Efficient upwind algorithms for solution of the Euler and Navier-stokes equations

An efficient three-dimensionasl tructured solver for the Euler and Navier-Stokese quations is developed based on a finite volume upwind algorithm using Roe fluxes. Multigrid and optimal smoothing multi-stage time stepping accelerate convergence. The accuracy of the new solver is demonstrated for inviscid flows in the range 0.675 :5M :5 25. A comparative grid convergence study for transonic turbulent flow about a wing is conducted with the present solver and a scalar dissipation central difference industrial design solver. The upwind solver demonstrates faster grid convergence than the central scheme, producing more consistent estimates of lift, drag and boundary layer parameters. In transonic viscous computations, the upwind scheme with convergence acceleration is over 20 times more efficient than without it. The ability of the upwind solver to compute viscous flows of comparable accuracy to scalar dissipation central schemes on grids of one-quarter the density make it a more accurate, cost effective alternative. In addition, an original convergencea cceleration method termed shock acceleration is proposed. The method is designed to reduce the errors caused by the shock wave singularity M -+ 1, based on a localized treatment of discontinuities. Acceleration models are formulated for an inhomogeneous PDE in one variable. Results for the Roe and Engquist-Osher schemes demonstrate an order of magnitude improvement in the rate of convergence. One of the acceleration models is extended to the quasi one-dimensiona Euler equations for duct flow. Results for this case d monstrate a marked increase in convergence with negligible loss in accuracy when the acceleration procedure is applied after the shock has settled in its final cell. Typically, the method saves up to 60% in computational expense. Significantly, the performance gain is entirely at the expense of the error modes associated with discrete shock structure. In view of the success achieved, further development of the method is proposed

A linear domain decomposition method for partially saturated flow in porous media

The Richards equation is a nonlinear parabolic equation that is commonly used for modelling saturated/unsaturated flow in porous media. We assume that the medium occupies a bounded Lipschitz domain partitioned into two disjoint subdomains separated by a fixed interface $\Gamma$. This leads to two problems defined on the subdomains which are coupled through conditions expressing flux and pressure continuity at $\Gamma$. After an Euler implicit discretisation of the resulting nonlinear subproblems a linear iterative ($L$-type) domain decomposition scheme is proposed. The convergence of the scheme is proved rigorously. In the last part we present numerical results that are in line with the theoretical finding, in particular the unconditional convergence of the scheme. We further compare the scheme to other approaches not making use of a domain decomposition. Namely, we compare to a Newton and a Picard scheme. We show that the proposed scheme is more stable than the Newton scheme while remaining comparable in computational time, even if no parallelisation is being adopted. Finally we present a parametric study that can be used to optimize the proposed scheme.Comment: 34 pages, 13 figures, 7 table

Robust stabilised finite element solvers for generalised Newtonian fluid flows

Various materials and solid-fluid mixtures of engineering and biomedical interest can be modelled as generalised Newtonian fluids, as their apparent viscosity depends locally on the flow field. Despite the particular features of such models, it is common practice to combine them with numerical techniques originally conceived for Newtonian fluids, which can bring several issues such as spurious pressure boundary layers, unsuitable natural boundary conditions and coupling terms spoiling the efficiency of nonlinear solvers and preconditioners. In this work, we present a finite element framework dealing with such issues while maintaining low computational cost and simple implementation. The building blocks of our algorithm are (i) an equal-order stabilisation method preserving consistency even for lowest-order discretisations, (ii) robust extrapolation of velocities in the time-dependent case to decouple the rheological law from the overall system, (iii) adaptive time step selection and (iv) a fast physics-based preconditioned Krylov subspace solver, to tackle the relevant range of discretisation parameters including highly varying viscosity. Selected numerical experiments are provided demonstrating the potential of our approach in terms of robustness, accuracy and efficiency for problems of practical interest

Using local defect correction for laminar flame simulation

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Stabilized finite element methods for natural and forced convection-radiation heat transfer

Thermal radiation in forced and natural convection can be an important mode of heat transfer in high temperature chambers, such as industrial furnaces and boilers, even under non-soot conditions. Growing concern with high temperature processes has emphasized the need for an evaluation of the eect of radiative heat transfer. Nevertheless, the modelling of radiation is often neglected in combustion analysis, mainly because it involves tedious mathematics, which increase the computation time, and also because of the lack of detailed information on the optical properties of the participating media and surfaces. Ignoring radiative transfer may introduce signicant errors in the overall predictions. The most accurate procedures available for computing radiation transfer in furnaces are the Zonal and Monte Carlo methods. However, these methods are not widely applied in comprehensive combustion calculations due to their large computational time and storage requirements. Also, the equations of the radiation transfer are in non-dierential form, a signicant inconvenience when solved in conjunction with the dierential equations of ow and combustion. For this reason, numerous investigations are currently being carried out worldwide to assess computationally ecient methods. In addition ecient modelling of forced and natural convection-radiation would help to simulate and understand heat transfer appearing in various engineering applications, especially in the case of the heat treatment of high-alloy steel or glass by a continuously heating process inside industrial furnaces, ovens or even smaller applications like microwaves. This thesis deals with the design of such methods and shows that a class of simplied approximations provides advantages that should be utilized in treating radiative transfer problems with or without ow convection. Much of the current work on modelling energy transport in high-temperature gas furnaces or chemically reacting ows, uses computational uid dynamics (CFD) codes. Therefore, the models for solving the radiative transfer equations must be compatible with the numerical methods employed to solve the transport equations. The Zonal and Monte Carlo methods for solving the radiative transfer problem are incompatible with the mathematical formulations used in CFD codes, and require prohibitive computational times for spatial resolution desired. The main objectives of this thesis is then to understand and better model the heat treatment at the same time in the furnace/oven chamber and within the workpieces under specied furnace geometry, thermal schedule, parts loading design, initial operation conditions, and performance requirements. Nowadays, there is a strong need either for appropriate fast and accurate algorithms for the mixed and natural convection-radiation or for reduced models which still incorporate its main radiative transfer physics. During the last decade, a lot of research was focused on the derivation of approximate models allowing for an accurate description of the important physical phenomena at reasonable numerical costs. Hence, a whole hierarchy of approximative equations is available, ranging from half-space moment approximations over full-space moment systems to the diusion-type simplied PN approximations. The latter were developed and extensively tested for various radiative transfer problems, where they proved to be suciently accurate. Although they were derived in the asymptotic regime for a large optical thickness of the material, these approximations yield encouraging even results in the optically thin regime. The main advantage of considering simplied PN approximations is the fact that the integro-dierential radiative transfer equation is transformed into a set of elliptic equations independent of the angular direction which are easy to solve. The simplied PN models are proposed in this thesis for modelling radiative heat transfer for both forced and natural convection-radiation applications. There exists a variety of computational methods available in the literature for solving coupled convection-radiation problems. For instance, applied to convection-dominated ows, Eulerian methods incorporate some upstream weighting in their formulations to stabilize the numerical procedure. The most popular Eulerian methods, in nite element framework, are the streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin, Galerkin/least-squares and Taylor-Galerkin methods. All these Eulerian methods are easy to formulate and implement. However, time truncation errors dominate their solutions and are subjected to Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) stability conditions, which put a restriction on the size of time steps taken in numerical simulations. Galerkin-characteristic methods (also known by semi-Lagrangian methods in meteorological community) on the other hand, make use of the transport nature of the governing equations. The idea in these methods is to rewrite the governing equations in term of Lagrangian co-ordinates as dened by the particle trajectories (or characteristics) associated with the problem. Then, the Lagrangian total derivative is approximated, thanks to a divided dierence operator. The Lagrangian treatment in these methods greatly reduces the time truncation errors in the Eulerian methods. In addition, these methods are known to be unconditionally stable, independent of the diusion coecient, and optimally accurate at least when the inner products in the Galerkin procedure are calculated exactly. In Galerkin-characteristic methods, the time derivative and the advection term are combined as a directional derivative along the characteristics, leading to a characteristic time-stepping procedure. Consequently, the Galerkin-characteristic methods symmetrize and stabilize the governing equations, allow for large time steps in a simulation without loss of accuracy, and eliminate the excessive numerical dispersion and grid orientation eects present in many upwind methods. This class of numerical methods have been implemented in this thesis to solve the developed models for mixed and natural convection-radiation applications. Extensive validations for the numerical simulations have been carried out and full comparisons with other published numerical results (obtained using commercial softwares) and experimental results are illustrated for natural and forced radiative heat transfer. The obtained convectionradiation results have been studied under the eect of dierent heat transfer characteristics to improve the existing applications and to help in the furnace designs

Simulation of all-scale atmospheric dynamics on unstructured meshes

The advance of massively parallel computing in the nineteen nineties and beyond encouraged finer grid intervals in numerical weather-prediction models. This has improved resolution of weather systems and enhanced the accuracy of forecasts, while setting the trend for development of unified all-scale atmospheric models. This paper first outlines the historical background to a wide range of numerical methods advanced in the process. Next, the trend is illustrated with a technical review of a versatile nonoscillatory forward-in-time finite-volume (NFTFV) approach, proven effective in simulations of atmospheric flows from small-scale dynamics to global circulations and climate. The outlined approach exploits the synergy of two specific ingredients: the MPDATA methods for the simulation of fluid flows based on the sign-preserving properties of upstream differencing; and the flexible finite-volume median-dual unstructured-mesh discretisation of the spatial differential operators comprising PDEs of atmospheric dynamics. The paper consolidates the concepts leading to a family of generalised nonhydrostatic NFTFV flow solvers that include soundproof PDEs of incompressible Boussinesq, anelastic and pseudo-incompressible systems, common in large-eddy simulation of small- and meso-scale dynamics, as well as all-scale compressible Euler equations. Such a framework naturally extends predictive skills of large-eddy simulation to the global atmosphere, providing a bottom-up alternative to the reverse approach pursued in the weather-prediction models. Theoretical considerations are substantiated by calculations attesting to the versatility and efficacy of the NFTFV approach. Some prospective developments are also discussed