Fractional Step Method Research Articles

On the boundary conditions for GFMxP high-order schemes on staggered grids in the simulation of incompressible multiphase flows

The simulation of incompressible multiphase flows through the so-called fractional step method needs to solve a variable coefficient Poisson equation for discontinuous functions. Recently, it has been shown how the solution of this equation may be found out through a novel coding of the Ghost Fluid Method (named GFMxP), by avoiding any fit to evaluate the interface position and providing, anyhow, a perfect sharp modeling of the same interface. Furthermore, the accuracy order of the numerical solutions exactly corresponds to the order of the adopted finite difference scheme. The effectiveness and reliability of the new procedure were successfully checked by a lot of tests. However, the a-priori knowledge of the unknown function allowed to elude a fundamental aspect of the numerical approach: the appropriate encoding of the boundary conditions. This topic has often been debated in the past, especially from a theoretical viewpoint, and still represents a rather thorny point in the whole simulation process. The paper shows how to handle the problem in practice and in the context of the GFMxP approach, i.e. by accounting for the presence of the discontinuity and the possible use of high-order solving schemes on a staggered grid.

A fractional time-stepping method for unsteady thermal convection in non-Newtonian fluids

We propose a fractional-step method for the numerical solution of unsteady thermal convection in non-Newtonian fluids with temperature-dependent physical parameters. The proposed method is based on a viscosity-splitting approach, and it consists of four uncoupled steps where the convection and diffusion terms of both velocity and temperature solutions are uncoupled while a viscosity term is kept in the correction step at all times. This fractional-step method maintains the same boundary conditions imposed in the original problem for the corrected velocity solution, and it eliminates all inconsistencies related to boundary conditions for the treatment of the pressure solution. In addition, the method is unconditionally stable, and it allows the temperature to be transported by a non-divergence-free velocity field. In this case, we introduce a methodology to handle the subtle temperature convection term in the error analysis and establish full first-order error estimates for the velocity and the temperature solutions and 1/2-order estimates for the pressure solution in their appropriate norms. Three numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the theoretical results and examine the performance of the proposed method for solving unsteady thermal convection in non-Newtonian fluids. The computational results obtained for the considered examples confirm the convergence, accuracy, and applicability of the proposed time fractional-step method for unsteady thermal convection in non-Newtonian fluids.

Numerical and Experimental Study on the Nonlinear Liquid Sloshing in Cassini Tank

Liquid sloshing within propellant tanks of space vehicles has been a major concern in aerospace engineering. The aim of the work in this paper is to develop a flexible computational framework with high precision to simulate three-dimensional large-amplitude liquid sloshing in Cassini tanks. The finite element method is adopted to solve the fluid equations of motion in an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) framework, where the characteristic-based split method is combined with a fractional step method for solving the control equations in which the ALE kinematic description is incorporated to track the free liquid surface flexibly and effectively for large-amplitude liquid sloshing in Cassini tanks. In addition, an experimental platform is set up to verify the reliability and effectiveness of the presented method. The numerical results obtained from computer programming by using the ALE finite element method proposed in this paper are compared with the experimental results, proving the model to be successful. The nonlinear phenomena of large-amplitude liquid sloshing, especially rotary sloshing (steady-state swirling and non-steady-state swirling), in Cassini tanks under horizontal harmonic excitation are investigated by both the ground physical experiments and numerical simulations.

A time viscosity-splitting method for incompressible flows with temperature-dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity

A fractional-step method is proposed and analyzed for solving the incompressible thermal Navier–Stokes equations coupled to the convection–conduction equation for heat transfer with a generalized source term for which the viscosity and thermal conductivity are temperature-dependent under the Boussinesq assumption. The proposed method consists of four steps all based on a viscosity-splitting algorithm where the convection and diffusion terms of both velocity and temperature solutions are separated while a viscosity term is kept in the correction step at all times. This procedure preserves the original boundary conditions on the corrected velocity and it removes any pressure inconsistencies. As a main feature, our method allows the temperature to be transported by a non-divergence-free velocity, in which case we show how to handle the subtle temperature convection term in the error analysis and establish full first-order error estimates for the velocity and the temperature solutions and 1/2-order estimates for the pressure solution in their appropriate norms. The theoretical results are examined by an accuracy test example with known analytical solution and using a benchmark problem of Rayleigh–Bénard convection with temperature-dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity. We also apply the method for solving a problem of unsteady flow over a heated airfoil. The obtained results demonstrate the convergence, accuracy and applicability of the proposed time viscosity-splitting method.

A pressure-projection pre-conditioning multi-fractional-step method for Navier–Stokes Flow in Porous Media

A new pressure-projection pre-conditioning multi-fractional-step (PPP-MFS) method for incompressible Navier–Stokes flow in porous media is presented. This fractional step method is applied to decouple the pressure and the velocity; thereby, overcoming the computational costs and difficulty associated with the resolution of the nonlinear term in the Navier–Stokes equation for fine geometric models. Specifically, time evolution is decomposed into a sequence of multi-fractional solution steps. In the first step, an elliptic problem is solved for pressure (p) with a no-slip boundary condition. This gives the Stokes pressure and velocity fields. In the second step, the obtained pressure p is then projected onto the field p∗ and used to solve for velocity field (u) required for the pre-conditioning of the solution to the Navier–Stokes equation. The pressure and velocity fields are obtained from the solution of the Navier–Stokes equation in the third step. Numerical and geometric discretisation of porous samples were carried out using finite-element method. For flow in simple channel models represented by two- and three-dimensions and in systems with high conductivity, the Stokes and Navier–Stokes numerical solutions produced close pressure and velocity field approximations. For flow around a cylinder, computation time is consistently higher in the Navier–Stokes equation by a factor of 2 with a pronounced non-symmetric pressure field at high mesh refinements. This computation time is desirable given that Navier–Stokes computation without preconditioning can be orders of magnitude more expensive.

Pressure boundary conditions for immersed-boundary methods

Immersed boundary methods have seen an enormous increase in popularity over the past two decades, especially for problems involving complex moving/deforming boundaries. In most cases, the boundary conditions on the immersed body are enforced via forcing functions in the momentum equations, which in the case of fractional step methods may be problematic due to: i) creation of slip-errors resulting from the lack of explicitly enforcing boundary conditions on the (pseudo-)pressure on the immersed body; ii) coupling of the solution in the fluid and solid domains via the Poisson equation. Examples of fractional-step formulations that simultaneously enforce velocity and pressure boundary conditions have also been developed, but in most cases the standard Poisson equation is replaced by a more complex system which requires expensive iterative solvers. In this work we propose a new formulation to enforce appropriate boundary conditions on the pseudo-pressure as part of a fractional-step approach. The overall treatment is inspired by the ghost-fluid method typically utilized in two-phase flows. The main advantage of the algorithm is that a standard Poisson equation is solved, with all the modifications needed to enforce the boundary conditions being incorporated within the right-hand side. As a result, fast solvers based on trigonometric transformations can be utilized. We demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the formulation for a series of problems with increasing complexity.

Numerical modelling of continuous casting of round billets with turbulence in the melt

The present work aims to solve the continuous casting benchmark problem in axisymmetry with turbulence in the melt by the meshless method. The physical model of the liquid-solid system that involves mass, momentum and energy conservation is formulated in the mixture continuum approximation. The melt is assumed Newtonian and incompressible. A k-epsilon Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes turbulence model is implemented with Abe-Kondoh-Nagano closures. The mushy region is modelled as a Darcy porous media with the Kozeny-Carman permeability model. The solution of partial differential equations is implemented locally using collocation with radial basis functions and explicit time-stepping. The velocity pressure coupling is performed using the fractional step method. The validation of the model is assessed by comparing its outcomes with the results of the finite volume method. A sensitivity study of the varying casting speed and temperature on the velocity, temperature, and solid fraction fields is shown.

DNS of Marangoni effects on a suspension of droplets in microgravity using the unstructured conservative level-set method

The multi-marker unstructured conservative level-set (UCLS) method for two-phase flow with variable surface tension is used for the Direct Numerical Simulation of thermocapillary-driven motion of a bi-dispersed suspension of droplets in microgravity. The so-called Marangoni stresses induced by surface tension gradients on the interface lead to a coupling of the momentum transport equation and the thermal energy transport equation. The finite-volume method discretizes the transport equations on three-dimensional collocated unstructured meshes. The UCLS method performs interface capturing with mass conservation of the fluid phases, whereas the multiple marker approach circumvents the numerical coalescence of fluid particles. The fractional-step projection method solves the pressure-velocity coupling. Unstructured flux-limiters schemes discretize the convective term in transport equations. Numerical and physical findings are reported.

Unstructured Conservative Level-Set (UCLS) method for reactive mass transfer in bubble swarms at high density ratio

This research presents a parallel Unstructured Conservative Level-Set (UCLS) method for reactive mass transfer in bubbles with a high-density ratio. This method uses the multiple-marker UCLS approach to circumvent the numerical coalescence of bubbles, combined with the finite-volume method to discretize transport equations on 3D collocated unstructured meshes. The fractional-step projection method solves the pressure-velocity coupling. The central difference scheme discretizes the diffusive term, whereas convective term within the momentum transport equation, level-set advection equations, and mass transfer equation are discretized by unstructured flux-limiters schemes. Such a combination of numerical techniques preserves the numerical stability in bubbly flows with a high Reynolds number and high-density ratio. Numerical and physical findings on the effect of physical properties ratios on the reactive mass transfer are reported, including their effect on the Reynolds number, interfacial area and Sherwood number.

Graphics processing unit (GPU)-enhanced nonhydrostatic model with grid nesting for global tsunami propagation and coastal inundation

Nonhydrostatic models have proven their superiority in describing tsunami propagation over trans-oceanic distances and nearshore transformation because of their good dispersion and nonlinearity properties. The novel one-layer nonhydrostatic formulations proposed by Wang et al. [Phys. Fluids 35, 076610 (2023)] have been rederived in the spherical coordinate system incorporating Coriolis effects to enable the application of basin-wide tsunami propagation. The model was implemented using the fractional step method, where the hydrostatic step was solved by a Godunov-type finite-volume scheme, and the nonhydrostatic step was obtained with the finite-difference method. Additionally, a two-way grid-nesting scheme was employed to adapt the topographic features for efficient computation of tsunami propagation in deep ocean and coastal inundation. Furthermore, graphics processing unit (GPU)-parallelism technique was incorporated to further optimize the model performance. An idealized benchmark test as well as three experiments of regular and irregular waves, solitary, and N-waves transformations have been simulated to demonstrate the superior performance of the current GPU-accelerated grid-nesting nonhydrostatic model. Finally, the model has been applied to reproduce the 1964 Prince William Sound Tsunami, its propagation across the North Pacific and induced inundation in the Seaside.

A novel stabilized nodal integration formulation using particle finite element method for incompressible flow analysis

AbstractIn simulations using the particle finite element method (PFEM) with node‐based strain smoothing technique (NS‐PFEM) to simulate the incompressible flow, spatial and temporal instabilities have been identified as crucial problems. Accordingly, this study presents a stabilized NS‐PFEM‐FIC formulation to simulate an incompressible fluid with free‐surface flow. In the proposed approach, (1) stabilization is achieved by implementing the gradient strain field in place of the constant strain field over the smoothing domains, handling spatial and temporal instabilities in direct nodal integration; (2) the finite increment calculus (FIC) stabilization terms are added using nodal integration, and a three‐step fractional step method is adopted to update pressures and velocities; and (3) a novel slip boundary with the predictor–corrector algorithm is developed to deal with the interaction between the free‐surface flow with rigid walls, avoiding the pressure concentration induced by standard no‐slip condition. The proposed stabilized NS‐PFEM‐FIC is validated via several classical numerical cases (hydrostatic test, water jet impinging, water dam break, and water dam break on a rigid obstacle). Comparisons of all simulations to the experimental results and other numerical solutions reveal good agreement, demonstrating the strong ability of the proposed stabilized NS‐PFEM‐FIC to solve incompressible free‐surface flow with high accuracy and promising application prospects.

Heat transfer analysis in particle-laden flows using the immersed boundary method

This paper investigates an efficient immersed boundary method (IBM) for multiple-core CPU machines with local grid refinement for the calculation of heat transfer between fluids and finite-sized particles. The fluid momentum equations are solved by using the fractional step method, while the energy equation is solved by employing the second-order Adams-Bashforth method. For efficient load balancing between the CPU cores, the coupling between particles and fluid is obtained by applying the body force in the fluid equations, which depends on the solid volume fraction of particles contained in each grid cell, and then by linearly interpolating the particle temperature and velocity on the fluid grid cell (in place of the delta function commonly used in literature). Several test cases from the literature are studied, and good agreement is observed between the simulation results and the literature. Finally, a scaling study on multiple core machines is performed, demonstrating the proposed IBM's capabilities for a significant reduction in processing time.

Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian finite volume IMEX schemes for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on evolving Chimera meshes

In this article we design a finite volume semi-implicit IMEX scheme for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on evolving Chimera meshes. We employ a time discretization technique that separates explicit and implicit terms, accommodating the multi-scale nature of the governing equations, which involve both time scales of diffusion and advection operators. The finite volume approach for both explicit and implicit terms allows to encode into the nonlinear flux the velocity of displacement of the Chimera mesh via integration on moving cells. The numerical solution is then projected onto the physically meaningful solution manifold of non-solenoidal fields that stems from the energy equation. To attain second-order time accuracy, we employ semi-implicit IMEX Runge-Kutta schemes. These novel schemes are combined with a fractional-step method, thus the governing equations are eventually solved using a projection method to satisfy the divergence-free constraint of the velocity field. The implicit discretization of the viscous terms allows the CFL-type stability condition for the maximum admissible time step to be only defined by the relative fluid velocity referred to the movement of the frame and not depending on the viscous terms. Communication between different grid blocks is enabled through compact exchange of information from the fringe cells of one mesh block to the field cells of the other block. The continuity of the solution is recovered in one-shot during the solution of the arising algebraic systems by not involving neither direct discretization of the differential operators on fringe cells nor an iterative Schwartz-type method. Free-stream preservation property, i.e. compliance with the Geometric Conservation Law (GCL), is respected at the order of the scheme. The accuracy and capabilities of the new numerical schemes are proved through an extensive range of test cases, demonstrating ability to solve relevant benchmarks in the field of incompressible fluids.

Numerical solution of ionization equations using the fractional steps method

Numerical solution of ionization equations using the fractional steps method

A new ghost-cell/level-set method for three-dimensional flows

This study presents the implementation of a tailored ghost cell method in Hydro3D, an open-source large eddy simulation (LES) code for computational fluid dynamics based on the finite difference method. The former model for studying the interaction between an immersed object and the fluid flow is the immersed boundary method (IBM) which has been validated for a wide range of Reynolds number flows. However, it is challenging to ensure no-slip and zero gradient boundary conditions on the surface of an immersed body. In order to deal with this, a new sharp-interface ghost-cell method (GCM) is developed for Hydro3D. The code also employs a level-set method to capture the motion of the air-water interface and solves the spatially filtered Navier-Stokes equations in a Cartesian staggered grid with the fractional step method. Both the new GCM and IBM are compared in a single numerical framework. They are applied to simulate benchmark cases in order to validate the numerical results, which mainly comprise single-phase flow over infinite circular and square cylinders for low- and high-Reynolds number flows along with two-phase dam-break flows with a vertical cylinder, in which a good agreement is obtained with other numerical studies and laboratory experiments.

Numerical simulation of biomagnetic pulsatile flow through a channel

The study of biological fluids in the presence of a magnetic field is known as biomagnetic fluid dynamics (BFD). The research work in BFD has been rapidly growing due to its applications in developing magnetic devices used for cell separation, targeted drug delivery and cancer tumor treatment. This study aims to examine the biomagnetic fluid flow with pulsatile conditions through a channel when subjected to a magnetic field that varies in space. The nondimensional continuity and momentum equations are solved with the effect of the magnetic field added as a body force. A two-dimensional computational model is developed using the finite volume method and is implemented on a staggered grid system with the help of the semi-implicit fractional step method. The code is written using MATLAB. Numerical simulations are performed by varying the Magnetic, Reynolds and Womersley numbers. Pulsatile flow results indicate the periodic growth and decay of vortices near the source of the magnetic field. With an increase in the magnetic number from 100 to 150, 250 and 500, the maximum vorticity increases by 48.04%, 149.84% and 402.68%. A similar relation is found when varying the Reynolds number, while almost no change is found when varying the Womersley number.

Hyperbolic modeling of gradient damage and one-dimensional finite volume simulations

This study provides a new formulation of gradient damage model which allows an efficient explicit numerical solution of dynamics problems. The proposed methodology is based on an ”extended Lagrangian approach” developed by one of the authors for the nondissipative and dispersive shallow water equation. By using this strategy, the global minimization problem commonly derived for gradient damage models is recast as a purely local hyperbolic one with source terms that can be easily solved using finite volumes. The numerical solution of the governing system is then based on a fractional-step method consisting of a classical Godunov-type scheme and an implicit Ordinary Differential Equation solver for the local source terms. Numerical results are presented on one-dimensional multi-fragmentation and spalling tests for illustration purpose.

Implicit-Explicit Time Discretization for Oseen’s Equation at High Reynolds Number with Application to Fractional Step Methods

Implicit-Explicit Time Discretization for Oseen’s Equation at High Reynolds Number with Application to Fractional Step Methods

Stabilized mixed material point method for incompressible fluid flow analysis

This paper proposes novel and robust stabilization strategies for accurately modeling incompressible fluid flow problems in the material point method (MPM). To address the modeling of Newtonian fluids with incompressibility constraints, a new mixed implicit MPM formulation is proposed. Here, instead of solving the velocity and pressure fields as the unknown variables like the typical Eulerian computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver, the proposed approach adopts a monolithic displacement–pressure formulation inspired by the mixed-form updated-Lagrangian Finite Element Method (FEM). To satisfy the inf–sup stability condition, two stabilization strategies are integrated into the formulation: the variational multiscale method (VMS) and the pressure-stabilization Petrov–Galerkin method (PSPG). By concurrently solving the displacement and pressure fields, the developed monolithic solver obviates the need for free-surface detection as well as Dirichlet and Neumann pressure imposition, in contrast to the fractional-step method. This attribute mitigates spurious pressure and velocity oscillations in simulating dynamic and transient flow problems. This study also addresses other prevalent challenges in MPM simulations, such as the pressure oscillations triggered by cell-crossing errors, particle-distribution-induced quadrature errors, and particle-grid information transfer. To resolve these issues, the quadratic B-Spline basis function, the delta-correction method, and the Taylor particle-in-cell method are incorporated into the proposed mixed MPM formulation, thereby enhancing numerical stability. The efficacy of the proposed stabilized incompressible MPM framework is validated through several benchmark cases, comparing the obtained results with other numerical methods and analytical solutions. Furthermore, the method’s capability in simulating real-world problems involving violent free-surface fluid motion is demonstrated through comparisons with experimental results of water sloshing and dam break scenarios.

Error estimates for a viscosity-splitting scheme in time applied to non-Newtonian fluid flows

A time fractional-step method is presented for numerical solutions of the incompressible non-Newtonian fluids for which the viscosity is non-linear depending on the shear-rate magnitude according to a generic model. The method belongs to a class of viscosity-splitting procedures and it consists of separating the convection term and incompressibility constraint into two time steps. Unlike the conventional projection methods, the viscosity is not dropped in the last step allowing to enforce the full original boundary conditions on the end-of-step velocity which eliminates any concerns about the numerical boundary layers. We carry out a rigorous error analysis and provide a full first-order error estimate for both the velocity and pressure solutions in the relevant norms. Numerical results are presented for two test examples of non-Newtonian fluid flows to demonstrate the theoretical analysis and confirm the reliability of this viscosity-splitting scheme.