Discrete-Velocity Vector-BGK Models Based Numerical Methods for the Incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations

In this paper, we propose a class of numerical methods based on discrete-velocity vector-BGK models for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. By analyzing a splitting method with Maxwell iteration, we show that the usual lattice Boltzmann discretization of the vector-BGK models provides a good numerical scheme. Moreover, we establish the stability of the numerical scheme. The stability and second-order accuracy of the scheme are validated through numerical simulations of the two-dimensional Taylor-Green vortex flows. Further numerical tests are conducted to exhibit some potential advantages of the vector-BGK models, which can be regarded as competitive alternatives of the scalar-BGK models.     

Semi-Implicit Interior Penalty Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Viscous Compressible Flows

We deal with the numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations describing a motion of viscous compressible fluids. In order to obtain a sufficiently stable higher order scheme with respect to the time and space coordinates, we develop a combination of the discontinuous Galerkin finite element (DGFE) method for the space discretization and the backward difference formulae (BDF) for the time discretization. Since the resulting discrete problem leads to a system of nonlinear algebraic equations at each time step, we employ suitable linearizations of inviscid as well as viscous fluxes which give a linear algebraic problem at each time step. Finally, the resulting BDF-DGFE scheme is applied to steady as well as unsteady flows and achieved results are compared with reference data.     

Splitting Finite Difference Methods on Staggered Grids for the Three-Dimensional Time-Dependent Maxwell Equations

In this paper, we study splitting numerical methods for the three-dimensional Maxwell equations in the time domain. We propose a new kind of splitting finite-difference time-domain schemes on a staggered grid, which consists of only two stages for each time step. It is proved by the energy method that the splitting scheme is unconditionally stable and convergent for problems with perfectly conducting boundary conditions. Both numerical dispersion analysis and numerical experiments are also presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed schemes.     

Consistent Forcing Scheme in the Simplified Lattice Boltzmann Method for Incompressible Flows

Considering the fact that the lattice discrete effects are neglected while introducing a body force into the simplified lattice Boltzmann method (SLBM), we propose a consistent forcing scheme in SLBM for incompressible flows with external forces. The lattice discrete effects are considered at the level of distribution functions in the present forcing scheme. Consequently, it is more accurate compared with the original forcing scheme used in SLBM. Through Taylor series expansion and Chapman-Enskog (CE) expansion analysis, the present forcing scheme can be proven to recover the macroscopic Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations. Then, the macroscopic equations are resolved through a fractional step technique. Furthermore, the material derivative term is discretized by the central difference method. To verify the results of the present scheme, we simulate with multiple forms of external force interactions including the space- and time-dependent body forces. Hence, the present forcing scheme overcomes the disadvantages of the original forcing scheme and the body force can be accurately imposed in the present scheme even when a coarse mesh is applied while the original scheme fails. Excellent agreements between the analytical solutions and our numerical results can be observed.     

An All Speed Second Order IMEX Relaxation Scheme for the Euler Equations

We present an implicit-explicit finite volume scheme for the Euler equations. We start from the non-dimensionalised Euler equations where we split the pressure in a slow and a fast acoustic part. We use a Suliciu type relaxation model which we split in an explicit part, solved using a Godunov-type scheme based on an approximate Riemann solver, and an implicit part where we solve an elliptic equation for the fast pressure. The relaxation source terms are treated projecting the solution on the equilibrium manifold. The proposed scheme is positivity preserving with respect to the density and internal energy and asymptotic preserving towards the incompressible Euler equations. For this first order scheme we give a second order extension which maintains the positivity property. We perform numerical experiments in 1D and 2D to show the applicability of the proposed splitting and give convergence results for the second order extension.     

Solving Two-Mode Shallow Water Equations Using Finite Volume Methods

In this paper, we develop and study numerical methods for the two-mode shallow water equations recently proposed in [S. STECHMANN, A. MAJDA, and B. KHOUIDER, Theor. Comput. Fluid Dynamics, 22 (2008), pp. 407–432]. Designing a reliable numerical method for this system is a challenging task due to its conditional hyperbolicity and the presence of nonconservative terms. We present several numerical approaches–two operator splitting methods (based on either Roe-type upwind or central-upwind scheme), a central-upwind scheme and a path-conservative central-upwind scheme– and test their performance in a number of numerical experiments. The obtained results demonstrate that a careful numerical treatment of nonconservative terms is crucial for designing a robust and highly accurate numerical method.     

Operator Splitting for Three-Phase Flow in Heterogeneous Porous Media

We describe an operator splitting technique based on physics rather than on dimension for the numerical solution of a nonlinear system of partial differential equations which models three-phase flow through heterogeneous porous media. The model for three-phase flow considered in this work takes into account capillary forces, general relations for the relative permeability functions and variable porosity and permeability fields. In our numerical procedure a high resolution, nonoscillatory, second order, conservative central difference scheme is used for the approximation of the nonlinear system of hyperbolic conservation laws modeling the convective transport of the fluid phases. This scheme is combined with locally conservative mixed finite elements for the numerical solution of the parabolic and elliptic problems associated with the diffusive transport of fluid phases and the pressure-velocity problem. This numerical procedure has been used to investigate the existence and stability of nonclassical shock waves (called transitional or undercompressive shock waves) in two-dimensional heterogeneous flows, thereby extending previous results for one-dimensional flow problems. Numerical experiments indicate that the operator splitting technique discussed here leads to computational efficiency and accurate numerical results.     

Comparison of Fifth-Order WENO Scheme and Finite Volume WENO-Gas-Kinetic Scheme for Inviscid and Viscous Flow Simulation

The development of high-order schemes has been mostly concentrated on the limiters and high-order reconstruction techniques. In this paper, the effect of the flux functions on the performance of high-order schemes will be studied. Based on the same WENO reconstruction, two schemes with different flux functions, i.e., the fifth-order WENO method and the WENO-Gas-Kinetic scheme (WENO-GKS), will be compared. The fifth-order finite difference WENO-SW scheme is a characteristic variable reconstruction based method which uses the Steger-Warming flux splitting for inviscid terms, the sixth-order central difference for viscous terms, and three stages Runge-Kutta time stepping for the time integration. On the other hand, the finite volume WENO-GKS is a conservative variable reconstruction based method with the same WENO reconstruction. But it evaluates a time dependent gas distribution function along a cell interface, and updates the flow variables inside each control volume by integrating the flux function along the boundary of the control volume in both space and time. In order to validate the robustness and accuracy of the schemes, both methods are tested under a wide range of flow conditions: vortex propagation, Mach 3 step problem, and the cavity flow at Reynolds number 3200. Our study shows that both WENO-SW and WENO-GKS yield quantitatively similar results and agree with each other very well provided a sufficient grid resolution is used. With the reduction of mesh points, the WENO-GKS behaves to have less numerical dissipation and present more accurate solutions than those from the WENO-SW in all test cases. For the Navier-Stokes equations, since the WENO-GKS couples inviscid and viscous terms in a single flux evaluation, and the WENO-SW uses an operator splitting technique, it appears that the WENO-SW is more sensitive to the WENO reconstruction and boundary treatment. In terms of efficiency, the finite volume WENO-GKS is about 4 times slower than the finite difference WENO-SW in two dimensional simulations. The current study clearly shows that besides high-order reconstruction, an accurate gas evolution model or flux function in a high-order scheme is also important in the capturing of physical solutions. In a physical flow, the transport, stress deformation, heat conduction, and viscous heating are all coupled in a single gas evolution process. Therefore, it is preferred to develop such a scheme with multi-dimensionality, and unified treatment of inviscid and dissipative terms. A high-order scheme does prefer a high-order gas evolution model. Even with the rapid advances of high-order reconstruction techniques, the first-order dynamics of the Riemann solution becomes the bottleneck for the further development of high-order schemes. In order to avoid the weakness of the low order flux function, the development of high-order schemes relies heavily on the weak solution of the original governing equations for the update of additional degree of freedom, such as the non-conservative gradients of flow variables, which cannot be physically valid in discontinuous regions.     

An All-Speed Asymptotic-Preserving Method for the Isentropic Euler and Navier-Stokes Equations

The computation of compressible flows becomes more challenging when the Mach number has different orders of magnitude. When the Mach number is of order one, modern shock capturing methods are able to capture shocks and other complex structures with high numerical resolutions. However, if the Mach number is small, the acoustic waves lead to stiffness in time and excessively large numerical viscosity, thus demanding much smaller time step and mesh size than normally needed for incompressible flow simulation. In this paper, we develop an all-speed asymptotic preserving (AP) numerical scheme for the compressible isentropic Euler and Navier-Stokes equations that is uniformly stable and accurate for all Mach numbers. Our idea is to split the system into two parts: one involves a slow, nonlinear and conservative hyperbolic system adequate for the use of modern shock capturing methods and the other a linear hyperbolic system which contains the stiff acoustic dynamics, to be solved implicitly. This implicit part is reformulated into a standard pressure Poisson projection system and thus possesses sufficient structure for efficient fast Fourier transform solution techniques. In the zero Mach number limit, the scheme automatically becomes a projection method-like incompressible solver. We present numerical results in one and two dimensions in both compressible and incompressible regimes.     

Adaptive Order WENO Reconstructions for the Semi-Lagrangian Finite Difference Scheme for Advection Problem

We present a new conservative semi-Lagrangian finite difference weighted essentially non-oscillatory scheme with adaptive order. This is an extension of the conservative semi-Lagrangian (SL) finite difference WENO scheme in [Qiu and Shu, JCP, 230 (4) (2011), pp. 863-889], in which linear weights in SL WENO framework were shown not to exist for variable coefficient problems. Hence, the order of accuracy is not optimal from reconstruction stencils. In this paper, we incorporate a recent WENO adaptive order (AO) technique [Balsara et al., JCP, 326 (2016), pp. 780-804] to the SL WENO framework. The new scheme can achieve an optimal high order of accuracy, while maintaining the properties of mass conservation and non-oscillatory capture of solutions from the original SL WENO. The positivity-preserving limiter is further applied to ensure the positivity of solutions. Finally, the scheme is applied to high dimensional problems by a fourth-order dimensional splitting. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the new scheme by extensive numerical tests on linear advection equations, the Vlasov-Poisson system, the guiding center Vlasov model as well as the incompressible Euler equations.     

A Conservative Numerical Method for the Cahn–Hilliard Equation with Generalized Mobilities on Curved Surfaces in Three-Dimensional Space

In this paper, we develop a conservative numerical method for the Cahn– Hilliard equation with generalized mobilities on curved surfaces in three-dimensional space. We use an unconditionally gradient stable nonlinear splitting numerical scheme and solve the resulting system of implicit discrete equations on a discrete narrow band domain by using a Jacobi-type iteration. For the domain boundary cells, we use the trilinear interpolation using the closest point method. The proposing numerical algorithm is computationally efficient because we can use the standard finite difference Laplacian scheme on three-dimensional Cartesian narrow band mesh instead of discrete Laplace–Beltrami operator on triangulated curved surfaces. In particular, we employ a mass conserving correction scheme, which enforces conservation of total mass. We perform numerical experiments on the various curved surfaces such as sphere, torus, bunny, cube, and cylinder to demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed method. We also present the dynamics of the CH equation with constant and space-dependent mobilities on the curved surfaces.     

Conservative Semi-Lagrangian Finite Difference WENO Formulations with Applications to the Vlasov Equation

In this paper, we propose a new conservative semi-Lagrangian (SL) finite difference (FD) WENO scheme for linear advection equations, which can serve as a base scheme for the Vlasov equation by Strang splitting [4]. The reconstruction procedure in the proposed SL FD scheme is the same as the one used in the SL finite volume (FV) WENO scheme [3]. However, instead of inputting cell averages and approximate the integral form of the equation in a FV scheme, we input point values and approximate the differential form of equation in a FD spirit, yet retaining very high order (fifth order in our experiment) spatial accuracy. The advantage of using point values, rather than cell averages, is to avoid the second order spatial error, due to the shearing in velocity (v) and electrical field (E) over a cell when performing the Strang splitting to the Vlasov equation. As a result, the proposed scheme has very high spatial accuracy, compared with second order spatial accuracy for Strang split SL FV scheme for solving the Vlasov-Poisson (VP) system. We perform numerical experiments on linear advection, rigid body rotation problem; and on the Landau damping and two-stream instabilities by solving the VP system. For comparison, we also apply (1) the conservative SL FD WENO scheme, proposed in [22] for incompressible advection problem, (2) the conservative SL FD WENO scheme proposed in [21] and (3) the non-conservative version of the SL FD WENO scheme in [3] to the same test problems. The performances of different schemes are compared by the error table, solution resolution of sharp interface, and by tracking the conservation of physical norms, energies and entropies, which should be physically preserved.     

AUSM-Based High-Order Solution for Euler Equations

In this paper we demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of combining the advection upwind splitting method (AUSM), specifically AUSM⁺-UP [9], with high-order upwind-biased interpolation procedures, the weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO-JS) scheme [8] and its variations [2, 7], and the monotonicity preserving (MP) scheme [16], for solving the Euler equations. MP is found to be more effective than the three WENO variations studied. AUSM⁺-UP is also shown to be free of the so-called "carbuncle" phenomenon with the high-order interpolation. The characteristic variables are preferred for interpolation after comparing the results using primitive and conservative variables, even though they require additional matrix-vector operations. Results using the Roe flux with an entropy fix and the Lax-Friedrichs approximate Riemann solvers are also included for comparison. In addition, four reflective boundary condition implementations are compared for their effects on residual convergence and solution accuracy. Finally, a measure for quantifying the efficiency of obtaining high order solutions is proposed; the measure reveals that a maximum return is reached after which no improvement in accuracy is possible for a given grid size.     

A Diffuse-Interface Lattice Boltzmann Method for the Dendritic Growth with Thermosolutal Convection

In this work, we proposed a diffuse-interface model for the dendritic growth with thermosolutal convection. In this model, the sharp boundary between the fluid and solid dendrite is firstly replaced by a thin but nonzero thickness diffuse interface, which is described by the order parameter, and the diffuse-interface based governing equations for the dendritic growth are presented. To solve the model for the dendritic growth with thermosolutal convection, we also developed a diffuse-interface multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. In this method, the order parameter in the phase-field equation is combined into the force caused by the fluid-solid interaction, and the treatment on the complex fluid-solid interface can be avoided. In addition, four LB models are designed for the phase-field equation, concentration equation, temperature equation and the Navier-Stokes equations in a unified framework. Finally, we performed some simulations of the dendritic growth to test the present diffuse-interface LB method, and found that the numerical results are in good agreements with some previous works.     

A WENO-Based Stochastic Galerkin Scheme for Ideal MHD Equations with Random Inputs

In this paper, we investigate the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations with random inputs based on generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) stochastic Galerkin approximation. A special treatment with symmetrization is carried out for the gPC stochastic Galerkin method so that the resulting deterministic gPC Galerkin system is provably symmetric hyperbolic in the spatially one-dimensional case. We discretize the hyperbolic gPC Galerkin system with a high-order path-conservative finite volume weighted essentially non-oscillatory scheme in space and a third-order total variation diminishing Runge-Kutta method in time. The method is also extended to two spatial dimensions via the operator splitting technique. Several numerical examples are provided to illustrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the numerical scheme.     

A Preconditioned Implicit Free-Surface Capture Scheme for Large Density Ratio on Tetrahedral Grids

We present a three dimensional preconditioned implicit free-surface capture scheme on tetrahedral grids. The current scheme improves our recently reported method [10] in several aspects. Specifically, we modified the original eigensystem by applying a preconditioning matrix so that the new eigensystem is virtually independent of density ratio, which is typically large for practical two-phase problems. Further, we replaced the explicit multi-stage Runge-Kutta method by a fully implicit Euler integration scheme for the Navier-Stokes (NS) solver and the Volume of Fluids (VOF) equation is now solved with a second order Crank-Nicolson implicit scheme to reduce the numerical diffusion effect. The preconditioned restarted Generalized Minimal RESidual method (GMRES) is then employed to solve the resulting linear system. The validation studies show that with these modifications, the method has improved stability and accuracy when dealing with large density ratio two-phase problems.     

Kinetic Energy Preserving and Entropy Stable Finite Volume Schemes for Compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes Equations

Centered numerical fluxes can be constructed for compressible Euler equations which preserve kinetic energy in the semi-discrete finite volume scheme. The essential feature is that the momentum flux should be of the form where are any consistent approximations to the pressure and the mass flux. This scheme thus leaves most terms in the numerical flux unspecified and various authors have used simple averaging. Here we enforce approximate or exact entropy consistency which leads to a unique choice of all the terms in the numerical fluxes. As a consequence, a novel entropy conservative flux that also preserves kinetic energy for the semi-discrete finite volume scheme has been proposed. These fluxes are centered and some dissipation has to be added if shocks are present or if the mesh is coarse. We construct scalar artificial dissipation terms which are kinetic energy stable and satisfy approximate/exact entropy condition. Secondly, we use entropy-variable based matrix dissipation flux which leads to kinetic energy and entropy stable schemes. These schemes are shown to be free of entropy violating solutions unlike the original Roe scheme. For hypersonic flows a blended scheme is proposed which gives carbuncle free solutions for blunt body flows. Numerical results for Euler and Navier-Stokes equations are presented to demonstrate the performance of the different schemes.     

An Implicit Algorithm for High-Order DG/FV Schemes for Compressible Flows on 2D Arbitrary Grids

A Newton/LU-SGS (lower-upper symmetric Gauss-Seidel) iteration implicit method was developed to solve two-dimensional Euler and Navier-Stokes equations by the DG/FV hybrid schemes on arbitrary grids. The Newton iteration was employed to solve the nonlinear system, while the linear system was solved with LU-SGS iteration. The effect of several parameters in the implicit scheme, such as the CFL number, the Newton sub-iteration steps, and the update frequency of Jacobian matrix, was investigated to evaluate the performance of convergence history. Several typical test cases were simulated, and compared with the traditional explicit Runge-Kutta (RK) scheme. Firstly the Couette flow was tested to validate the order of accuracy of the present DG/FV hybrid schemes. Then a subsonic inviscid flow over a bump in a channel was simulated and the effect of parameters was alsoinvestigated. Finally, the implicit algorithm was applied to simulate a subsonic inviscid flow over a circular cylinder and the viscous flow in a square cavity. The numerical results demonstrated that the present implicit scheme can accelerate the convergence history efficiently. Choosing proper parameters would improve the efficiency of the implicit scheme. Moreover, in the same framework, the DG/FV hybrid schemes are more efficient than the same order DG schemes.     

An Efficient DDG/FV Hybrid Method for 3D Viscous Flow Simulations on Tetrahedral Grids

A new hybrid reconstruction scheme DDG/FV is developed in this work by combining the DDG method and DG/FV hybrid scheme developed in the authors' previous work [1–4] to simulate three-dimensional compressible viscous flow on tetrahedral grids. The extended von Neumann stencils are used in the reconstruction process to ensure the linear stability, and the L₂ projection and the least-squares method are adopted to reconstruct higher order distributions for higher accuracy and robustness. In addition, a quadrature-free L₂ projection based on orthogonal basis functions is implemented to improve the efficiency of reconstruction. Three typical test cases, including the 3D Couette flow, laminar flows over an analytical 3D body of revolution and over a sphere, are simulated to validate the accuracy and efficiency of DDG/FV method. The numerical results demonstrate that the DDG scheme can accelerate the convergence history compared with widely-used BR2 scheme. More attractively, the new DDG/FV hybrid method can deliver the same accuracy as BR2-DG method with more than 2 times of efficiency improvement in solving 3D Navier-Stokes equations on tetrahedral grids, and even one-order of magnitude faster in some cases, which shows good potential in future realistic applications.     

Wave Propagation Simulation Using the CIP Method of Characteristic Equations

We apply the CIP (Cubic Interpolated Profile) scheme to the numerical simulation of the acoustic wave propagation based on characteristic equations.The CIP scheme is based on a concept that both the wavefield and its spatial derivative propagate along the same characteristic curves derived from a hyperbolic differential equation. We describe the derivation of the characteristic equations for the acoustic waves from the basic equations by means of the directional splitting and the diagonalization of the coefficient matrix, and establish geophysical boundary conditions. Since the CIP scheme calculates both the wavefield and its spatial derivatives, it is easy to realize the boundary conditions theoretically. We also show some numerical simulation examples and the CIP can simulate acoustic wave propagation with high stability and less numerical dispersion. The method of characteristics with the CIP scheme is a very powerful technique to deal with the wave propagation in complex geophysical problems.