Isogeometric variational multiscale modeling of wall-bounded turbulent flows with weakly enforced boundary conditions on unstretched meshes

In this work, we combine (i) NURBS-based isogeometric analysis, (ii) residual-driven turbulence modeling and iii) weak imposition of no-slip and no-penetration Dirichlet boundary conditions on unstretched meshes to compute wall-bounded turbulent flows. While the first two ingredients were shown to be successful for turbulence computations at medium-to-high Reynolds number [I. Akkerman, Y. Bazilevs, V. M. Calo, T. J. R. Hughes, S. Hulshoff, The role of continuity in residual-based variational multiscale modeling of turbulence, Comput. Mech. 41 (2008) 371–378; Y. Bazilevs, V.M. Calo, J.A. Cottrell, T.J.R. Hughes, A. Reali, G. Scovazzi, Variational multiscale residual-based turbulence modeling for large eddy simulation of incompressible flows, Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg., 197 (2007) 173–201], it is the weak imposition of no-slip boundary conditions on coarse uniform meshes that maintains the good performance of the proposed methodology at higher Reynolds number [Y. Bazilevs, T.J.R. Hughes. Weak imposition of Dirichlet boundary conditions in fluid mechanics, Comput. Fluids 36 (2007) 12–26; Y. Bazilevs, C. Michler, V.M. Calo, T.J.R. Hughes, Weak Dirichlet boundary conditions for wall-bounded turbulent flows. Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 196 (2007) 4853–4862]. These three ingredients form a basis of a possible practical strategy for computing engineering flows, somewhere between RANS and LES in complexity. We demonstrate this by solving two challenging incompressible turbulent benchmark problems: channel flow at friction-velocity Reynolds number 2003 and flow in a planar asymmetric diffuser. We observe good agreement between our calculations of mean flow quantities and both reference computations and experimental data. This lends some credence to the proposed approach, which we believe may become a viable engineering tool.     

A SVD-GFD scheme for computing 3D incompressible viscous fluid flows

A generalized finite difference (GFD) scheme for the simulation of three-dimensional (3D) incompressible viscous fluid flows in primitive variables is described in this paper. Numerical discretization is carried out on a hybrid Cartesian cum meshfree grid, with derivative approximation on non-Cartesian grids being carried out by a singular value decomposition (SVD) based GFD procedure. The Navier-Stokes equations are integrated by a time-splitting pressure correction scheme with second-order Crank-Nicolson and second-order discretization of time and spatial derivatives respectively. Axisymmetric and asymmetric 3D flows past a sphere with Reynolds numbers of up to 300 are simulated and compared with the results of Johnson and Patel [Johnson TA, Patel VC. Flow past a sphere up to a Reynolds number of 300. J Fluid Mech 1999;378:19-70] and others. Flows past toroidal rings are also simulated to illustrate the ability of the scheme to deal with more complex body geometry. The current method can also deal with flow past 3D bodies with sharp edges and corners, which is shown by a simple 3D case.     

A DEM-DLM/FD method for direct numerical simulation of particulate flows: Sedimentation of polygonal isometric particles in a Newtonian fluid with collisions

An efficient direct numerical simulation method to tackle the problem of particulate flows at moderate to high concentration and finite Reynolds number is presented. Our method is built on the framework established by Glowinski and his co-workers [Glowinski R, Pan TW, Hesla TI, Joseph DD. A distributed lagrange multiplier/fictitious domain method for particulate flow. Int J Multiphase Flow 1999;25:755-94] in the sense that we use their Distributed Lagrange Multiplier/Fictitious Domain (DLM/FD) formulation and their operator-splitting idea but differs in the treatment of particle collisions. Compared to our previous works [Yu Z, Wachs A, Peysson Y. Numerical simulation of particle sedimentation in shear-thinning fluids with a fictitious domain method. J Non Newtonian Fluid Mech 2006;136:126-139; Yu Z, Shao X, Wachs A. A fictitious domain method for particulate flow with heat transfer. J Comput Phys 2006;217:424-52; Yu Z, Wachs A. A fictitious domain method for dynamic simulation of particle sedimentation in Bingham fluids. J Non Newtonian Fluid Mech 2007;145:78-91], the novelty of our present contribution relies on replacing the simple artificial repulsive force based collision model usually employed in the literature by an efficient Discrete Element Method (DEM) granular solver. The use of our DEM solver enables us to consider particles of arbitrary shape (at least convex) and to account for actual contacts, in the sense that particles actually touch each other, in contrast with the repulsive force based collision model. We validate GRIFF,¹ our numerical code, against benchmark problems and compare our predictions with those available in the literature. Results, which, to the best of our knowledge, have never been reported elsewhere, on the 2D sedimentation of isometric polygonal particles with collisions are presented.     

Large-eddy simulation of vortex breakdown in compressible swirling jet flow

Vortex breakdown in a compressible swirling jet flow is investigated by large-eddy simulation (LES) using the approximate deconvolution model. Conditions are chosen similar to recent experimental investigations by Liang and Maxworthy [Liang H, Maxworthy T. An experimental investigation of swirling jets. J Fluid Mech 2005;525:115] for incompressible flow. LES results are presented for two simulations of a swirling jet at Mach number Ma = 0.6 with and without inflow forcing by imposed linear instability disturbances. Both the forced and the self-excited jet show three-dimensional helical waves developing in the jet breakdown zone. The features observed in the two simulations are compared to each other as well as to the experiments with respect to flow statistics and instability behaviour. Both simulations show favourable qualitative agreement with the experiment.     

Application of the Boltzmann kinetic equation to the eddy problems

The main purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of applying a kinetic approach to the problem of modeling turbulent and unstable flows. First, initial value problems with the Taylor–Green (TG) type and isotropic velocity conditions for compressible flow in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) periodic domains are considered. Further, 3D direct numerical simulation of decaying isotropic turbulence is performed. Macroscopic flow quantities of interest are examined. The simulation is based on the direct numerical solution of the Boltzmann kinetic equation using an explicit–implicit scheme for the relaxation stage. Comparison with the solution of the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) model equation obtained by using an implicit scheme is carried out for the decaying isotropic turbulence problem and demonstrates a small difference. For the TG initial condition results show a fragmentation of the large initial eddies and subsequently the full damping of the system. Numerical data are close to the analytic solution of TG problem. A dependence of the kinetic energy on the wave number is obtained by means of the Fourier expansion of velocity components. A power-law exponent for the kinetic energy spectrum tends to the theoretical value “−3” for 2D turbulence in 2D case and to the famous Kolmogorov value “−5/3” in 3D case.     

One-Dimensional Turbulence: A new approach to high-fidelity subgrid closure of turbulent flow simulations

Consideration of the requirements for robust, high-fidelity subgrid closure of large-eddy simulations of multiphysics turbulent flows indicates the need for a spatially and temporally resolved representation of fine-scale physical and chemical processes that are coupled to fluid motion. One-Dimensional Turbulence (ODT), a potentially cost-effective approach for this purpose, captures these couplings by means of a stochastic simulation implemented on a one-dimensional domain. A subgrid implementation of ODT is formulated and its potential advantages and limitations are assessed.     

On global stabilization of Burgers’ equation by boundary control

Although often referred to as a one-dimensional “cartoon” of Navier–Stokes equation because it does not exhibit turbulence, the Burgers equation is a natural first step towards developing methods for control of flows. Recent references include Burns and Kang [Nonlinear Dynamics 2 (1991) 235–262], Choi et al. [J. Fluid Mech. 253 (1993) 509–543], Ito and Kang [SIAM J. Control Optim. 32 (1994) 831–854], Ito and Yan [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 227 (1998) 271–299], Byrnes et al. [J. Dynam. Control Systems 4 (1998) 457–519] and Van Ly et al. [Numer. Funct. Anal. Optim. 18 (1997) 143–188]. While these papers have achieved tremendous progress in local stabilization and global analysis of attractors, the problem of global asymptotic stabilization has remained open. This problem is non-trivial because for large initial conditions the quadratic (convective) term – which is negligible in a linear/local analysis – dominates the dynamics. We derive nonlinear boundary control laws that achieve global asymptotic stability. We consider both the viscous and the inviscid Burgers’ equation, using both Neumann and Dirichlet boundary control. We also study the case where the viscosity parameter is uncertain, as well as the case of stochastic Burgers’ equation. For some of the control laws that would require the measurement in the interior of the domain, we develop the observer-based versions.     

Computational technologies for simulation of complex near-wall turbulent flows using unstructured meshes

The work is devoted to the peculiarities of the implementation of hybrid Reynolds’ Averaged Navier-Stokes equations-Large Eddy Simulation (RANS-LES) approaches of the Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) family for simulation of complex near-wall turbulent flows using unstructured meshes. The problems of determining required geometric characteristics in the mesh nodes and adaptation of hybrid approaches to the used accurate numerical approximation scheme in space are considered. The classic benchmark problem of the decay of homogeneous isotropic turbulence and the results of the computation of a complex turbulent flow near the wall with the presence of flow separation and reattachment are considered to verify the implemented technique and to demonstrate its efficiency.     

Simulations of confined turbulent vortex flow

Large-eddy simulations (LES) of the turbulent flow in a swirl tube with a tangential inlet have been performed. The geometry, and flow conditions were chosen according to an experimental study by [Escudier MP, Bornstein J, Zehnder N. Observations and LDA measurements of confined turbulent vortex flow. J Fluid Mech 1980;98:49-63]. Lattice-Boltzmann discretization was used to numerically solve the Navier-Stokes equations in the incompressible limit. Effects of spatial resolution and choices in subgrid-scale modeling were explicitly investigated with the experimental data set as the testing ground. Experimentally observed flow features, such as vortex breakdown and laminarization of the vortex core were well represented by the LES. The simulations confirmed the experimental observations that the average velocity profiles in the entire vortex tube are extremely sensitivity to the exit pipe diameter. For the narrowest exit pipe considered in the simulations, very high average velocity gradients are encountered. In this situation, the LES shows the most pronounced effects of spatial resolution and subgrid-scale modeling.     

An implicit gas-kinetic scheme for turbulent flow on unstructured hybrid mesh

In this study, an implicit scheme for the gas-kinetic scheme (GKS) on the unstructured hybrid mesh is proposed. The Spalart–Allmaras (SA) one equation turbulence model is incorporated into the implicit gas-kinetic scheme (IGKS) to predict the effects of turbulence. The implicit macroscopic governing equations are constructed and solved by the matrix-free lower-upper symmetric-Gauss–Seidel (LU-SGS) method. To reduce the number of cells and computational cost, the hybrid mesh is applied. A modified non-manifold hybrid mesh data(NHMD) is used for both unstructured hybrid mesh and uniform grid. Numerical investigations are performed on different 2D laminar and turbulent flows. The convergence property and the computational efficiency of the present IGKS method are investigated. Much better performance is obtained compared with the standard explicit gas-kinetic scheme. Also, our numerical results are found to be in good agreement with experiment data and other numerical solutions, demonstrating the good applicability and high efficiency of the present IGKS for the simulations of laminar and turbulent flows.     

Modeling of electromagnetic fields in rectangular waveguides by coupled finite–infinite elements

The paper describes the 3D infinite element for modeling of stationary harmonic electromagnetic fields in waveguides. The proposed approximation is a straightforward modification of the analogous approach developed for analysis of scattering problems in unbounded 2D and 3D domains [Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engrg. 188 (2000) 625; Int. J. Num. Meth. Engrg. 57 (2003) 899]. Exponential shape functions in the longitudinal direction are used similarly as in [Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engrg. 140 (1997) 221]. However, arbitrary order of approximation in the tangential direction may be selected due to compatibility with the hp-adaptive edge FE element discretization for Maxwell’s equations in bounded domains reported in [Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engrg. 152 (1998) 103; Int. J. Num. Meth. Engrg. 53 (2002) 147; Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engrg. 169 (1999) 331].     

Explicitly uncoupled VMS stabilization of fluid flow

Variational multiscale methods have proven to be an accurate and systematic approach to the simulation of turbulent flows. Many turbulent flows are solved by legacy codes or by ones written by a team of programmers and of great complexity so implementing a new approach to turbulence in such cases can be daunting. We propose a new approach to inducing a VMS treatment of turbulence in such cases. The method adds a separate, uncoupled and modular postprocessing step to each time step. Adding this step requires the ability to solve a Stokes problem either on the same mesh or to solve and interpolate between the postprocessing step’s mesh and the code’s mesh. We prove stability and convergence for the combination and quantify the VMS dissipation induced. Numerical experiments confirming the theory are given. In particular, the performance of the two step, modular VMS method is comparable to a monolithic (fully coupled) VMS method for the benchmark problem of decaying homogeneous turbulence.     

Numerical simulation of phase separation and a priori two-phase LES filtering

This work reports on the potential application of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) in the calculation of turbulent isothermal two-phase flows, in the case where the large scales of each phase are resolved and small interface structures can be smaller than the mesh size. In comparison with single phase flows, application of LES to two-phase flow problems should account for the complex interaction between the interface and the turbulent motion. The complete filtered two-phase flow equations are formulated to deal with turbulence at the interface. Explicit filtering of 3D direct numerical simulations of a phase separation problem has been employed to evaluate the order of magnitude of the specific subgrid contributions. Analyses of the numerical results have been conducted to derive conclusions on the relative importance of the different subgrid scale contributions. Modeling issues and turbulent energy transfer across the interface are discussed.     

Coupling geological and numerical models to simulate groundwater flow and contaminant transport in fractured media

A new modeling approach is presented to improve numerical simulations of groundwater flow and contaminant transport in fractured geological media. The approach couples geological and numerical models through an intermediate mesh generation phase. As a first step, a platform for 3D geological modeling is used to represent fractures as 2D surfaces with arbitrary shape and orientation in 3D space. The advantage of the geological modeling platform is that 2D triangulated fracture surfaces are modeled and visualized before building a 3D mesh. The triangulated fractures are then transferred to the mesh generation software that discretizes the 3D simulation domain with tetrahedral elements. The 2D triangular fracture elements do not cut through the 3D tetrahedral elements, but they rather form interfaces with them. The tetrahedral mesh is then used for 3D groundwater flow and contaminant transport simulations in discretely fractured porous media. The resulting mesh for the 2D fractures and 3D rock matrix is checked to ensure that there are no negative transmissibilities in the discretized flow and transport equation, to avoid unrealistic results. To test the validity of the approach, flow and transport simulations for a tetrahedral mesh are compared to simulations using a block-based mesh and with results of an analytical solution. The fluid conductance matrix for the tetrahedral mesh is also analyzed and compared with known matrix values.     

A DNS algorithm using B-spline collocation method for compressible turbulent channel flow

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) offers useful information about the understanding and modeling of turbulent flow. However, few DNSs of wall-bounded compressible turbulent flows have been performed. The objective of this paper is to construct a DNS algorithm which can simulate the compressible turbulent flow between the adiabatic and isothermal walls accurately and efficiently. Since this flow is the simplest turbulent flow with adiabatic and isothermal walls, it is ideal for the modeling of compressible turbulent flow near the adiabatic and isothermal walls. The present DNS algorithm for wall-bounded compressible turbulent flow is based on the B-spline collocation method in the wall-normal direction. In addition, the skew-symmetric form for convection term is used in the DNS algorithm to maintain numerical stability. The validity of the DNS algorithm is confirmed by comparing our results with those of an existing DNS of the compressible turbulent flow between isothermal walls [J. Fluid Mech. 305 (1995) 159]. The applicability and usefulness of the DNS algorithm are demonstrated by the stable computation of the DNS of compressible turbulent flow between adiabatic and isothermal walls.     

Implementation of synthetic turbulence inlet for turbomachinery LES

Large eddy simulation (LES) has the potential to model complex separated flows, where Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) based methods often fail. An important aspect of LES is specifying correlated turbulent fluctuations at the inlet boundary. This is particularly important in turbomachines, where turbulence length scale and intensity play a key role in the correct prediction of component performance.In this work, a method is implemented into an unstructured Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver to impose correlated turbulent fluctuations in a compressible form. It is shown that compressibility effects are particularly important in turbomachinery and must be taken into account. The method uses a pre-processing method to generate a cube of isotropic, homogeneous turbulence. The velocity fluctuations so obtained are used to determine a fluctuating Mach number in order to evaluate the instantaneous total pressure and temperature fluctuations at domain inlet. In the authors knowledge this is one of the first attempts to define correlated fluctuations in a compressible form.The method is successfully applied to two turbomachinery related flows. Firstly, the jet flow from a propelling nozzle is investigated. Following this, the flow over a low pressure (LP) turbine blade is predicted. Results from the LES simulations show that modifications to the inlet conditions can significantly affect flow development. For the jet, changes in the shear layer and peak shear stress are shown, important in the context of high frequency sideline noise generated by the jet. Despite what is suggested in the literature the differences in shear stresses are important also in a non-swirling jet.For the LP turbine, incoming turbulent fluctuations modify the onset of transition and the extent of separation bubble. Without imposed turbulence fluctuations, loss is overpredicted by up to 50%. Moreover it is important to use a compressible solver. Despite the fact that the majority of the results proposed in literature on LP turbine is using incompressible solvers, the difference in terms of pressure coefficient, Cp, is comparable to turbulence contribution.     

Explaining extreme waves by a theory of stochastic wave groups

It is well known that in a Gaussian sea an extreme wave event is a particular realization of the space–time evolution of a well defined linear wave group, in agreement with the theory of quasi-determinism of Boccotti [Boccotti P. On mechanics of irregular gravity waves. Atti Acc Naz Lincei, Memorie 1989;19:11–170] and the Slepian model of Lindgren [Kac M, Slepian D. Large excursions of Gaussian processes. Ann Math Statist 1959;30:1215–28; Lindgren G. Some properties of a normal process near a local maximum. Ann Math Statist 1970;4(6):1870–83]. In this paper, the concept of stochastic wave groups is proposed to explain the occurrence of extreme waves in nonlinear random seas, according to the dynamics imposed by the Zakharov equation [Zakharov VE. Statistical theory of gravity and capillary waves on the surface of a finite-depth fluid. J Eur Mech B—Fluids 1999;18(3):327–44]. As a corollary, a new analytical solution for the probability of exceedance of the crest-to-trough height is derived for the prediction of extreme wave events in nonlinearly modulated long-crested narrow-band seas. Furthermore, a generalization of the Tayfun distribution [Tayfun MA. On narrow-band representation of ocean waves. Part I: Theory. J Geophys Res 1986;91(C6):7743–52] for the wave crest height is also provided. The new analytical distributions explain qualitatively well recent experimental results of Onorato et al. [Onorato M, Osborne AR, Cavaleri L, Brandini C, Stansberg CT. Observation of strongly non-Gaussian statistics for random sea surface gravity waves in wave flume experiments. Phys Rev E 2004;70:067302] and the numerical simulations of Socquet-Juglard et al. [Socquet-Juglard H, Dysthe K, Trulsen K, Krogstad HE, Liu J. Probability distributions of surface gravity waves during spectral changes. J Fluid Mech 2005;542:195–216].     

A multiple-layer σ-coordinate model for simulation of wave-structure interaction

A 3D multiple-layer σ-coordinate model has been developed to simulate surface wave interaction with various types of structures including submerged structures, immersed structures, and floating structures. This model is the extension of the earlier model [Lin P, Li CW. A σ-coordinate three-dimensional numerical model for surface wave propagation. Int J Numer Methods Fluid 2002;38(11):1045-68] that solves Navier-Stokes equations in the transformed σ-coordinate, which is especially efficient for simulation of wave propagation over varying topography. By introducing the layered σ-coordinates, the present model overcomes the difficulty encountered by the earlier model in calculating waves past a depth discontinuity, e.g., a submerged rectangular breakwater. Furthermore, with the employment of 3-layer σ-coordinate the present model is able to simulate flow interaction with an immersed body or a floating body. The new model is validated against an established Volume-Of-Fluid (VOF) model [Lin P, Liu PL-F. A numerical study of breaking waves in the surf zone. J Fluid Mech 1998;359:239-64] for the 2D solitary wave interaction with a submerged, immersed, or floating rectangular obstacle. For the solitary wave interaction with a submerged breakwater, the numerical results are also compared to the experimental data by Zhuang and Lee [A viscous rotational model for wave overtopping over marine structure. In Proc 25th Int Conf Coast Eng, ASCE, 1996. p. 2178-91] and very good agreements have been obtained for velocities in the vortex behind the structure. Finally, the present model is used to simulate 3D wave interaction with a Very Large Floating Structure (VLFS) above a submerged shoal. It is proved that the model is an accurate and efficient numerical tool to investigate different wave-structure interactions problems.