Yin–Yang–Zhong grid: An overset grid system for a sphere

Abstract

For numerical simulations inside a sphere, an overset grid system, Yin-Yang-Zhong grid, is proposed. The Yin-Yang-Zhong grid is an extension of the Yin-Yang grid, which is widely used in various simulations in spherical shell geometry. The Yin-Yang grid is itself an overset grid system with two component grids, and a new component grid called Zhong is placed at the center of the Yin-Yang grid. The Zhong grid component is constructed on Cartesian coordinates. Parallelization is intrinsically embedded in the Yin-Yang-Zhong grid system because the Zhong grid points are defined with cuboid blocks that are decomposed domains for parallelization. The computational efficiency approaches the optimum as the process number increases. Quantitative test simulations are performed for a diffusion problem in a sphere with the Yin-Yang-Zhong grid. Correct decay rates are obtained by the simulations. Two other tests in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) in a sphere are also performed. One is an MHD dynamo simulation, and the other is an MHD relaxation simulation in a sphere.