Discontinuous Spectral Element Research Articles

Numerical investigation of mixing performance in supersonic cold flow over dual-cavity in scramjet

Mixing performance in the combustion chamber is important in achieving the efficiency of scramjet for its compact structure and the short residence time caused by high velocity. This study focuses on predicting the mixing performance in a viscous supersonic flow past the cavity flame holder in the scramjet, using the discontinuous spectral element method with direct numerical simulation. The arrangement and distribution of a series of cavities are calculated at various inlet velocities. By comparing the contours of Mach number and static temperature, as well as analyzing the airflow residence time with a new calculating formula and the drag based on the numerical results, it is concluded that higher inlet velocities result in faster stabilization. It also leads to longer airflow residence time when the supersonic flow passes through the dual-cavity with a tandem connection rather than the parallel one or the single-cavity structures. As for the shortened rear wall of cavities, these structures can decrease the drag quickly, but they also decrease the airflow residence time seriously, which destroys the mixing performance. In addition, these conclusions are applied to a practical case of the cavity flame holder, verifying the effectiveness of tandem dual-cavity structures in enhancing the mixing performance by increasing the airflow residence time and maintaining or reducing the drag. This study can provide valuable suggestions in further design of cavity flame holders for different flow conditions.

Fully-discrete spatial eigenanalysis of discontinuous spectral element methods: Insights into well-resolved and under-resolved vortical flows

This study presents a comprehensive spatial eigenanalysis of fully-discrete discontinuous spectral element methods, now generalising previous spatial eigenanalysis that did not include time integration errors. The influence of discrete time integration is discussed in detail for different explicit Runge–Kutta (1st to 4th order accurate) schemes combined with either Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) or Spectral Difference (SD) methods, both here recovered from the Flux Reconstruction (FR) scheme. Selected numerical experiments using the improved SD method by Liang et al. (2009) [53,54] and Jameson (2010) [55] are performed to quantify the influence of time integration errors on actual simulations. These involve test cases of varied complexity, from one-dimensional linear advection equation studies to well-resolved and under-resolved inviscid vortical flows. When simulations are well-resolved, the overall order of accuracy of the (fully-discrete) method of choice is limited to that of the time integration scheme. Moreover, it is shown that, while both well-resolved and under-resolved simulations of linear problems correlate well with the eigenanalysis prediction of time integration errors, the correlation can be much worse for under-resolved nonlinear problems as observed via numerical experiments. In fact, in the numerical simulation of under-resolved vortical flows, the predominance of spatial errors made it practically impossible for time integration errors to be distinctly identified. As a result, the eigenanalysis predictions are expected to hold (even if partially) in direct numerical simulations of turbulence. This highlights that the interaction between space and time discretisation errors is more complex than otherwise anticipated, contributing to the current understanding about when eigenanalysis can effectively predict the behaviour of numerical errors in practical under-resolved nonlinear problems, including under-resolved turbulence computations.

Positivity-preserving entropy filtering for the ideal magnetohydrodynamics equations

In this work, we present a positivity-preserving adaptive filtering approach for discontinuous spectral element approximations of the ideal magnetohydrodynamics equations. This approach combines the entropy filtering method (Dzanic and Witherden, 2022) for shock capturing in gas dynamics along with the eight-wave method for enforcing a divergence-free magnetic field. Due to the inclusion of non-conservative source terms, an operator-splitting approach is introduced to ensure that the positivity and entropy constraints remain satisfied by the discrete solution. Furthermore, a computationally efficient algorithm for solving the optimization process for this nonlinear filtering approach is presented. The resulting scheme can robustly resolve strong discontinuities on general unstructured grids without tunable parameters while recovering high-order accuracy for smooth solutions. The efficacy of the scheme is shown in numerical experiments on various problems including extremely magnetized blast waves and three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic instabilities.

On the Anti-Aliasing Properties of Entropy Filtering for Discontinuous Spectral Element Approximations of Under-Resolved Turbulent Flows

For large Reynolds number flows, it is typically necessary to perform simulations that are under-resolved with respect to the underlying flow physics. For nodal discontinuous spectral element approximations of these under-resolved flows, the collocation projection of the nonlinear flux can introduce aliasing errors which can result in numerical instabilities. In Dzanic and Witherden (J. Comput. Phys., 468, 2022), an entropy-based adaptive filtering approach was introduced as a robust, parameter-free shock-capturing method for discontinuous spectral element methods. This work explores the ability of entropy filtering for mitigating aliasing-driven instabilities in the simulation of under-resolved turbulent flows through high-order implicit large eddy simulations of a NACA0021 airfoil in deep stall at a Reynolds number of 270,000. It was observed that entropy filtering can adequately mitigate aliasing-driven instabilities without degrading the accuracy of the underlying high-order scheme on par with standard anti-aliasing methods such as over-integration, albeit with marginally worse performance at higher approximation orders.

A sweeping algorithm of unstructured elements in discontinuous spectral element method for thermal radiation in irregular multidimensional geometries

The discontinuous spectral element method (DSEM) coupled with an element-by-element sweeping strategy is proposed as a solution to the radiative transfer equation (RTE) for participating media in irregular geometries. In the solving processing, a spatial domain of RTE is discretized by unstructured meshes; an angular direction of RTE is discretized as a set of contrast angles by structured quadrilateral meshes. Then, both spatial domain and angular direction are coupling solved by DSEM. However, this coupling solution leads to a large-scale matrix problem. To address this, the element-by-element sweeping strategy optimizes the ordering of unstructured spatial elements. Several examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of DSEM with the element-by-element sweeping strategy. Compared to the original sweep strategy, the element-by-element approach significantly improves calculation efficiency and reduces computational time.

A Non‐Column Based, Fully Unstructured Implementation of Kessler's Microphysics With Warm Rain Using Continuous and Discontinuous Spectral Elements

AbstractNumerical weather prediction is pushing the envelope of grid resolution at local and global scales alike. Aiming to model topography with higher precision, a handful of articles introduced unstructured vertical grids and tested them for dry atmospheres. The next step toward effective high‐resolution unstructured grids for atmospheric modeling requires that also microphysics is independent of any vertical columns, in contrast to what is ubiquitous across operational and research models. In this paper, we present a non‐column based continuous and discontinuous spectral element implementation of Kessler's microphysics with warm rain. We test the proposed algorithm against standard three‐dimensional benchmarks for precipitating clouds and show that the results are comparable with those presented in the literature across all of the tested effective resolutions. While presented for both continuous and discontinuous spectral elements in this paper, the method that we propose can be adapted to any numerical method used in other codes, as long as the code can already handle vertically unstructured grids.

Investigation of coupled radiation-conduction heat transfer in cylindrical systems by discontinuous spectral element method

Nowadays, in order to achieve higher efficiency in aero-engines, the increase of turbine inlet temperature in aero-engine is in urgent need. At present, the turbine inlet temperature is around 2,000 K, which means the radiation and coupled radiation-conduction heat transfer play more and more important roles in hot section of aero-engines. As we all konw, considering the cylindrical symmetry of aero-engines. It is convenient to adopt the cylindrical coordinate to simplify the description of these systems, such as annular combustor, exhaust nozzle, etc. In this paper, Discontinuous Spectral Element Method (DSEM) is extended to solve the radiation and coupled radiation-coduction heat transfer in cylindrical coordinate system. Both the spatial and angular computational domains of radiative transfer equation (RTE) are discretized and solved by DSEM. For coupled radiation-conduction heat transfer problem, Discontinuous Spectral Element Method-Spectral Element Method (DSEM-SEM) scheme is used to avoid using two sets of grid which would cause the increase of computational cost and the decrease of accuracy. Then, the effects of various geometric and thermal physical parameters are comprehensively investigated. Finally, these methods are further extended to 2D cylindrical system.

Utilizing time-reversibility for shock capturing in nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws

In this work, we introduce a novel approach to formulating an artificial viscosity for shock capturing in nonlinear hyperbolic systems by utilizing the property that the solutions of hyperbolic conservation laws are not reversible in time in the vicinity of shocks. The proposed approach does not require any additional governing equations or a priori knowledge of the hyperbolic system in question, is independent of the mesh and approximation order, and requires the use of only one tunable parameter. The primary novelty is that the resulting artificial viscosity is unique for each component of the conservation law which is advantageous for systems in which some components exhibit discontinuities while others do not. The efficacy of the method is shown in numerical experiments of multi-dimensional hyperbolic conservation laws such as nonlinear transport, Euler equations, and ideal magnetohydrodynamics using a high-order discontinuous spectral element method on unstructured grids.

Positivity-preserving entropy-based adaptive filtering for discontinuous spectral element methods

In this work, we present a positivity-preserving entropy-based adaptive filtering method for shock capturing in discontinuous spectral element methods. By adapting the filter strength to enforce positivity and a local discrete minimum entropy principle, the resulting approach can robustly resolve strong discontinuities with sub-element resolution, does not require problem-dependent parameter tuning, and can be easily implemented on general unstructured meshes with relatively low computational cost. The efficacy of the approach is shown in numerical experiments on hyperbolic and mixed hyperbolic-parabolic conservation laws such as the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations for problems including extreme shocks, shock-vortex interactions, and complex compressible turbulent flows.

A Conservative and Energy Stable Discontinuous Spectral Element Method for the Shifted Wave Equation in Second Order Form

In this paper, we develop a provably energy stable and conservative discontinuous spectral element method for the shifted wave equation in second order form. The proposed method combines the advantages and central ideas of the following very successful numerical techniques: the summation-by-parts finite difference method, the spectral method, and the discontinuous Galerkin method. We prove energy stability and the discrete conservation principle and derive error estimates in the energy norm for the (1+1)-dimensions shifted wave equation in second order form. The energy-stability results, discrete conservation principle, and the error estimates generalize to multiple dimensions using tensor products of quadrilateral and hexahedral elements. Numerical experiments, in (1+1)-dimensions and (2+1)-dimensions, verify the theoretical results and demonstrate optimal convergence of $L^2$ numerical errors at subsonic, sonic and supersonic regimes.

Fully-Discrete Spatial Eigenanalysis of Discontinuous Spectral Element Methods: Insights into Well-Resolved and Under-Resolved Vortical Flows

This study presents a comprehensive spatial eigenanalysis of fully-discrete discontinuous spectral element methods, now generalizing previous spatial eigenanalysis that did not include time integration errors. The influence of discrete time integration is discussed in detail for different explicit Runge-Kutta (1st to 4th order accurate) schemes combined with either Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) or Spectral Difference (SD) methods, both here recovered from the Flux Reconstruction (FR) scheme. Selected numerical experiments using the improved SD method by Liang and Jameson [1] are performed to quantify the influence of time integration errors on actual simulations. These involve test cases of varied complexity, from one-dimensional linear advection equation studies to well-resolved and under-resolved inviscid vortical flows. It is shown that, while both well-resolved and under-resolved simulations of linear problems correlate well with the eigenanalysis prediction of time integration errors, the correlation can be much worse for under-resolved nonlinear problems. The effect of mesh regularity is also considered, where time integration errors are found to be, in the case of irregular grids, less pronounced than those of the spatial discretisation. In fact, for the under-resolved vortical flows considered, the predominance of spatial errors made it practically impossible for time integration errors to be distinctly identified. Nevertheless, for well-resolved nonlinear simulations, the effect of time integration errors could still be recognized. This highlights that the interaction between space and time discretisation errors is more complex than otherwise anticipated, contributing to the current understanding about when eigenanalysis can effectively predict the behaviour of numerical errors in practical under-resolved nonlinear problems, including under-resolved turbulence computations.

Oscillation-free nodal discontinuous spectral element method for the simulation of compressible multicomponent flows

The nodal discontinuous spectral element method (DSEM) is improved to avoid pressure and velocity oscillations from material interfaces in the solution of multi-component compressible flows. A novel double flux method compatible with the DSEM scheme is developed to account for variations in the specific heats ratio at material interfaces. The double flux method consists of a modified Harten-Lax-van Leer-Contact (HLLC) Riemann solver and an averaging technique to freeze the temperature-dependent specific heats ratio during the solution update to remove oscillations. The double flux model is combined with a conservative method of calculating the convective flux function to avoid unnecessary energy conservation error at shock fronts. Numerical diffusion terms are also introduced for capturing a shock wave, contact discontinuity, and material interface, without inducing oscillations at the material interface. A series of one- and two-dimensional tests are conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the numerical scheme in capturing sharp discontinuities, as well as vortices, without introducing significant conservation error. According to the benchmark results, the new approach maintains the pressure, velocity, and temperature equilibriums across material interfaces. Artificial diffusion is added to the equation in a controlled manner that enables a higher Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) number for high polynomial orders. The present scheme's performance is validated by comparing the spatiotemporal evolution of characteristic points in the shock-bubble interaction and Richtmyer-Meshokov's instability problems.

Assessment of turbulence models using DNS data of compressible plane free shear layer flow

The present paper uses the detailed flow data produced by direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a three-dimensional, spatially developing plane free shear layer to assess several commonly used turbulence models in compressible flows. The free shear layer is generated by two parallel streams separated by a splitter plate, with a naturally developing inflow condition. The DNS is conducted using a high-order discontinuous spectral element method (DSEM) for various convective Mach numbers. The DNS results are employed to provide insights into turbulence modelling. The analyses show that with the knowledge of the Reynolds velocity fluctuations and averages, the considered strong Reynolds analogy models can accurately predict temperature fluctuations and Favre velocity averages, while the extended strong Reynolds analogy models can correctly estimate the Favre velocity fluctuations and the Favre shear stress. The pressure–dilatation correlation and dilatational dissipation models overestimate the corresponding DNS results, especially with high compressibility. The pressure–strain correlation models perform excellently for most pressure–strain correlation components, while the compressibility modification model gives poor predictions. The results of an a priori test for subgrid-scale (SGS) models are also reported. The scale similarity and gradient models, which are non-eddy viscosity models, can accurately reproduce SGS stresses in terms of structure and magnitude. The dynamic Smagorinsky model, an eddy viscosity model but based on the scale similarity concept, shows acceptable correlation coefficients between the DNS and modelled SGS stresses. Finally, the Smagorinsky model, a purely dissipative model, yields low correlation coefficients and unacceptable accumulated errors.

Optimized Runge-Kutta Methods with Automatic Step Size Control for Compressible Computational Fluid Dynamics

We develop error-control based time integration algorithms for compressible fluid dynamics (CFD) applications and show that they are efficient and robust in both the accuracy-limited and stability-limited regime. Focusing on discontinuous spectral element semidiscretizations, we design new controllers for existing methods and for some new embedded Runge-Kutta pairs. We demonstrate the importance of choosing adequate controller parameters and provide a means to obtain these in practice. We compare a wide range of error-control-based methods, along with the common approach in which step size control is based on the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) number. The optimized methods give improved performance and naturally adopt a step size close to the maximum stable CFL number at loose tolerances, while additionally providing control of the temporal error at tighter tolerances. The numerical examples include challenging industrial CFD applications.

A high-order semi-Lagrangian method for the consistent Monte-Carlo solution of stochastic Lagrangian drift–diffusion models coupled with Eulerian discontinuous spectral element method

The explicit semi-Lagrangian method for solution of Lagrangian transport equations as developed in Natarajan and Jacobs (2020) is adopted for the solution of stochastic differential equations that is consistent with Discontinuous Spectral Element Method (DSEM) approximations of Eulerian conservation laws. The method extends the favorable properties of DSEM that include its high-order accuracy, its local and boundary fitted properties and its high performance on parallel platforms for the concurrent Monte-Carlo, semi-Lagrangian and Eulerian solution of a class of time-dependent problems that can be described by coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian formulations. Such formulations include the probabilistic models used for the simulation of chemically reacting turbulent flows or particle-laden flows. Consistent with an explicit, DSEM discretization, the semi-Lagrangian method seeds particles at Gauss quadrature collocation nodes within a spectral element. The particles are integrated explicitly in time according to a drift velocity and a Wiener increment forcing and form the nodal basis for an advected interpolant. This interpolant is mapped back in a semi-Lagrangian fashion to the Gauss quadrature points through a least squares fit using constraints for element boundary values. Stochastic Monte-Carlo samples are averaged element-wise on the quadrature nodes. The stable explicit time step Wiener increment is sufficiently small to prevent particles from leaving the element’s bounds. The semi-Lagrangian method is hence local and parallel and does not have the grid complexity, and parallelization challenges of the commonly used Lagrangian particle solvers in particle-mesh methods for solution of Eulerian–Lagrangian formulations. Formal proof is presented that the semi-Lagrangian algorithm evolves the solution according to the Eulerian Fokker–Planck equation. Numerical tests in one and two dimensions for drift–diffusion problems show that the method converges exponentially for constant and non-constant advection and diffusion velocities.

Accuracy, stability, and performance comparison between the spectral difference and flux reconstruction schemes

We report the development of a discontinuous spectral element flow solver that includes the implementation of both spectral difference and flux reconstruction formulations. With this high order framework, we have constructed a foundation upon which to provide a fair and accurate assessment of these two schemes in terms of accuracy, stability, and performance with special attention to the true spectral difference scheme and the modified spectral difference scheme recovered via the flux reconstruction formulation. Building on previous analysis of the spectral difference and flux reconstruction schemes, we provide a novel nonlinear stability analysis of the spectral difference scheme. Through various numerical experiments, we demonstrate the additional stability afforded by the true, baseline spectral difference scheme without explicit filtering or de-aliasing due to its inherent feature of staggered flux points. This arrangement leads to favorable suppression of aliasing errors and improves stability needed for under-resolved simulations of turbulent flows.

Flux reconstruction using Jacobi correction functions in discontinuous spectral element method

A flux reconstruction approach is implemented in the spectral difference (SD) framework, which we refer to it as discontinuous spectral element method (DSEM), to improve the accuracy and stability of numerical simulations. A new class of correction functions is developed based on a weighted orthogonality condition, which leads to the introduction of Jacobi correction functions. Jacobi correction functions can construct the well-known DSEM and staggered-grid version of nodal discontinuous Galerkin spectral element method (DGSEM) as well as a broad range of other high-order numerical schemes with a variety of numerical characteristics, such as high numerical dissipation to suppress aliasing-driven errors, super accuracy, and solution boundedness in shock prediction. Three single-parameter families of Jacobi correction functions are recognized, and a von Neumann analysis is performed to acquire their wave propagation properties. The order of accuracy and stability criterion of a broad range of schemes are calculated, and the most super-accurate and stable numerical schemes are identified and later validated through a set of numerical experiments on a one-dimensional advection equation. The solution unboundedness issue of the high-order DSEM scheme is discussed through simulating the Burgers equation. An accuracy test performed on the Burgers equation revealed that the new staggered-grid flux reconstruction approach could acquire a higher accuracy than that of the energy stable flux reconstruction framework on a collocated grid. The two-dimensional extension of the new framework is also examined by simulation of a non-linear Euler system of equations for the isentropic vortex in free-stream flow. The staggered-grid flux reconstruction using the Jacobi correction function can precisely reconstruct the DSEM approach for non-linear two-dimensional hyperbolic equations for all polynomial orders.

Compressibility effects on energy exchange mechanisms in a spatially developing plane free shear layer

Abstract

An explicit semi-Lagrangian, spectral method for solution of Lagrangian transport equations in Eulerian-Lagrangian formulations

An explicit high-order semi-Lagrangian method is developed for the solution of Lagrangian transport equations in Eulerian-Lagrangian formulations. The method is consistent with an explicit, discontinuous spectral element method (DSEM) discretization of the Eulerian formulation. The semi-Lagrangian method seeds particles at Gauss quadrature collocation nodes within a spectral element. The particles are integrated explicitly in time and form the nodal basis for an advected interpolant. This interpolant is mapped back in a semi-Lagrangian fashion to the Gauss quadrature points through a least squares fit using constraints for element boundary values and optional constraints for mass and energy preservation. The stable explicit time step of the DSEM solver is sufficiently small to prevent particles seeded at the Gauss quadrature points from leaving the element’s bounds. The semi-Lagrangian method is hence local and parallel and does not have the grid complexity, and parallelization challenges of the commonly used Lagrangian particle solvers in particle-mesh methods for solution of Eulerian-Lagrangian formulations. Numerical tests in one and two dimensions for linear and non-linear advection show that the method converges exponentially. The use of mass and energy constraints can improve accuracy depending on the order of accuracy of the time integrator.

A hybrid discontinuous spectral element method and filtered mass density function solver for turbulent reacting flows

We present a novel hybrid scheme for the large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent reacting flows. The scheme couples the discontinuous spectral element method (DSEM) solver for the unsteady compressible Navier-Stokes equations with a Monte Carlo particle filtered mass density function (FMDF) solver for the transport of reacting species. The method is capable of high-order simulations on unstructured grids. Mean particle estimate construction mimics the DSEM numerical procedure and utilizes variable basis functions. The scheme is tested on non-reacting and reacting Taylor-Green vortex flows. Studies of varying polynomial order, different basis functions for constructing particle estimates, and varying particle quantities are conducted. We demonstrate that a tent kernel, in conjunction with high polynomial order, produces the most accurate results. The chemically reacting simulations validate the hybrid scheme and demonstrate its applicability across a range of reaction regimes. The hybrid scheme's computational cost is 2.1 times the DSEM-LES solver.