Face-centred cubic lattices and particle redistribution in vortex methods

In vortex particle methods one is concerned with the problem of clustering and depletion of particles in different regions of the flow. The overlap of the vortex blobs is indeed of primary importance for the convergence of the method. In this paper we consider face-centred cubic (FCC) lattices for particle redistribution in three dimensions. This lattice is in fact the most natural way to pack spheres (the FCC is also known as a closest-sphere packing lattice). As a consequence, a point has 12 equidistant close neighbours rather than six for the cubic lattice. The FCC lattice thus offers some symmetry properties that should prove useful for a number of reasons, e.g., the core overlap issue. A few results for this scheme are presented. The problem of two colliding vortex rings at Re = 250 and 500 is studied with both the FCC and cubic lattice schemes. This problem subjects the vortex tubes to a quite strong stretching field and can amply test the quality of the lattice and the remeshing

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics

This paper presents an overview and introduction to Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics in theory and in practice. Firstly, we give a basic grounding in the fundamentals of SPH, showing how the equations of motion and energy can be self-consistently derived from the density estimate. We then show how to interpret these equations using the basic SPH interpolation formulae and highlight the subtle difference in approach between SPH and other particle methods. In doing so, we also critique several `urban myths' regarding SPH, in particular the idea that one can simply increase the `neighbour number' more slowly than the total number of particles in order to obtain convergence. We also discuss the origin of numerical instabilities such as the pairing and tensile instabilities. Finally, we give practical advice on how to resolve three of the main issues with SPMHD: removing the tensile instability, formulating dissipative terms for MHD shocks and enforcing the divergence constraint on the particles, and we give the current status of developments in this area. Accompanying the paper is the first public release of the NDSPMHD SPH code, a 1, 2 and 3 dimensional code designed as a testbed for SPH/SPMHD algorithms that can be used to test many of the ideas and used to run all of the numerical examples contained in the paper.Comment: 44 pages, 14 figures, accepted to special edition of J. Comp. Phys. on "Computational Plasma Physics". The ndspmhd code is available for download from http://users.monash.edu.au/~dprice/ndspmhd

An approach for solving the boundary free edge difficulties in SPH modelling: application to a viscous accretion disc in close binaries

In this work, we propose a SPH interpolating Kernel reformulation suitable also to treat free edge boundaries in the computational domain. Application to both inviscid and viscous stationary low compressibility accretion disc models in Close Binaries (CB) are shown. The investigation carried out in this paper is a consequence of the fact that a low compressibility modelling is crucial to check numerical reliability. Results show that physical viscosity supports a well-bound accretion disc formation, despite the low gas compressibility, when a Gaussian-derived Kernel (from the Error Function) is assumed, in extended particle range - whose Half Width at Half Maximum (HWHM) is fixed to a constant $h$ value - without any spatial restrictions on its radial interaction (hereinafter GASPHER). At the same time, GASPHER ensures adequate particle interpolations at the boundary free edges. Both SPH and adaptive SPH (hereinafter ASPH) methods lack accuracy if there are not constraints on the boundary conditions, in particular at the edge of the particle envelope: Free Edge (FE) conditions. In SPH, an inefficient particle interpolation involves a few neighbour particles; instead, in the second case, non-physical effects involve both the boundary layer particles themselves and the radial transport. Either in a regime where FE conditions involve the computational domain, or in a viscous fluid dynamics, or both, a GASPHER scheme can be rightly adopted in such troublesome physical regimes. Despite the applied low compressibiity condition, viscous GASPHER model shows clear spiral pattern profiles demonstrating the better quality of results compared to SPH viscous ones. Moreover a successful comparison of results concerning GASPHER 1D inviscid shock tube with analytical solution is also reported.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figure

Numerical issues in Lagrangian tracking and topological evolution of fluid particles in wallbounded turbulent flows

The determination of the local Lagrangian evolution of the flow topology in wall-bounded turbulence, and of the Lagrangian evolution associated with entrainment across the turbulent / non-turbulent interface into a turbulent boundary layer, require accurate tracking of a fluid particle and its local velocity gradients. This paper addresses the implementation of fluid-particle tracking in both a turbulent boundary layer direct numerical simulation and in a fully developed channel flow simulation. Determination of the sub-grid particle velocity is performed using both cubic B-spline, four-point Hermite spline and higher-order Hermite spline interpolation. Both wall-bounded flows show similar oscillations in the Lagrangian tracers of both velocity and velocity gradients, corresponding to the movement of particles across the boundaries of computational cells. While these oscillation in the particle velocity are relatively small and have negligible effect on the particle trajectories for time-steps of the order of CFL = 0.1, they appear to be the cause of significant oscillations in the evolution of the invariants of the velocity gradient tensor

A Compact Third-order Gas-kinetic Scheme for Compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes Equations

In this paper, a compact third-order gas-kinetic scheme is proposed for the compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. The main reason for the feasibility to develop such a high-order scheme with compact stencil, which involves only neighboring cells, is due to the use of a high-order gas evolution model. Besides the evaluation of the time-dependent flux function across a cell interface, the high-order gas evolution model also provides an accurate time-dependent solution of the flow variables at a cell interface. Therefore, the current scheme not only updates the cell averaged conservative flow variables inside each control volume, but also tracks the flow variables at the cell interface at the next time level. As a result, with both cell averaged and cell interface values the high-order reconstruction in the current scheme can be done compactly. Different from using a weak formulation for high-order accuracy in the Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method, the current scheme is based on the strong solution, where the flow evolution starting from a piecewise discontinuous high-order initial data is precisely followed. The cell interface time-dependent flow variables can be used for the initial data reconstruction at the beginning of next time step. Even with compact stencil, the current scheme has third-order accuracy in the smooth flow regions, and has favorable shock capturing property in the discontinuous regions. Many test cases are used to validate the current scheme. In comparison with many other high-order schemes, the current method avoids the use of Gaussian points for the flux evaluation along the cell interface and the multi-stage Runge-Kutta time stepping technique.Comment: 27 pages, 38 figure