A Galerkin-Characteristic Method for Large-Eddy Simulation of Turbulent Flow and Heat Transfer

Abstract

This work aims at the development of a nonoscillatory Galerkin-characteristic method for large-eddy simulation of turbulent flow and heat transfer. The method is based on combining the modified method of characteristics with a Galerkin finite element discretization of the incompressible Navier–Stokes/Boussinesq equations in primitive variables. It can be interpreted as a fractional step technique where the convective part and the Stokes/Boussinesq part are treated separately. A limiting procedure is implemented for the reconstruction of numerical solutions at the departure points. The main feature of the proposed Galerkin-characteristic method is that, due to the Lagrangian treatment of convection, the standard Courant–Friedrichs–Levy condition is relaxed, and the time truncation errors are reduced in the Stokes/Boussinesq part. To solve the generalized Stokes/Boussinesq problem we implement a conjugate gradient algorithm. This method avoids projection techniques and does not require any special correction for the pressure. We verify the method for an advection-diffusion equation with a known analytical solution and for the benchmark problem of mixed convection flow in a squared cavity. We also present numerical results for a problem of heat transport in the Strait of Gibraltar. The Galerkin-characteristic method has been found to be feasible and satisfactory.