Meshless solution of two-dimensional incompressible flow problems using the radial basis integral equation method

Abstract

The two-dimensional incompressible fluid flow problems governed by the velocity–vorticity formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations were solved using the radial basis integral (RBIE) equation method. The RBIE is a meshless method based on the multi-domain boundary element method with overlapping subdomains. It solves at each node for the potential and its spatial derivatives. This feature of the RBIE is advantageous in solving the velocity–vorticity formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations since the calculated velocity gradients can be used to compute the vorticity that is prescribed as a boundary condition to the vorticity transport equation. The accuracy of the numerical solution was examined by solving the test problem with known analytical solution. Two benchmark problems, i.e. the lid driven cavity flow and the thermally driven cavity flow were also solved. The numerical results obtained using the RBIE showed very good agreement with the benchmark solutions.