1,351 research outputs found
Aspects of Unstructured Grids and Finite-Volume Solvers for the Euler and Navier-Stokes Equations
One of the major achievements in engineering science has been the development of computer algorithms for solving nonlinear differential equations such as the Navier-Stokes equations. In the past, limited computer resources have motivated the development of efficient numerical schemes in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) utilizing structured meshes. The use of structured meshes greatly simplifies the implementation of CFD algorithms on conventional computers. Unstructured grids on the other hand offer an alternative to modeling complex geometries. Unstructured meshes have irregular connectivity and usually contain combinations of triangles, quadrilaterals, tetrahedra, and hexahedra. The generation and use of unstructured grids poses new challenges in CFD. The purpose of this note is to present recent developments in the unstructured grid generation and flow solution technology
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
High Order Schemes for Gradient Flows
First, two new classes of energy stable, high order accurate Runge-Kutta schemes for gradient flows in a very general setting are presented: a class of fully implicit methods that are unconditionally energy stable and a class of semi-implicit methods that are conditionally energy stable. The new schemes are developed as high order analogs of the minimizing movements approach for generating a time discrete approximation to a gradient flow by solving a sequence of optimization problems. In particular, each step entails minimizing the associated energy of the gradient flow plus a movement limiter term that is, in the classical context of steepest descent with respect to an inner product, simply quadratic. A variety of existing stable numerical methods can be recognized as (typically just first order accurate in time) minimizing movement schemes for their associated evolution equations, already requiring the optimization of the energy plus a quadratic term at every time step. Therefore, our methods give a painless way to extend the existing schemes to high order accurate in time schemes while maintaining their stability. Additionally, we extend the schemes to gradient flows with solution dependent inner product. Here, the stability and consistency conditions of the methods are given and proved, specific examples of the schemes are given for second and third order accuracy, and convergence tests are performed to demonstrate the accuracy of the methods.
Next, two algorithms for simulating mean curvature motion are considered. First is the threshold dynamics algorithm of Merriman, Bence, and Osher. The algorithm is only first order accurate in the two-phase setting and its accuracy degrades further to half order in the multi-phase setting, a shortcoming it has in common with other related, more recent algorithms.
As a first, rigorous step in addressing this shortcoming, two different second order accurate versions of two-phase threshold dynamics are presented.
Unlike in previous efforts in this direction, both algorithms come with careful consistency calculations.
The first algorithm is consistent with its limit (motion by mean curvature) up to second order in any space dimension.
The second achieves second order accuracy only in dimension two but comes with a rigorous stability guarantee (unconditional energy stability) in any dimension -- a first for high order schemes of its type.
Finally, a level set method for multiphase curvature motion known as Voronoi implicit interface method is considered. Here, careful numerical convergence studies, using parameterized curves to reach very high resolutions in two dimensions are given.
These tests demonstrate that in the unequal, additive surface tension case, the Voronoi implicit interface method does not converge to the desired limit.
Then a variant that maintains the spirit of the original algorithm is presented. It appears to fix the non-convergence and as a bonus, the new variant extends the Voronoi implicit interface method to unequal mobilities.PHDApplied and Interdisciplinary MathematicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162894/1/azaitzef_1.pd
The Surface Topography of a Magnetic Fluid -- a Quantitative Comparison between Experiment and Numerical Simulation
The normal field instability in magnetic liquids is investigated
experimentally by means of a radioscopic technique which allows a precise
measurement of the surface topography. The dependence of the topography on the
magnetic field is compared to results obtained by numerical simulations via the
finite element method. Quantitative agreement has been found for the critical
field of the instability, the scaling of the pattern amplitude and the detailed
shape of the magnetic spikes. The fundamental Fourier mode approximates the
shape to within 10% accuracy for a range of up to 40% of the bifurcation
parameter of this subcritical bifurcation. The measured control parameter
dependence of the wavenumber differs qualitatively from analytical predictions
obtained by minimization of the free energy.Comment: 21 pages, 16 figures; corrected typos, added reference to Kuznetsov
and Spector(1976), S.J. Fortune(1995) and Harkins&Jordan (1930). Figures
revise
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Moving Polygon Methods for Incompressible Fluid Dynamics
Hybrid particle-mesh numerical approaches are proposed to solve incompressible fluid flows. The methods discussed in this work consist of a collection of particles each wrapped in their own polygon mesh cell, which then move through the domain as the flow evolves. Variables such as pressure, velocity, mass, and momentum are located either on the mesh or on the particles themselves, depending on the specific algorithm described, and each will be shown to have its own advantages and disadvantages. This work explores what is required to obtain local conservation of mass, momentum, and convergence for the velocity and pressure in a particle-mesh CFD simulation method. Current particle methods are explored and analyzed for their benefits and deficiencies, and newly developed methods are described with results and analysis.
A new method for generating locally orthogonal polygonal meshes from a set of generator points is presented in which polygon areas are a constraint. The area constraint property is particularly useful for particle methods where moving polygons track a discrete portion of material. Voronoi polygon meshes have some very attractive mathematical and numerical properties for numerical computation, so a generalization of Voronoi polygon meshes is formulated that enforces a polygon area constraint. Area constrained moving polygonal meshes allow one to develop hybrid particle-mesh numerical methods that display some of the most attractive features of each approach. It is shown that this mesh construction method can continuously reconnect a moving, unstructured polygonal mesh in a pseudo-Lagrangian fashion without change in cell area/volume, and the method\u27s ability to simulate various physical scenarios is shown. The advantages are identified for incompressible fluid flow calculations, with demonstration cases that include material discontinuities of all three phases of matter and large density jumps
High order direct Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian schemes on moving Voronoi meshes with topology changes
We present a new family of very high order accurate direct
Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) Finite Volume (FV) and Discontinuous
Galerkin (DG) schemes for the solution of nonlinear hyperbolic PDE systems on
moving 2D Voronoi meshes that are regenerated at each time step and which
explicitly allow topology changes in time.
The Voronoi tessellations are obtained from a set of generator points that
move with the local fluid velocity. We employ an AREPO-type approach, which
rapidly rebuilds a new high quality mesh rearranging the element shapes and
neighbors in order to guarantee a robust mesh evolution even for vortex flows
and very long simulation times. The old and new Voronoi elements associated to
the same generator are connected to construct closed space--time control
volumes, whose bottom and top faces may be polygons with a different number of
sides. We also incorporate degenerate space--time sliver elements, needed to
fill the space--time holes that arise because of topology changes. The final
ALE FV-DG scheme is obtained by a redesign of the fully discrete direct ALE
schemes of Boscheri and Dumbser, extended here to moving Voronoi meshes and
space--time sliver elements. Our new numerical scheme is based on the
integration over arbitrary shaped closed space--time control volumes combined
with a fully-discrete space--time conservation formulation of the governing PDE
system. In this way the discrete solution is conservative and satisfies the GCL
by construction.
Numerical convergence studies as well as a large set of benchmarks for
hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) demonstrate the accuracy and
robustness of the proposed method. Our numerical results clearly show that the
new combination of very high order schemes with regenerated meshes with
topology changes lead to substantial improvements compared to direct ALE
methods on conforming meshes
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