Separation-bubble flow solution using Euler/Navier-Stokes zonal approach with downstream compatibility conditions

An Euler/Navier-Stokes zonal scheme is developed to numerically simulate the two-dimensional flow over a blunt leading-edge plate. The computational domain has been divided into inner and outer regions where the Navier-Stokes and Euler equations are used, respectively. On the downstream boundary, compatibility conditions derived from the boundary-layer equations are used. The grid is generated by using conformal mapping and the problem is solved by using a compressible Navier-Stokes code, which has been modified to treat Euler and Navier-Stokes regions. The accuracy of the solution is determined by the reattachment location. Bench-mark solutions have been obtained using the Navier-Stokes equations throughout the optimum computational domain and size. The problem is recalculated with sucessive decrease of the computational domain from the downstream side where the compatibility conditions are used, and with successive decrease of the Navier-Stokes computational region. The results of the zonal scheme are in excellent agreement with those of the benchmark solutions and the experimental data. The CPU time saving is about 15%.     

Solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations by the nonlinear Galerkin method

Our aim in this article is to study a new method for the approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations, and to present and discuss numerical results supporting the method. This method, called the nonlinear Galerkin method, uses nonlinear manifolds which are close to the attractor, while in the usual Galerkin method, we look for solutions in a linear space, i.e., whose components are independent. The equation of the manifold corresponds to an interaction law between small and large eddies and it is derived by asymptotic expansion from the exact equation. We consider here the two- and three-dimensional space periodic cases in the context of a pseudo-spectral discretization of the equation. We notice however that the method applies as well to more general flows, in particular nonhomogeneous flows.     

Characteristic-based operator-splitting finite element method for Navier-Stokes equations

A new finite element method, which is the characteristic-based operator-splitting (CBOS) algorithm, is developed to solve Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations. In each time step, the equations are split into the diffusive part and the convective part by adopting the operator-splitting algorithm. For the diffusive part, the temporal discretization is performed by the backward difference method which yields an implicit scheme and the spatial discretization is performed by the standard Galerkin method. The convective...     

A posteriori error estimates of two-grid finite volume element methods for nonlinear elliptic problems

In this paper, we study the a posteriori error estimates of two-grid finite volume element method for second-order nonlinear elliptic equations. We derive the residual-based a posteriori error estimator and prove the computable upper and lower bounds on the error in $H^1$-norm. The a posteriori error estimator can be used to assess the accuracy of the two-grid finite volume element solutions in practical applications. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed estimator.     

Large deflection analyses of skew plates using hybrid/mixed finite element method

A new hybrid/mixed shell element is developed using oblique coordinate systems to analyze the large deflection behavior of skew plate with various skew angles, length to width ratios, thicknesses and supported edges under uniformly distributed and concentrated loads. The results obtained from the new element are compared with available theoretical and numerical solutions. An excellent agreement is achieved even for coarse meshes. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed element are demonstrated.     

Nonlinear tracking in a diffusion process with a Bayesian filter and the finite element method

A new approach to nonlinear state estimation and object tracking from indirect observations of a continuous time process is examined. Stochastic differential equations (SDEs) are employed to model the dynamics of the unobservable state. Tracking problems in the plane subject to boundaries on the state-space do not in general provide analytical solutions. A widely used numerical approach is the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) method which relies on stochastic simulations to approximate state densities. For off-line analysis, however, accurate smoothed state density and parameter estimation can become complicated using SMC because Monte Carlo randomness is introduced. The finite element (FE) method solves the Kolmogorov equations of the SDE numerically on a triangular unstructured mesh for which boundary conditions to the state-space are simple to incorporate. The FE approach to nonlinear state estimation is suited for off-line data analysis because the computed smoothed state densities, maximum a posteriori parameter estimates and state sequence are deterministic conditional on the finite element mesh and the observations. The proposed method is conceptually similar to existing point-mass filtering methods, but is computationally more advanced and generally applicable. The performance of the FE estimators in relation to SMC and to the resolution of the spatial discretization is examined empirically through simulation. A real-data case study involving fish tracking is also analysed.     

Solving Wick-stochastic water waves using a Galerkin finite element method

A Galerkin finite element approximation of Wick-stochastic water waves is developed and numerically investigated. The problems under study consist of a class of shallow water equations driven by white noise. Random effects may appear in the water free surface or in the bottom topography among others. To perform a rigorous study of stochastic effects in the shallow water equations we employ techniques from Wick calculus. The differentiation respect to time and space along with the product operations are performed in a distribution sense. Using the Wiener-Itô chaos expansion for treating the randomness, the governing equations are transformed into a sequence of deterministic shallow water equations to be solved for each chaos coefficient by standard methods from computational fluid dynamics. In our study, we formulate a finite element method for spatial discretization and a backward Euler scheme for time integration. Once the chaos coefficients are obtained, statistical moments for the stochastic solution are carried out. Numerical results are presented for stochastic water waves in the Strait of Gibraltar.     

基于有限元法的发动机罩猛关失效分析

用有限元法分析并解决某车型发动机罩猛关失效问题.通过试验确定涵盖多数客户样本的发动机罩关闭速度,发现该车型发动机罩关闭过程中前端与格栅发生干涉,并通过有限元法再现此问题.改进缓冲块安装方案并进行有限元分析和实车验证,有效解决该车型发动机罩猛关失效问题.     

Geometrically nonlinear finite element reliability analysis of structural systems. II: applications

This is the second part of an investigation on finite element reliability analysis of geometrically nonlinear elastic structures (GNS). This study concentrates on applications. The linkage code RELSYS-FEAP presented in the companion paper is used for finding both component and system reliabilities of GNS. Structural reliabilities are evaluated for both geometrically linear and nonlinear elastic behaviors. Two geometrically nonlinear applications are presented, including a truss and a suspended structure. The stress and displacement reliabilities of the truss are computed considering both geometrically linear and nonlinear elastic behaviors. The system reliability of a geometrically nonlinear suspended structure is evaluated. The structure is modeled as a series of parallel subsystems according to three system failure criteria. The effects of correlation between loads, correlation between resistances, and material behavior (brittle or ductile) are evaluated and discussed. Finally, displacement reliability indices of the suspended structure are computed.     

A finite element penalty method for the linearized viscoelastic Oldroyd fluid motion equations

In this paper, a fully discrete finite element penalty method is considered for the two-dimensional linearized viscoelastic fluid motion equations, arising from the Oldroyd model for the non-Newton fluid flows. With the finite element method for the spatial discretization and the backward Euler scheme for the temporal discretization, the velocity and pressure are decoupled in this method, which leads to a large reduction of the computational scale. Under some realistic assumptions, the unconditional stability of the fully discrete scheme is proved. Moreover, the optimal error estimates are obtained, which are better than the existing results. Finally, some numerical results are given to verify the theoretical analysis. The difference between the motion of the Newton and non-Newton fluid is also observed.     

The characteristic finite volume element method for the nonlinear convection-dominated diffusion problem

In modern numerical simulation of prospecting and exploiting oil–gas resources and environmental science, it is important to consider a numerical method for nonlinear convection-dominated diffusion problems. Based on actual conditions, such as the three-dimensional characteristics of large-scale science-engineering computation, we present a kind of characteristic finite volume element method. Some techniques, such as calculus of variations, commutating operators, the theory of prior estimates and techniques, are adopted. Suboptimal order error estimate in L² norm and optimal order error estimate in H¹ norm are derived to determine the errors for the approximate solution. Numerical results are presented to verify the performance of the scheme.     

二维不可压缩Navier-Stokes方程的并行谱有限元法求解

针对不可压缩Navier-Stokes （N-S）方程求解过程中的有限元法存在计算网格量大、收敛速度慢的缺点,提出了基于面积坐标的三角网格剖分谱有限元法（TSFEM）并进一步给出了利用OpenMP对其并行化的方法。该算法结合谱方法和有限元法思想,选取具有无限光滑特性的指数函数取代传统有限元法中的多项式函数作为基函数,能够有效减少计算网格数量,提高算法的精度和收敛速度;利用面积坐标便于三角形单元计算的特点,选取三角单元作为计算单元,增强了适用性;在顶盖方腔驱动流问题上对该算法进行验证。实验结果表明,TSFEM较传统有限元法（FEM）无论是收敛速度还是计算效率都有了显著提高。     

Geometrically nonlinear finite element reliability analysis of structural systems. I: theory

This article reviews the theory of finite element reliability analysis of geometrically nonlinear elastic structures (GNS) based on the total lagrangian formulation. It also provides computer implementation developments and establishes the basis of understanding of the applications presented in the second part of this investigation. Because of the slenderness of GNS, the structural responses are nonlinear even if the strains are within the elastic range. For this reason, the nonlinear relationships between strains and displacements should be considered. Since the failure surface is nonlinear, this study reviews the evaluation of structural reliability of GNS by using both first-order and second-order reliability methods. To evaluate the structural reliability, the linkage of system reliability analysis program RELSYS with the finite element analysis program (FEAP) is presented. The computer code RELSYS–FEAP is readily applicable to the evaluation of system reliability of GNS.     

On numerical stabilization in the solution of Saint-Venant equations using the finite element method

Solving the Saint-Venant equations by using numerical schemes like finite difference and finite element methods leads to some unwanted oscillations in the water surface elevation. The reason for these oscillations lies in the method used for the approximation of the nonlinear terms. One of the ways of smoothing these oscillations is by adding artificial viscosity into the scheme. In this paper, by using a suitable discretization, we first solve the one-dimensional Saint-Venant equations by a finite element method and eliminate the unwanted oscillations without using an artificial viscosity. Second, our main discussion is concentrated on numerical stabilization of the solution in detail. In fact, we first convert the systems resulting from the discretization to systems relating to just water surface elevation. Then, by using M-matrix properties, the stability of the solution is shown. Finally, two numerical examples of critical and subcritical flows are given to support our results.     

Model reduction and controller design for a nonlinear heat conduction problem using finite element method

The mathematical models for dynamic distributed parameter systems are given by systems of partial differential equations. With nonlinear material properties, the corresponding finite element (FE) models are large systems of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. However, in most cases, the actual dynamics of interest involve only a few of the variables, for which model reduction strategies based on system theoretical concepts can be immensely useful. This paper considers the problem of controlling a three dimensional profile on nontrivial geometries. Dynamic model is obtained by discretizing the domain using FE method. A nonlinear control law is proposed which transfers any arbitrary initial temperature profile to another arbitrary desired one. The large dynamic model is reduced using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). Finally, the stability of the control law is proved through Lyapunov analysis. Results of numerical implementation are presented and possible further extensions are identified.     

Coupling volume-of-fluid based interface reconstructions with the extended finite element method

We examine the coupling of the patterned-interface-reconstruction (PIR) algorithm with the extended finite element method (X-FEM) for general multi-material problems over structured and unstructured meshes. The coupled method offers the advantages of allowing for local, element-based reconstructions of the interface, and facilitates the imposition of discrete conservation laws. Of particular note is the use of an interface representation that is volume-of-fluid based, giving rise to a segmented interface representation that is not continuous across element boundaries. In conjunction with such a representation, we employ enrichment with the ridge function for treating material interfaces and an analog to Heaviside enrichment for treating free surfaces. We examine a series of benchmark problems that quantify the convergence aspects of the coupled method and examine the sensitivity to noise in the interface reconstruction. The fidelity of a remapping strategy is also examined for a moving interface problem.     

Time second-order finite difference/finite element algorithm for nonlinear time-fractional diffusion problem with fourth-order derivative term

In this article, we study and analyze a Galerkin mixed finite element (MFE) method combined with time second-order discrete scheme for solving nonlinear time fractional diffusion equation with fourth-order derivative term. We firstly introduce an auxiliary variable $\sigma =△u$, reduce the fourth-order problem into a coupled system with two equations, discretize the obtained coupled system at time $t_{k?\frac{\alpha }{2}}$ by a second-order difference scheme with second-order approximation for fractional derivative, then formulate mixed weak formulation and fully discrete MFE scheme. Further, we give the detailed proof for stability of scheme, the existence and uniqueness of MFE solution, and a priori error estimates. Finally, by some numerical computations, we test the theoretical results, which illustrate that we can obtain the numerical results for two variables, moreover, we arrive at second-order time convergence orders, which are higher than the ones yielded by the $L1$-approximation.     

An Evaluation of Architectural Platforms for Parallel Navier-Stokes Computations

We study the computational, communication, and scalability characteristics of a computational fluid dynamics application, which solves the time-accurate flow field of a jet using the compressible Navier-Stokes equations, on a variety of parallel architectural platforms. The platforms chosen for this study are a cluster of workstations (the LACE experimental testbed at NASA Lewis), a shared-memory multiprocessor (the CRAY Y-MP), and distributed-memory multiprocessors with different topologies (the IBM SP and the CRAY T3D). We investigate the impact of various networks connecting the cluster of workstations on the performance of the application and the overheads induced by popular message-passing libraries used for parallelization. The work also highlights the importance of matching the memory bandwidth to processor speed for good single processor performance. By studying the performance of an application on a variety of architectures, we are able to point out the strengths and weaknesses of each of the example computing platforms. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.