A fully semi-Lagrangian discretization for the 2D Navier--Stokes equations in the vorticity--streamfunction formulation

A numerical method for the two-dimensional, incompressible Navier--Stokes equations in vorticity--streamfunction form is proposed, which employs semi-Lagrangian discretizations for both the advection and diffusion terms, thus achieving unconditional stability without the need to solve linear systems beyond that required by the Poisson solver for the reconstruction of the streamfunction. A description of the discretization of Dirichlet boundary conditions for the semi-Lagrangian approach to diffusion terms is also presented. Numerical experiments on classical benchmarks for incompressible flow in simple geometries validate the proposed method

Unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes simulations on deforming domains

Mesh generation has been an important topic of research for the past four decades, primarily because it is one of the critical elements in the numerical simulation of fluid flows. One of the main current issues in this regard is mesh generation and flow solution on domains with moving boundaries. In this research, a novel scheme has been proposed for mesh generation on domains with moving boundaries, with the location of boundary nodes known at any particular time. A new set of linearized equations is derived based on a full nonlinear elliptic grid generation system. The basic assumption in deriving these new equations is that each node experiences only a small amount of disturbance when the mesh moves from one time to the next. Comparison with grids generated by the full elliptic system shows that this new method can generate high quality grids with significantly less computational cost. Inherently, the flow on such a domain will be unsteady. The Navier-Stokes equations for unsteady 2D laminar incompressible flow are expressed in the primitive variables formulation. A SIMPLE-like scheme is applied to link the pressure and velocity fields and ensure conservation of mass is satisfied. The equations are discretized in a pure finite difference formulation and solved by implicitly marching in time. The flow solver is validated against results in the literature for flow through a channel with a moving indentation along one wall

A fast immersed boundary method for external incompressible viscous flows using lattice Green's functions

A new parallel, computationally efficient immersed boundary method for solving three-dimensional, viscous, incompressible flows on unbounded domains is presented. Immersed surfaces with prescribed motions are generated using the interpolation and regularization operators obtained from the discrete delta function approach of the original (Peskin's) immersed boundary method. Unlike Peskin's method, boundary forces are regarded as Lagrange multipliers that are used to satisfy the no-slip condition. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are discretized on an unbounded staggered Cartesian grid and are solved in a finite number of operations using lattice Green's function techniques. These techniques are used to automatically enforce the natural free-space boundary conditions and to implement a novel block-wise adaptive grid that significantly reduces the run-time cost of solutions by limiting operations to grid cells in the immediate vicinity and near-wake region of the immersed surface. These techniques also enable the construction of practical discrete viscous integrating factors that are used in combination with specialized half-explicit Runge-Kutta schemes to accurately and efficiently solve the differential algebraic equations describing the discrete momentum equation, incompressibility constraint, and no-slip constraint. Linear systems of equations resulting from the time integration scheme are efficiently solved using an approximation-free nested projection technique. The algebraic properties of the discrete operators are used to reduce projection steps to simple discrete elliptic problems, e.g. discrete Poisson problems, that are compatible with recent parallel fast multipole methods for difference equations. Numerical experiments on low-aspect-ratio flat plates and spheres at Reynolds numbers up to 3,700 are used to verify the accuracy and physical fidelity of the formulation.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures; preprint submitted to Journal of Computational Physic

Computational Fluid Dynamics

This collection of papers was presented at the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Conference held at Ames Research Center in California on March 12 through 14, 1991. It is an overview of CFD activities at NASA Lewis Research Center. The main thrust of computational work at Lewis is aimed at propulsion systems. Specific issues related to propulsion CFD and associated modeling will also be presented. Examples of results obtained with the most recent algorithm development will also be presented

Teaching and Learning of Fluid Mechanics

This book contains research on the pedagogical aspects of fluid mechanics and includes case studies, lesson plans, articles on historical aspects of fluid mechanics, and novel and interesting experiments and theoretical calculations that convey complex ideas in creative ways. The current volume showcases the teaching practices of fluid dynamicists from different disciplines, ranging from mathematics, physics, mechanical engineering, and environmental engineering to chemical engineering. The suitability of these articles ranges from early undergraduate to graduate level courses and can be read by faculty and students alike. We hope this collection will encourage cross-disciplinary pedagogical practices and give students a glimpse of the wide range of applications of fluid dynamics