Towards a fast single domain – subdomain BEM algorithm for 3D incompressible fluid flow

Abstract

Work towards acceleration and computer memory reduction of an algorithm for the simulation of laminar viscous flows by solving of 3D velocity-vorticity formulation of the Navier‐Stokes equations is presented. The algorithm employs a combination of a subdomain boundary element method (BEM) and fast single domain BEM. ThesingledomainBEM onaPoisson typeequationis employedto calculate boundary vorticity values. After discretization, the single domain BEM algorithm yields a fully populated system of linear equations. The non-homogenous part of the Poisson equation yields a fully populated matrix of domain integrals. In order to lower the computational demand, a fast multipole expansion algorithm is used on the domain matrix. The fundamental solution is expanded in terms of spherical harmonics. The computational domain and its boundary are recursively cut up forming a tree of clusters of boundary elements and domain cells. Compression is achieved in parts of the matrix, which correspond to boundary-domain cluster pairs that are admissible for expansion. Significant reduction of the complexity is achieved. The paper presents results of initial testing of the FMM algorithm.