Approximation of the inductionless MHD problem using a stabilized finite element method

In this work, we present a stabilized formulation to solve the inductionless magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) problem using the finite element (FE) method. The MHD problem couples the Navier–Stokes equations and a Darcy-type system for the electric potential via Lorentz’s force in the momentum equation of the Navier–Stokes equations and the currents generated by the moving fluid in Ohm’s law. The key feature of the FE formulation resides in the design of the stabilization terms, which serve several purposes. First, the formulation is suitable for convection dominated flows. Second, there is no need to use interpolation spaces constrained to a compatibility condition in both sub-problems and therefore, equal-order interpolation spaces can be used for all the unknowns. Finally, this formulation leads to a coupled linear system; this monolithic approach is effective, since the coupling can be dealt by effective preconditioning and iterative solvers that allows to deal with high Hartmann numbers

Stabilized finite element approximation of the incompressible MHD equations

No es frecuente encontrar un campo donde dos ramas principales de la Física estén involucradas. La Magnetohidrodinámica es uno de tales campos debido a que involucra a la Mecánica de Fluidos y al Electromagnetismo. Aun cuando puede parecer que esas dos ramas de la Física tienen poco en común, comparten similitudes en las ecuaciones que gobiernan los fenómenos involucrados en ellas. Las ecuaciones de Navier-Stokes y las ecuaciones de Maxwell, ambas en la raíz de la Magnetohidrodinámica, tienen una condición de divergencia nula y es esta condición de divergencia nula sobre la velocidad del fluido y el campo magnético lo que origina algunos de los problemas numéricos que surgen en la modelación de los fenómenos donde el flujo de fluidos y los campos magnéticos están acoplados.El principal objetivo de este trabajo es desarrollar un algoritmo eficiente para la resolución mediante elementos finitos de las ecuaciones de la Magnetohidrodinámica de fluidos incompresibles.Para lograr esta meta, los conceptos básicos y las características de la Magnetohidrodinámica se presentan en una breve introducción informal.A continuación, se da una revisión completa de las ecuaciones de gobierno de la Magnetohidrodinámica, comenzando con las ecuaciones de Navier-Stokes y las ecuaciones de Maxwell. Se discute la aproximación que da origen a las ecuaciones de la Magnetohidrodinámica y finalmente se presentan las ecuaciones de la Magnetohidrodinámica.Una vez que las ecuaciones de gobierno de la Magnetohidrodinámica han sido definidas, se presentan los esquemas numéricos desarrollados, empezando con la linealización de las ecuaciones originales, la formulación estabilizada y finalmente el esquema numérico propuesto. En esta etapa se presenta una prueba de convergencia.Finalmente, se presentan los ejemplos numéricos desarrollados durante este trabajo.Estos ejemplos pueden dividirse en dos grupos: ejemplos numéricos de comparación y ejemplos de internes tecnológico. Dentro del primer grupo están incluidas simulaciones del flujo de Hartmann y del flujo sobre un escalón. El segundo grupo incluye simulaciones del flujo en una tobera de inyección de colada continua y el proceso Czochralski de crecimiento de cristales.It is not frequent to find a field where two major branches of Physics are involved. Magnetohydrodynamics is one of such fields because it involves Fluid Mechanics and Electromagnetism. Although those two branches of Physics can seem to have little in common, they share similarities in the equations that govern the phenomena involved. The Navier-Stokes equations and the Maxwell equations, both at the root of Magnetohydrodynamics, have a divergence free condition and it is this divergence free condition over the velocity of the fluid and the magnetic field what gives origin to some of the numerical problems that appear when approximating the equations that model the phenomena where fluids flow and magnetic fields are coupled.The main objective of this work is to develop an efficient finite element algorithm for the incompressible Magnetohydrodynamics equations.In order to achieve this goal the basic concepts and characteristics of Magnetohydrodynamics are presented in a brief and informal introduction.Next, a full review of the governing equations of Magnetohydrodynamics is given, staring from the Navier-Stokes equations and the Maxwell equations. The MHD approximation is discussed at this stage and the proper Magnetohydrodynamics equations for incompressible fluid are reviewed.Once the governing equations have been defined, the numerical schemes developed are presented, starting with the linearization of the original equations, the stabilization formulations and finally the numerical scheme proposed. A convergence test is shown at this stage.Finally, the numerical examples performed while this work was developed are presented. These examples can be divided in two groups: numerical benchmarks and numerical examples of technological interest. In the first group, the numerical simulations for the Hartmann flow and the flow over a step are included. The second group includes the simulation of the clogging in a continuous casting nozzle and Czochralski crystal growth process.Postprint (published version

Stabilized finite element approximation of the stationary magneto-hydrodynamics equations

In this work we present a stabilized finite element method for the stationary magneto-hydrodynamic equations based on a simple algebraic version of the subgrid scale variational concept. The linearization that yields a well posed linear problem is first identified, and for this linear problem the stabilization method is designed. The key point is the correct behavior of the stabilization parameters on which the formulation depends. It is shown that their expression can be obtained only on the basis of having a correct error estimate. For the stabilization parameters chosen, a stability estimate is proved in detail, as well as the convergence of the numerical solution to the continuous one. The method is then extended to nonlinear problems and its performance checked through numerical experiments

Approximation of the thermally coupled MHD problem using a stabilized finite element method

A numerical formulation to solve the MHD problem with thermal coupling is presented in full detail. The distinctive feature of the method is the design of the stabilization terms, which serve several purposes. First, convective dominated flows in the Navier-Stokes and the heat equation can be dealt with. Second, there is no restriction in the choice of the interpolation spaces of all the variables and, finally, flows highly coupled with the magnetic field can be accounted for. Different aspects related to the design of the final fully discrete and linearized algorithm are also discussed

Variational Multiscale Modeling and Memory Effects in Turbulent Flow Simulations

Effective computational models of multiscale problems have to account for the impact of unresolved physics on the resolved scales. This dissertation advances our fundamental understanding of multiscale models and develops a mathematically rigorous closure modeling framework by combining the Mori-Zwanzig (MZ) formalism of Statistical Mechanics with the variational multiscale (VMS) method. This approach leverages scale-separation projectors as well as phase-space projectors to provide a systematic modeling approach that is applicable to complex non-linear partial differential equations. %The MZ-VMS framework is investigated in the context of turbulent flows. Spectral as well as continuous and discontinuous finite element methods are considered. The MZ-VMS framework leads to a closure term that is non-local in time and appears as a convolution or memory integral. The resulting non-Markovian system is used as a starting point for model development. Several new insights are uncovered: It is shown that unresolved scales lead to memory effects that are driven by an orthogonal projection of the coarse-scale residual and, in the case of finite elements, inter-element jumps. Connections between MZ-based methods, artificial viscosity, and VMS models are explored. The MZ-VMS framework is investigated in the context of turbulent flows. Large eddy simulations of Burgers' equation, turbulent flows, and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence using spectral and discontinuous Galerkin methods are explored. In the spectral method case, we show that MZ-VMS models lead to substantial improvements in the prediction of coarse-grained quantities of interest. Applications to discontinuous Galerkin methods show that modern flux schemes can inherently capture memory effects, and that it is possible to guarantee non-linear stability and conservation via the MZ-VMS approach. We conclude by demonstrating how ideas from MZ-VMS can be adapted for shock-capturing and filtering methods.PHDAerospace EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145847/1/parish_1.pd

Approximation of the thermally coupled MHD problem using a stabilized finite element method

A numerical formulation to solve the MHD problem with thermal coupling is presented in full detail. The distinctive feature of the method is the design of the stabilization terms, which serve several purposes. First, convective dominated flows in the Navier–Stokes and the heat equation can be dealt with. Second, there is no restriction in the choice of the interpolation spaces of all the variables and, finally, flows highly coupled with the magnetic field can be accounted for. Different aspects related to the design of the final fully discrete and linearized algorithm are also discussed

Isogeometric finite element methods for liquid metal magnetohydrodynamics

A fusion blanket is a key component in a fusion reactor which extracts heat energy, protects the surrounding structure and possibly produces tritium, one of the fuels required for the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction. Interest in magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) effects in the fusion blanket has been growing due to the promising prospect of a liquid breeder blanket, due to its high power density and the possibility of sustainable production of tritium. However, MHD effects can significantly influence the operating performance of the fusion blanket and an accurate and reliable analysis of the MHD effects are critical in its design. Significant progress in the numerical study of MHD has been made recently, due in large part to the advancement in computing power. However, its maturity has not yet reached a point comparable with standard CFD solvers. In particular, complex domains and complex externally applied magnetic fields present additional challenges for numerical schemes in MHD. For that reason, the application of isogeometric analysis is considered in this thesis. Isogeometric Analysis (IGA) is a new class of numerical method which integrates Computer Aided Design (CAD) into Finite Element Analysis (FEA). In IGA, B-splines and NURBS, which are the building blocks used to construct a geometry in CAD, are also used to build the finite element spaces. This allows to represent geometries more accurately, and in some cases exactly. This may help advance the progress of numerical studies of MHD effects, not only in fusion blanket scenarios, but more widely. In this thesis, we develop and study a number of types of IGA based MHD solver; a fully-developed MHD flow solver, a steady-state MHD solver and a time-dependent MHD solver. These solvers are validated using analytical methods and methods of manufactured solution and are compared with other numerical schemes on a number of benchmark problems.Open Acces

Coupling of adaptive refinement with variational multiscale element free Galerkin method for high gradient problems

In this thesis, a new adaptive refinement coupled with variational multiscale element free Galerkin method (EFGM) is developed for solving high gradient problems. The aim of this thesis is to propose a new framework of moving least squares (MLS) approximation with coupling method based on the variational multiscale concept. Additional new nodes will be inserted automatically at high gradient regions by adaptive algorithm based on refinement criteria. An enrichment function is embedded in the MLS approximation for the fine scale part of the problem. Besides, this new technique will be parallelized by using OpenMP which is based on shared memory architecture. The proposed new approach is first applied in two-dimensional large localized gradient problem, transient heat conduction problem as well as Burgers' equation in order to analyze the accuracy of the proposed method and validated with an available analytic solutions. The obtained numerical results show a very good agreement with the analytic solutions and is able to obtain more accurate results than the standard EFGM. It is found that the average relative error of this new method is reduced in the range of 15% to 70%. Besides, this new method is also extended to solve two-dimensional sine-Gordon solitons. The results obtained show good agreement with the published results. Moreover, the parallelization of adaptive variational multiscale EFGM can improve the computational efficiency by reducing the execution time without loss of accuracy. Therefore, the capability and robustness of this new method has the potential to investigate more complicated problems in order to produce higher precision solutions with shorter computational time

Partitioned methods for coupled fluid flow problems

Many flow problems in engineering and technology are coupled in their nature. Plenty of turbulent flows are solved by legacy codes or by ones written by a team of programmers with great complexity. As knowledge of turbulent flows expands and new models are introduced, implementation of modern approaches in legacy codes and increasing their accuracy are of great concern. On the other hand, industrial flow models normally involve multi-physical process or multi-domains. Given the different nature of the physical processes of each subproblem, they may require different meshes, time steps and methods. There is a natural desire to uncouple and solve such systems by solving each subphysics problem, to reduce the technical complexity and allow the use of optimized legacy sub-problems' codes. The objective of this work is the development, analysis and validation of new modular, uncoupling algorithms for some coupled flow models, addressing both of the above problems. Particularly, this thesis studies: i) explicitly uncoupling algorithm for implementation of variational multiscale approach in legacy turbulence codes, ii) partitioned time stepping methods for magnetohydrodynamics flows, and iii) partitioned time stepping methods for groundwater-surface water flows. For each direction, we give comprehensive analysis of stability and derive optimal error estimates of our proposed methods. We discuss the advantages and limitations of uncoupling methods compared with monolithic methods, where the globally coupled problems are assembled and solved in one step. Numerical experiments are performed to verify the theoretical results

SOLID-SHELL FINITE ELEMENT MODELS FOR EXPLICIT SIMULATIONS OF CRACK PROPAGATION IN THIN STRUCTURES

Crack propagation in thin shell structures due to cutting is conveniently simulated using explicit finite element approaches, in view of the high nonlinearity of the problem. Solidshell elements are usually preferred for the discretization in the presence of complex material behavior and degradation phenomena such as delamination, since they allow for a correct representation of the thickness geometry. However, in solid-shell elements the small thickness leads to a very high maximum eigenfrequency, which imply very small stable time-steps. A new selective mass scaling technique is proposed to increase the time-step size without affecting accuracy. New ”directional” cohesive interface elements are used in conjunction with selective mass scaling to account for the interaction with a sharp blade in cutting processes of thin ductile shells