A numerical method for the analysis of flexible bodies in unsteady viscous flows

A two‐dimensional numerical model for unsteady viscous flow around flexible bodies is developed. Bodies are represented by distributed body forces. The body force density is found at every time‐step so as to adjust the velocity within the computational cells occupied by the body to a prescribed value. The method combines certain ideas from the immersed boundary method and the volume of fluid method. The main advantage of this method is that the computations can be effected on a Cartesian grid, without having to fit the grid to the body surface. This is particularly useful in the case of flexible bodies, in which case the surface of the object changes dynamically, and in the case of multiple bodies moving relatively to each other. The capabilities of the model are demonstrated through the study of the flow around a flapping flexible airfoil. The novelty of this method is that the surface of the airfoil is modelled as an active flexible skin that actually drives the flow. The accuracy and fidelity of the model are validated by reproducing well‐established results for vortex shedding from a stationary as well as oscillating rigid cylinder. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A monolithic approach for interaction of incompressible viscous fluid and an elastic body based on fluid pressure Poisson equation

This paper describes a new monolithic approach based on the fluid pressure Poisson equation (PPE) to solve an interaction problem of incompressible viscous fluid and an elastic body. The PPE is derived so as to be consistent with the coupled equation system for the fluid‐structure interaction (FSI). Based on this approach, we develop two kinds of efficient monolithic methods. In both methods, the fluid pressure is derived implicitly so as to satisfy the incompressibility constraint, and all other unknown variables are derived fully explicitly or partially explicitly. The coefficient matrix of the PPE for the FSI becomes symmetric and positive definite and its condition is insensitive to inhomogeneity of material properties. The arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method is employed for the fluid part in order to take into account the deformable fluid‐structure interface. To demonstrate fundamental performances of the proposed approach, the developed two monolithic methods are applied to evaluate the added mass and the added damping of a circular cylinder as well as to simulate the vibration of a rectangular cylinder induced by vortex shedding. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulations of flow through fluid/porous layers by a characteristic‐based method on unstructured grids

An upwind characteristic‐based finite volume method on unstructured grids is employed for numerical simulation of incompressible laminar flow and forced convection heat transfer in 2D channels containing simultaneously fluid layers and fluid‐saturated porous layers. Hydrodynamic and heat transfer results are reported for two configurations: the first one is a backward‐facing step channel with a porous block inserted behind the step, and the second one is a partially porous channel with discrete heat sources on the bottom wall. The effects of Darcy numbers on heat transfer augmentation and pressure loss were investigated for low Reynolds laminar flows. The results demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the numerical scheme proposed, and suggest that partially porous insertion in a channel can significantly improve heat transfer performance with affordable pressure loss. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A projection semi‐implicit scheme for the coupling of an elastic structure with an incompressible fluid

We address the numerical simulation of fluid–structure systems involving an incompressible viscous fluid. This issue is particularly difficult to face when the fluid added‐mass acting on the structure is strong, as it happens in hemodynamics for example. Indeed, several works have shown that, in such situations, implicit coupling seems to be necessary in order to avoid numerical instabilities. Although significant improvements have been achieved during the last years, solving implicit coupling often exhibits a prohibitive computational cost. In this work, we introduce a semi‐implicit coupling scheme which remains stable for a reasonable range of the discretization parameters. The first idea consists in treating implicitly the added‐mass effect, whereas the other contributions (geometrical non‐linearities, viscous and convective effects) are treated explicitly. The second idea, relies on the fact that this kind of explicit–implicit splitting can be naturally performed using a Chorin–Temam projection scheme in the fluid. We prove (conditional) stability of the scheme for a fully discrete formulation. Several numerical experiments point out the efficiency of the present scheme compared to several implicit approaches. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the accuracy of finite volume and discontinuous Galerkin discretizations for compressible flow on unstructured grids

This paper presents a comparison between two high‐order methods. The first one is a high‐order finite volume (FV) discretization on unstructured grids that uses a meshfree method (moving least squares (MLS)) in order to construct a piecewise polynomial reconstruction and evaluate the viscous fluxes. The second method is a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) scheme. Numerical examples of inviscid and viscous flows are presented and the solutions are compared. The accuracy of both methods, for the same grid resolution, is similar, although the DG scheme requires a larger number of degrees of freedom than the FV–MLS method. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The particle finite element method: a powerful tool to solve incompressible flows with free‐surfaces and breaking waves

Particle Methods are those in which the problem is represented by a discrete number of particles. Each particle moves accordingly with its own mass and the external/internal forces applied to it. Particle Methods may be used for both, discrete and continuous problems. In this paper, a Particle Method is used to solve the continuous fluid mechanics equations. To evaluate the external applied forces on each particle, the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using a Lagrangian formulation are solved at each time step. The interpolation functions are those used in the Meshless Finite Element Method and the time integration is introduced by an implicit fractional‐step method. In this manner classical stabilization terms used in the momentum equations are unnecessary due to lack of convective terms in the Lagrangian formulation. Once the forces are evaluated, the particles move independently of the mesh. All the information is transmitted by the particles. Fluid–structure interaction problems including free‐fluid‐surfaces, breaking waves and fluid particle separation may be easily solved with this methodology. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An implicit boundary element solution with consistent linearization for free surface flows and non‐linear fluid–structure interaction of floating bodies

In this work, a new comprehensive method has been developed which enables the solution of large, non‐linear motions of rigid bodies in a fluid with a free surface. The application of the modern Eulerian–Lagrangian approach has been translated into an implicit time‐integration formulation, a development which enables the use of larger time steps (where accuracy requirements allow it). Novel features of this project include: (1) an implicit formulation of the rigid‐body motion in a fluid with a free surface valid for both two or three dimensions and several moving bodies; (2) a complete formulation and solution of the initial conditions; (3) a fully consistent (exact) linearization for free surface flows valid for any boundary elements such that optimal convergence properties are obtained when using a Newton–Raphson solver. The proposed framework has been completed with details on implementation issues referring mainly to the computation of the complete initial conditions and the consistent linearization of the formulation for free surface flows. The second part of the paper demonstrates the mathematical and numerical formulation through numerical results simulating large free surface flows and non‐linear fluid structure interaction. The implicit formulation using a fully consistent linearization based on the boundary element method and the generalized trapezoidal rule has been applied to the solution of free surface flows for the evolution of a triangular wave, the generation of tsunamis and the propagation of a wave up to overturning. Fluid–structure interaction examples include the free and forced motion of a circular cylinder and the sway, heave and roll motion of a U‐shaped body in a tank with a flap wave generator. The presented examples demonstrate the applicability and performance of the implicit scheme with consistent linearization. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons. Ltd.     

Investigation of fluid–structure interactions using a velocity‐linked P2/P1 finite element method and the generalized‐ α method

A velocity‐linked algorithm for solving unsteady fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problems in a fully coupled manner is developed using the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method. The P2/P1 finite element is used to spatially discretize the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations and structural equations, and the generalized‐ α method is adopted for temporal discretization. Common velocity variables are employed at the fluid–structure interface for the strong coupling of both equations. Because of the velocity‐linked formulation, kinematic compatibility is automatically satisfied and forcing terms do not need to be calculated explicitly. Both the numerical stability and the convergence characteristics of an iterative solver for the coupled algorithm are investigated by solving the FSI problem of flexible tube flows. It is noteworthy that the generalized‐ α method with small damping is free from unstable velocity fields. However, the convergence characteristics of the coupled system deteriorate greatly for certain Poisson's ratios so that direct solvers are essential for these cases. Furthermore, the proposed method is shown to clearly display the advantage of considering FSI in the simulation of flexible tube flows, while enabling much larger time‐steps than those adopted in some previous studies. This is possible through the strong coupling of the fluid and structural equations by employing common primitive variables. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An adaptive fixed mesh method for modelling and simulating of unsteady two‐phase flows with sharp physical interfaces

We present in this paper a new computational method for simulation of two‐phase flow problems with moving boundaries and sharp physical interfaces. An adaptive interface‐capturing technique (ICT) of the Eulerian type is developed for capturing the motion of the interfaces (free surfaces) in an unsteady flow state. The adaptive method is mainly based on the relative boundary conditions of the zero pressure head, at which the interface is corresponding to a free surface boundary. The definition of the free surface boundary condition is used as a marker for identifying the position of the interface (free surface) in the two‐phase flow problems. An initial‐value‐problem (IVP) partial differential equation (PDE) is derived from the dynamic conditions of the interface, and it is designed to govern the motion of the interface in time. In this adaptive technique, the Navier–Stokes equations written for two incompressible fluids together with the IVP are solved numerically over the flow domain. An adaptive mass conservation algorithm is constructed to govern the continuum of the fluid. The finite element method (FEM) is used for the spatial discretization and a fully coupled implicit time integration method is applied for the advancement in time. FE‐stabilization techniques are added to the standard formulation of the discretization, which possess good stability and accuracy properties for the numerical solution. The adaptive technique is tested in simulation of some numerical examples. With the test problems presented here, we demonstrated that the adaptive technique is a simple tool for modelling and computation of complex motion of sharp physical interfaces in convection–advection‐dominated flow problems. We also demonstrated that the IVP and the evolution of the interface function are coupled explicitly and implicitly to the system of the computed unknowns in the flow domain. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of method of lines and finite difference solutions of 2‐D Navier–Stokes equations for transient laminar pipe flow

Performances of method of lines (MOL) and finite difference method (FDM) were tested from the viewpoints of solution accuracy and central processing unit (CPU) time by applying them to the solution of time‐dependent 2‐D Navier–Stokes equations for transient laminar flow without/with sudden expansion and comparing their results with steady‐state numerical predictions and measurements previously reported in the literature. Predictions of both methods were obtained on the same computer by using the same order of spatial discretization and the same uniform grid distribution. Axial velocity and pressure distribution in pipe flow and steady‐state reattachment lengths in sudden expansion flow on uniform grid distribution predicted by both methods were found to be in excellent agreement. Transient solutions of both methods for pipe flow problem show favourable comparison and are in accordance with expected trends. However, non‐physical oscillations were produced by both methods in the transient solution of sudden expansion pipe flow. MOL was demonstrated to yield non‐oscillatory solutions for recirculating flows when intelligent higher‐order discretization scheme is utilized for convective terms. MOL was found to be superior to FDM with respect to CPU and set‐up times and its flexibility for incorporation of other conservation equations. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.