Bounce-back Scheme Research Articles

Non-body-fitted Cartesian-mesh simulation of highly turbulent flows using multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method

This paper presents a lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) based study aimed at numerical simulation of highly turbulent and largely inclined flow around obstacles of curved geometry using non-body-fitted Cartesian meshes. The approach features (1) combining the interpolated bounce-back scheme with the LBM of multi-relaxation-time (MRT) type to enable the use of simple Cartesian mesh for the flow cases even with complex geometries; and (2) incorporating the Spalart–Allmaras (SA) turbulence model into LBM in order to represent the turbulent flow effect. The numerical experiments are performed corresponding to flows around an NACA0012 airfoil at Re=5×105 and around a flat plate at Re=2×104, respectively. The agreement between all simulation results obtained from this study and the data provided by other literature demonstrates the reliability of the enhanced LBM proposed in this paper for simulating, simply on Cartesian meshes, complex flows that may involve bodies of curved boundary, high Reynolds number, and large angle of attack.

An improved bounce-back scheme for complex boundary conditions in lattice Boltzmann method

In recent years, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has been widely adopted to simulate various fluid systems, and the boundary treatment has been an active topic during the LBM development. In this paper, we present a novel approach to improve the bounce-back boundary treatment for moving surfaces with arbitrary configurations. We follow the framework originally proposed by Ladd [A.J.C. Ladd, Numerical simulations of particulate suspensions via a discretized Boltzman equation. Part 1. Theoretical foundation, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 271 (1994) 285–309]; however, the adjustment in the density distribution during the bouncing-back process at the boundary is calculated using the midpoint velocity inter-/extrapolated from the boundary and fluid velocities, instead of the real boundary velocity in the Ladd method. This modification ensures that the bouncing-back process and the density distribution adjustment both take place at a same location: the midpoint of a boundary lattice link, and thus removes the discrepancy of bouncing-back at the midpoint but density distribution adjustment at the boundary point in the original Ladd method. When compared with other existing boundary models, this method involves a simpler algorithm and exhibits a comparable or even better accuracy in describing flow field and flow-structure interaction, as demonstrated by several test simulations. Therefore, this boundary method could be considered as a competitive alternative for boundary treatment in LBM simulations, especially for particulate and porous flows with large fluid–solid interfacial areas.

General bounce-back scheme for concentration boundary condition in the lattice-Boltzmann method

In this paper, a general bounce-back scheme is proposed to implement concentration or thermal boundary conditions of convection-diffusion equation with the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Using this scheme, the general concentration boundary conditions, i.e., b1(∂Cw/∂n) + b2Cw = b3, can be easily implemented at boundaries with complex geometry structure like that in porous media. The numerical results obtained using the present scheme are in excellent agreement with the analytical solutions of flows with both stationary and moving interfaces. Furthermore, to better understand the halfway bounce-back scheme, an analytical study of the concentration jump is presented. The studies of theoretical analysis and numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed scheme has second-order accuracy.

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of turbulent flow laden with finite-size particles

The paper describes a particle-resolved simulation method for turbulent flow laden with finite size particles. The method is based on the multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann equation. The no-slip boundary condition on the moving particle boundaries is handled by a second-order interpolated bounce-back scheme. The populations at a newly converted fluid lattice node are constructed by the equilibrium distribution with non-equilibrium corrections. MPI implementation details are described and the resulting code is found to be computationally efficient with a good scalability. The method is first validated using unsteady sedimentation of a single particle and sedimentation of a random suspension. It is then applied to a decaying isotropic turbulence laden with particles of Kolmogorov to Taylor microscale sizes. At a given particle volume fraction, the dynamics of the particle-laden flow is found to depend mainly on the effective particle surface area and particle Stokes number. The presence of finite-size inertial particles enhances dissipation at small scales while reducing kinetic energy at large scales. This is in accordance with related studies. The normalized pivot wavenumber is found to not only depend on the particle size, but also on the ratio of particle size to flow scales and particle-to-fluid density ratio.

Validation of EMMS-based drag model using lattice Boltzmann simulations on GPUs

Interphase momentum transport in heterogeneous gas–solid systems with multi-scale structure is of great importance in process engineering. In this article, lattice Boltzmann simulations are performed on graphics processing units (GPUs), the computational power of which exceeds that of CPUs by more than one order of magnitude, to investigate incompressible Newtonian flow in idealized multi-scale particle–fluid systems. The structure consists of a periodic array of clusters, each constructed by a bundle of cylinders. Fixed pressure boundary condition is implemented by applying a constant body force to the flow through the medium. The bounce-back scheme is adopted on the fluid–solid interfaces, which ensures the no-slip boundary condition. The structure is studied under a wide range of particle diameters and packing fractions, and the drag coefficient of the structure is found to be a function of voidages and fractions of the clusters, besides the traditional Reynolds number and the solid volume fractions. Parameters reflecting multi-scale characters are, therefore, demonstrated to be necessary in quantifying the drag force of heterogeneous gas–solid system. The numerical results in the range 0.1 ≤ Re ≤ 10 and 0 < ϕ < 0.25 are compared with Wen and Yu's correlation, Gibilaro equation, EMMS-based drag model, the Beetstra correlation and the Benyahia correlation, and good agreement is found between the simulations and the EMMS-based drag model for heterogeneous systems.

Numerical study of lattice Boltzmann methods for a convection–diffusion equation coupled with Navier–Stokes equations

Numerous lattice Boltzmann (LB) methods have been proposed for solution of the convection–diffusion equations (CDE). For the 2D problem, D2Q9, D2Q5 or D2Q4 velocity models are usually used. When LB convection–diffusion models are used to solve a CDE coupled with Navier–Stokes equations, boundary conditions are found to be critically important for accurately solving the coupled simulations. Following the idea of a regularized scheme (Latt et al 2008 Phys. Rev. E 77 056703), a regularized boundary condition for solving a CDE is proposed. A simple extrapolation scheme is also proposed for the Neumann boundary condition. Spatial accuracies of three existing and the proposed boundary conditions are discussed in details. The numerical evaluations are based on simulations of steady and unsteady natural convection flows in a cavity and an unsteady Taylor–Couette flow. Our studies show that the simplest D2Q4 model with terms of O(u) in the equilibrium distribution function is capable of obtaining results of equal accuracy as D2Q5 or D2Q9 models for the CDE. A slightly revised LB equation for solving a CDE that is used to cancel some unwanted terms does not seem to be necessary for incompressible flows. The regularized boundary condition for solving the CDE has second-order spatial accuracy and it is the best one in terms of the spatial accuracy. The regularized scheme and non-equilibrium extrapolation scheme are applicable to handle both the Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. For the Neumann boundary condition with zero flux, all the five boundary conditions are applicable to give accurate results and the bounce-back scheme is the simplest one.

A lattice Boltzmann model coupled with a Large Eddy Simulation model for flows around a groyne

This present paper proposes a two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann model coupled with a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model and applies it to flows around a non-submerged groyne in a channel. The LES of shallow water equations is efficiently performed using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) and the turbulence can be taken into account in conjunction with the Smagorinsky Sub-Grid Stress (SGS) model. The bounce-back scheme of the non-equilibrium part of the distribution function is used to determine the unknown distribution functions at inflow boundary, the zero gradient of the distribution function is set normal to outflow boundary to obtain the unknown distribution functions here and the bounce-back scheme, which states that an incoming particle towards the boundary is bounced back into fluid, is applied to the solid wall to ensure non-slip boundary conditions. The initial flow field is defined firstly and then is used to calculate the local equilibrium distributions as initial conditions of the distribution functions. These coupled models successfully predict the flow characteristics, such as circulating flow, velocity and water depth distributions. The comparisons between the simulated results and the experimental data show that the model scheme has the capacity to solve the complex flows in shallow water with reasonable accuracy and reliability.

Application of LBM-SGS model to flows in a pumping-station forebay

A 2-D Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) coupled with a Sub-Grid Stress (SGS) model is proposed and validated by flows around a non-submerged spur dike in a channel. And then the LBM-SGS model is further applied to flows in a pumping-station forebay. Shallow water equations are numerically solved by the LBM and the turbulence can be taken into account and modeled efficiently by the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model. The bounce-back scheme of the non-equilibrium part of the distribution function is used at the inlet boundary, the normal gradient of the distribution function is set as zero at the outlet boundary and the bounce-back scheme is applied to the solid wall to ensure non-slip boundary conditions. Firstly, the model successfully predicts the flow characteristics around a spur dike, such as circulating flow, velocity and water depth distributions. The results are verified by the experimental data and compared to the results obtained by conventional Smagoringsky Model (SM) of LES. Finally, the LBM-SGS model is used to further predict the flow characteristics in a forebay, such as secondary flow and water level. The comparisons show that the model scheme has the capacity to simulate complex flows in shallow water with reasonable accuracy and reliability.

SIMULATION OF GAS FLOW IN MICROTUBES BY LATTICE BOLTZMANN METHOD

Isothermal gas flow in microtubes with a sudden expansion or contraction is studied numerically by lattice Boltzmann method. An axisymmetric D2Q9 model is used to simulate gas slip flow in micro-circular pipes. With the boundary condition combined specular and bounce-back schemes, the computed results are in excellent agreement with analytical solution for straight microtube. For the gas flow in the expanded or constricted tubes, we carried out simulations of several Knudsen numbers with inlet/outlet pressure ratio 3. It is found the pressure drop in each section can be predicted well by the theory of straight tubes. For smaller Knudsen number, flow separation in the expanded tube is observed. While for large Knudsen number, there is no vortex at corner and the streamlines are attached to boundary. In the constricted tube, the vortex at corner is very weak. These results are consistent with some experimental conclusions.

Eulerian description of high-order bounce-back scheme for lattice Boltzmann equation with curved boundary

We propose an Eulerian description of the bounce-back boundary condition based on the high-order implicit time-marching schemes to improve the accuracy of lattice Boltzmann simulation in the vicinity of curved boundary. The Eulerian description requires only one grid spacing between fluid nodes when second-order accuracy in time and space is desired, although high-order accurate boundary conditions can be constructed on more grid-point support. The Eulerian description also provides an analytical framework for several different interpolation-based boundary conditions. For instance, the semi-Lagrangian, linear interpolation boundary condition is found to be a first-order upwind discretization that changes the time-marching schemes from implicit to explicit as the distance between the fluid boundary node and the solid boundary increases.

Numerical implementation of thermal boundary conditions in the lattice Boltzmann method

This work proposed a non-equilibrium mirror-reflection scheme to implement thermal boundary conditions for the two-distribution lattice Boltzmann method (TLBM). The study showed that the most popular non-equilibrium bounce-back scheme would become inadequate when the predictions of temperature gradient were examined in TLBM. This work used the native method in TLBM to verify temperature gradient instead of the conventional finite difference approximation. The simulation results demonstrated that the mirror-reflection scheme is a scheme of second-order accuracy and can predict the temperature and temperature gradient correctly. With help of calculating the heat flux on the boundary, this work also suggested a more efficient and realistic way to determine the Nusselt number in Rayleigh–Bénard convection problems.

A Characteristic Non-Reflecting Boundary Treatment in Lattice Boltzmann Method

In lattice Boltzmann methods, disturbances develop at the initial stages of the simulation, the decay characteristics depend mainly on boundary treatment methods; open boundary conditions such as equilibrium and bounce-back schemes potentially generate uncontrollable disturbances. Excessive disturbances originate from non-physical reflecting waves at boundaries. Characteristic boundary conditions utilizing the signs of waves at boundaries which suppress these reflecting waves, as well as their implementation in the lattice Boltzmann method, are introduced herein. The performance of our novel boundary treatment method to effectively suppress excessive disturbances is verified by three different numerical experiments.

Modelling of thermal contact resistance within the framework of the thermal lattice Boltzmann method

A novel numerical approach, termed the partial bounce back scheme, is introduced within the framework of the thermal lattice Boltzmann method to account for thermal contact resistance between contacting surfaces. The correlation between thermal contact resistance and the partial bounce back parameter is established. A special case of the scheme leads to a new approach that can be directly applied for the treatment of adiabatic thermal boundary conditions in the thermal lattice Boltzmann method. Numerical examples are provided to validate and demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

Discrete effects on boundary conditions for the lattice Boltzmann equation in simulating microscale gas flows

The lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) has shown its promise in the simulation of microscale gas flows. One of the critical issues with this advanced method is to specify suitable slip boundary conditions to ensure simulation accuracy. In this paper we study two widely used kinetic boundary conditions in the LBE: the combination of the bounce-back and specular-reflection scheme and the discrete Maxwell's scheme. We show that (i) both schemes are virtually equivalent in principle, and (ii) there exist discrete effects in both schemes. A strategy is then proposed to adjust the parameters in the two kinetic boundary conditions such that an accurate slip boundary condition can be implemented. The numerical results demonstrate that the corrected boundary conditions are robust and reliable.

LATTICE BOLTZMANN SIMULATIONS OF DISCONTINUOUS FLOWS

The lattice Boltzmann model for the shallow water equations (LABSWE) is applied to the simulation of certain discontinuous flows. Curved boundaries are treated efficiently, using either the elastic-collision scheme for slip and semi-slip boundary conditions or the bounce-back scheme for no-slip conditions. The force term is accurately determined by means of the centred scheme. Simulations are presented of a small pulse-like perturbation of the still water surface, a dam break, and a surge wave interaction with a circular cylinder. The results agree well with predictions from alternative high-resolution Riemann solver based methods, demonstrating the capability of LABSWE to predict shallow water flows containing discontinuities.

An evaluation of lattice Boltzmann schemes for porous medium flow simulation

We quantitatively evaluate the capability and accuracy of the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) for modeling flow through porous media. In particular, we conduct a comparative study of the LBE models with the multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) and the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) single-relaxation-time (SRT) collision operators. We also investigate several fluid–solid boundary conditions including: (1) the standard bounce-back (SBB) scheme, (2) the linearly interpolated bounce-back (LIBB) scheme, (3) the quadratically interpolated bounce-back (QIBB) scheme, and (4) the multi-reflection (MR) scheme. Three-dimensional flow through two porous media—a body-centered cubic (BCC) array of spheres and a random-sized sphere-pack—are examined in this study. For flow past a BCC array of spheres, we validate the linear LBE model by comparing its results with the nonlinear LBE model. We investigate systematically the viscosity-dependence of the computed permeability, the discretization error, and effects due to the choice of relaxation parameters with the MRT and BGK schemes. Our results show unequivocally that the MRT–LBE model is superior to the BGK–LBE model, and interpolation significantly improves the accuracy of the fluid–solid boundary conditions.

Lattice Boltzmann method for moving boundaries

We propose a lattice Boltzmann method to treat moving boundary problems for solid objects moving in a fluid. The method is based on the simple bounce-back boundary scheme and interpolations. The proposed method is tested in two flows past an impulsively started cylinder moving in a channel in two dimensions: (a) the flow past an impulsively started cylinder moving in a transient Couette flow; and (b) the flow past an impulsively started cylinder moving in a channel flow at rest. We obtain satisfactory results and also verify the Galilean invariance of the lattice Boltzmann method.

AN ELASTIC-COLLISION SCHEME FOR LATTICE BOLTZMANN METHODS

An elastic-collision scheme is developed to achieve slip and semi-slip boundary conditions for lattice Boltzmann methods. Like the bounce-back scheme, the proposed scheme is efficient, robust and generally suitable for flows in arbitrary complex geometries. It involves an equivalent level of computation effort to the bounce-back scheme. The new scheme is verified by predicting wind-driven circulating flows in a dish-shaped basin and a flow in a strongly bent channel, showing good agreement with analytical solutions and experimental data. The capability of the scheme for simulating flows through multiple bodies has also been demonstrated.

Implementation Aspects of 3D Lattice-BGK: Boundaries, Accuracy, and a New Fast Relaxation Method

In many realistic fluid-dynamical simulations the specification of the boundary conditions, the error sources, and the number of time steps to reach a steady state are important practical considerations. In this paper we study these issues in the case of the lattice-BGK model. The objective is to present a comprehensive overview of some pitfalls and shortcomings of the lattice-BGK method and to introduce some new ideas useful in practical simulations. We begin with an evaluation of the widely used bounce-back boundary condition in staircase geometries by simulating flow in an inclined tube. It is shown that the bounce-back scheme is first-order accurate in space when the location of the non-slip wall is assumed to be at the boundary nodes. Moreover, for a specific inclination angle of 45 degrees, the scheme is found to be second-order accurate when the location of the non-slip velocity is fitted halfway between the last fluid nodes and the first solid nodes. The error as a function of the relaxation parameter is in that case qualitatively similar to that of flat walls. Next, a comparison of simulations of fluid flow by means of pressure boundaries and by means of body force is presented. A good agreement between these two boundary conditions has been found in the creeping-flow regime. For higher Reynolds numbers differences have been found that are probably caused by problems associated with the pressure boundaries. Furthermore, two widely used 3D models, namelyD3Q15andD3Q19, are analysed. It is shown that theD3Q15model may induce artificial checkerboard invariants due to the connectivity of the lattice. Finally, a new iterative method, which significantly reduces the saturation time, is presented and validated on different benchmark problems.

Analytic solutions of simple flows and analysis of nonslip boundary conditions for the lattice Boltzmann BGK model

In this paper we analytically solve the velocity of the lattice Boltzmann BGK equation (LBGK) for several simple flows. The analysis provides a framework to theoretically analyze various boundary conditions. In particular, the analysis is used to derive the slip velocities generated by various schemes for the nonslip boundary condition. We find that the slip velocity is zero as long as Σαfαeα=0 at boundaries, no matter what combination of distributions is chosen. The schemes proposed by Nobleet al. and by Inamuroet al. yield the correct zeroslip velocity, while some other schemes, such as the bounce-back scheme and the equilibrium distribution scheme, would inevitably generate a nonzero slip velocity. The bounce-back scheme with the wall located halfway between a flow node and a bounce-back node is also studied for the simple flows considered and is shown to produce results of second-order accuracy. The momentum exchange at boundaries seems to be highly related to the slip velocity at boundaries. To be specific, the slip velocity is zero only when the momentum dissipated by boundaries is equal to the stress provided by fluids.