Code verification for multiphase flows using the method of manufactured solutions

Abstract

Code verification is the process of ensuring, to the extent possible, that there are no algorithm deficiencies and coding mistakes (bugs) in a scientific computing simulation. Order of accuracy testing using the Method of Manufactured Solutions (MMS) is a rigorous technique that is employed here for code verification of the main components of an open-source, multiphase flow code – MFIX. Code verification is performed here on 2D and 3D, uniform and stretched meshes for incompressible, steady and unsteady, single-phase and two-phase flows using the two-fluid model of MFIX. Currently, the algebraic gas-solid exchange terms are neglected as these can be verified via techniques such as unit-testing. The no-slip wall, free-slip wall, and pressure outflow boundary conditions are verified. Temporal orders of accuracy for first-order and second-order time-marching schemes during unsteady simulations are also assessed. The presence of a modified SIMPLE-based algorithm in the code requires the velocity field to be divergence free in case of the single-phase incompressible model. Similarly, the volume fraction weighted velocity field must be divergence-free for the two-phase incompressible model. A newly-developed curl-based manufactured solution is used to generate manufactured solutions that satisfy the divergence-free constraint during the verification of the single-phase and two-phase incompressible governing equations. Manufactured solutions with constraints due to boundary conditions as well as due to divergence-free flow are derived in order to verify the boundary conditions.