High resolution multi-moment finite volume method for supersonic combustion on unstructured grids

Abstract

In this study, we present a novel numerical model for simulating detonation waves on unstructured grids. In contrast to the conventional finite volume method (FVM), two types of moment comprising the volume-integrated average (VIA) and the point value (PV) at the cell vertex are treated as the evolution variables for the reacting Euler equations . The VIA is computed based on a finite volume formulation of the flux form where the conventional Riemann problem is solved by the HLLC Riemann solver. The PV is updated in a point-wise manner by using the differential formulation where the Roe solver is used to compute the differential Riemann problems. In order to increase the accuracy around discontinuities, numerical oscillations and dissipations are reduced using the boundary variation diminishing algorithm. Convergence tests demonstrated that the proposed model could achieve third-order accuracy with unstructured grids for reacting Euler equations. The high resolution property of the proposed method was verified based on simulations of several detonation wave propagation problems in two and three dimensions. In particular, the current model could resolve the cellular structures with fewer degrees of freedom for the unstable oblique detonation wave problem. These fine structures may be smoothed out by the conventional FVM due to the excessive amount of numerical dissipation errors. Importantly, a simulation of stiff detonation waves showed that the proposed method could capture the correct position of the reaction front whereas the conventional FVMs produced spurious phenomena. Thus, the proposed model can obtain highly accurate solutions for detonation problems on unstructured grids, which is highly advantageous for real applications involving complex geometrical configurations .