, but the current method is much more straightforward to implement in CFD--DEM solvers. \textit{A priori} numerical tests were performed to obtain the solid volume fraction fields based on given particle distributions, the results obtained by using the proposed algorithm were compared with those from other coarse graining methods in the literature (e.g., the particle centroid method, the divided particle volume method, and the two-grid formulation). The numerical tests demonstrated that the proposed coarse graining procedure based on solving diffusion equations is theoretically sound, easy to implement and parallelize in general CFD solvers, and has improved mesh-convergence characteristics compared with existing coarse graining methods. The diffusion-based coarse graining method has been implemented into a CFD--DEM solver, the results of which are presented in a separate work (R. Sun and H. Xiao, Diffusion-based coarse graining in hybrid continuum-discrete solvers: Application in CFD-DEM solvers for particle laden flows)

Multi-Dimensional, Compressible Viscous Flow on a Moving Voronoi Mesh

Numerous formulations of finite volume schemes for the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations exist, but in the majority of cases they have been developed for structured and stationary meshes. In many applications, more flexible mesh geometries that can dynamically adjust to the problem at hand and move with the flow in a (quasi) Lagrangian fashion would, however, be highly desirable, as this can allow a significant reduction of advection errors and an accurate realization of curved and moving boundary conditions. Here we describe a novel formulation of viscous continuum hydrodynamics that solves the equations of motion on a Voronoi mesh created by a set of mesh-generating points. The points can move in an arbitrary manner, but the most natural motion is that given by the fluid velocity itself, such that the mesh dynamically adjusts to the flow. Owing to the mathematical properties of the Voronoi tessellation, pathological mesh-twisting effects are avoided. Our implementation considers the full Navier-Stokes equations and has been realized in the AREPO code both in 2D and 3D. We propose a new approach to compute accurate viscous fluxes for a dynamic Voronoi mesh, and use this to formulate a finite volume solver of the Navier-Stokes equations. Through a number of test problems, including circular Couette flow and flow past a cylindrical obstacle, we show that our new scheme combines good accuracy with geometric flexibility, and hence promises to be competitive with other highly refined Eulerian methods. This will in particular allow astrophysical applications of the AREPO code where physical viscosity is important, such as in the hot plasma in galaxy clusters, or for viscous accretion disk models.Comment: 26 pages, 21 figures. Submitted to MNRA

High Order Cell-Centered Lagrangian-Type Finite Volume Schemes with Time-Accurate Local Time Stepping on Unstructured Triangular Meshes

We present a novel cell-centered direct Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) finite volume scheme on unstructured triangular meshes that is high order accurate in space and time and that also allows for time-accurate local time stepping (LTS). The new scheme uses the following basic ingredients: a high order WENO reconstruction in space on unstructured meshes, an element-local high-order accurate space-time Galerkin predictor that performs the time evolution of the reconstructed polynomials within each element, the computation of numerical ALE fluxes at the moving element interfaces through approximate Riemann solvers, and a one-step finite volume scheme for the time update which is directly based on the integral form of the conservation equations in space-time. The inclusion of the LTS algorithm requires a number of crucial extensions, such as a proper scheduling criterion for the time update of each element and for each node; a virtual projection of the elements contained in the reconstruction stencils of the element that has to perform the WENO reconstruction; and the proper computation of the fluxes through the space-time boundary surfaces that will inevitably contain hanging nodes in time due to the LTS algorithm. We have validated our new unstructured Lagrangian LTS approach over a wide sample of test cases solving the Euler equations of compressible gasdynamics in two space dimensions, including shock tube problems, cylindrical explosion problems, as well as specific tests typically adopted in Lagrangian calculations, such as the Kidder and the Saltzman problem. When compared to the traditional global time stepping (GTS) method, the newly proposed LTS algorithm allows to reduce the number of element updates in a given simulation by a factor that may depend on the complexity of the dynamics, but which can be as large as 4.7.Comment: 31 pages, 13 figure

A collocated finite volume scheme to solve free convection for general non-conforming grids

We present a new collocated numerical scheme for the approximation of the Navier-Stokes and energy equations under the Boussinesq assumption for general grids, using the velocity-pressure unknowns. This scheme is based on a recent scheme for the diffusion terms. Stability properties are drawn from particular choices for the pressure gradient and the non-linear terms. Numerical results show the accuracy of the scheme on irregular grids

A cell-centred finite volume approximation for second order partial derivative operators with full matrix on unstructured meshes in any space dimension

Finite volume methods for problems involving second order operators with full diffusion matrix can be used thanks to the definition of a discrete gradient for piecewise constant functions on unstructured meshes satisfying an orthogonality condition. This discrete gradient is shown to satisfy a strong convergence property on the interpolation of regular functions, and a weak one on functions bounded for a discrete $H^1$ norm. To highlight the importance of both properties, the convergence of the finite volume scheme on a homogeneous Dirichlet problem with full diffusion matrix is proven, and an error estimate is provided. Numerical tests show the actual accuracy of the method

Finite element methods for integrated aerodynamic heating analysis

This report gives a description of the work which has been undertaken during the second year of a three year research program. The objectives of the program are to produce finite element based procedures for the solution of the large scale practical problems which are of interest to the Aerothermal Loads Branch (ALB) at NASA Langley Research Establishment. The problems of interest range from Euler simulations of full three dimensional vehicle configurations to local analyses of three dimensional viscous laminar flow. Adaptive meshes produced for both steady state and transient problems are to be considered. An important feature of the work is the provision of specialized techniques which can be used at ALB for the development of an integrated fluid/thermal/structural modeling capability

A fully-coupled discontinuous Galerkin method for two-phase flow in porous media with discontinuous capillary pressure

In this paper we formulate and test numerically a fully-coupled discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method for incompressible two-phase flow with discontinuous capillary pressure. The spatial discretization uses the symmetric interior penalty DG formulation with weighted averages and is based on a wetting-phase potential / capillary potential formulation of the two-phase flow system. After discretizing in time with diagonally implicit Runge-Kutta schemes the resulting systems of nonlinear algebraic equations are solved with Newton's method and the arising systems of linear equations are solved efficiently and in parallel with an algebraic multigrid method. The new scheme is investigated for various test problems from the literature and is also compared to a cell-centered finite volume scheme in terms of accuracy and time to solution. We find that the method is accurate, robust and efficient. In particular no post-processing of the DG velocity field is necessary in contrast to results reported by several authors for decoupled schemes. Moreover, the solver scales well in parallel and three-dimensional problems with up to nearly 100 million degrees of freedom per time step have been computed on 1000 processors