An Improved Unsteady, Unstructured Artificial Compressible Finite Volume Scheme For Viscous Incompressible Flows

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING
Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2002; 54:695714 (DOI: 10.1002/nme.447)

An improved unsteady, unstructured, articial compressibility,
nite volume scheme for viscous incompressible
ows: Part I. Theory and implementation
A. G. Malan
1
, R. W. Lewis
1, ,
and P. Nithiarasu
2
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park,
Swansea SA2 8PP, U.K.
2
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, U.K.
SUMMARY
A robust, articial compressibility scheme has been developed for modelling laminar steady state
and transient, incompressible ows over a wide range of Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers. Articial
compressibility is applied in a consistant manner resulting in a system of preconditioned governing
equations. A locally generalized preconditioner is introduced, designed to be robust and oer good
convergence rates. Free articial compressibility parameters in the equations are automated to allow
ease of use while facilitating improved or comparable convergence rates as compared with the standard
articial compressibility scheme. Memory eciency is achieved through a multistage, pseudo-time-
explicit time-marching solution procedure. A node-centred dual-cell edge-based nite volume discretiza-
tion technique, suitable for unstructured grids, is used due to its computational eciency and
high-resolution spatial accuracy. In the interest of computational eciency and ease of implementa-
tion, stabilization is achieved via a scalar-valued articial dissipation scheme. Temporal accuracy is
facilitated by employing a second-order accurate, dual-time-stepping method. In this part of the paper
the theory and implementation details are discussed. In Part II, the scheme will be applied to a number
of example problems to solve ows over a wide range of Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers. Copyright
? 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS: incompressible ow; unstructured; nite volume; articial compressibility; preconditioning
1. INTRODUCTION
Numerical simulation of incompressible uid ow is of great practical importance due to its
many industrial applications. These range from hydrodynamics and low-speed aerodynamics
to the natural and forced convection systems found in heat exchangers and electronic cooling
devices. The involved spectrum of ow regimes and wide range of length scales has resulted
Correspondence to: R. W. Lewis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton
Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, U.K.
E-mail: r.w.lewis@swansea.ac.uk
Received 12 June 2001
Copyright
?
2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Revised 4 September 2001
696 A. G. MALAN, R. W. LEWIS AND P. NITHIARASU
in the need for a general numerical tool which may be readily applied to simulate the
extensive range of ow conditions without prior ad hoc modications. Such a tool should
further oer spatial and temporal accuracy, eect memory eciency and be suitable for
massive parallelization typically required for industrial three-dimensional viscous uid ow
problems.
The two main approaches used in solving incompressible ow problems are the so-called
pressure-based (projection scheme) proposed by Patankar [1] and density-based (articial
compressibility) method introduced by Chorin [2]. Historically, the former was initially the
most extensively used while articial compressibility (AC) has only received comparable
research attention in recent years. This is in part due to the success achieved with transonic
ow time-marching schemes, which aided in bringing to the front the main advantages of the
AC method, viz: (a) memory eciency and suitability for application to massively parallel
environments and (b) mutual technology transfer with compressible time-marching systems.
The concept of Chorins [2] AC scheme hinges on the introduction of an articial relation
between pressure and density through the addition of a pseudo-time pressure derivative term
to the continuity equation. A number of recent publications, viz. Belov et al. [3], Manzari [4],
Drikakis et al. [5] and Zhao and Zhang [6], demonstrate the application of the scheme in
this form (hereafter referred to as the standard scheme). The standard scheme, however,
exhibits a number of deciencies. Tamamidis et al. [7] and Ferziger and Peric [8] have, for
example, indicated that the choice of the AC parameter has a signicant eect on stability
and convergence, while its choice requires considerable experience and intuition on behalf
of the user [9]. Further, most of the methods found in the literature are applied to solve
incompressible ows only over a narrow band of Reynolds numbers, being either medium
range or highly convective. Schemes applied to low Reynolds number ows often suer
either from a deterioration in accuracy [4] or slow convergence rates [6].
As mentioned above, the choice of the free AC parameter (pseudo-acoustic velocity) plays
an important role in the convergence and stability of the scheme. To avoid the need for
numerical experimentation and ensure general applicability, this parameter needs to be
automated at each computational cell in the domain. Consideration must be given to local
convective velocities [10] as well as diusion velocities as pointed out by Choi and Merkle
[11]. The way in which these aspects are addressed should be appropriate to the preconditioning
parameter used and, in our experience in the case of pseudo-explicit schemes, the type of
stabilization used.
The standard scheme eectively only treats the transient term in the continuity equation.
An alternative is to apply the concept of AC to all transient terms in the governing
equations in a more consistent manner resulting in a local preconditioned system. The latter
was rst documented by Turkel [10] and shown to exhibit dierent numerical characteris-
tics to that of the standard method. Weiss and Smith [12] have, for example, demonstrated
a signicant enhancement in convergence rates in certain cases. Turkel also introduced a
preconditioning parameter which results in isotropic error waves, further improving conver-
gence. A drawback of this preconditioning parameter is, however, that it results in a less robust
system as compared with the standard scheme as documented by Turkel [13] and Michelassi
et al. [14].
On the subject of discretization, the pseudo-temporal component should be of a form to
exploit the advantages of the AC scheme. This is facilitated through the use of an explicit
Copyright ? 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2002; 54:695714
VISCOUS INCOMPRESSIBLE FLOWS: PART I. THEORY AND IMPLEMENTATION 697
pseudo-time-marching method. Given an apt choice for the AC parameter, the resulting system
of equations can readily be solved in pseudo-time [2, 15]. Spatial discretization should be
applicable to unstructured and solution-adapted grids. Lewis et al. [16] and Nithiarasu and
Zienkiewicz [17] have indicated the latter to be of importance and show adapted grids to
be potentially both accurate and computationally ecient. The vertex-centred dual-cell edge-
based nite volume scheme is a relatively recently developed unstructured spatial discretization
method which oers accuracy, computational eciency and requires less memory than cell-
based counterparts on unstructured grids [18]. The method has to date not been applied to an
AC pseudo-explicit scheme.
The addition of stabilization terms is necessitated by the collective nature of the spa-
tial and pseudo-temporal discretization described above. Lin and Sotiropoulos [19] inves-
tigated the suitability of a number of articial dissipation techniques for this purpose. Of
these, the scalar dissipation model introduced by Jameson et al. [20] oers a balance be-
tween accuracy, simplicity and computational eciency. Mavriplis [21] proposed a method
for its application to unstructured vertex-centred grids for compressible ow. This method
is yet to be applied to incompressible ow on a dual-cell vertex-based discretization
scheme.
For transient problems, many researchers employ a dual-time-stepping technique as used
by Shuen et al. [22]. This involves introducing a real-time outer loop to the above explicit
pseudo-time-stepping system in an implicit manner. The addition of the outer loop renders
pseudo-time temporal accuracy of no importance, and AC is implemented together with con-
vergence enhancement techniques such as local time-stepping, without detriment to real-time
temporal accuracy. Owing to its implicit nature, the scheme does not suer from the real-
time-step limitations of explicit counterparts, resulting in a signicant saving in computational
eort. Second-order temporal accuracy is further facilitated through the use of a second-order
backward dierence operator.
In summary, it is clear from the available literature that current pseudo-explicit AC schemes
have diculty in solving a wide range of incompressible ows. The vast majority are further
not straightforward to use and often require signicant insight and experience from the user.
Renements such as local preconditioning, may deteriorate robustness. No one scheme has
further, to the authors knowledge, been applied with success to a wide range of Rayleigh
and Reynolds numbers, ranging from purely viscous Stokes ow to high Reynolds number
convective ows. In this paper, we attempt to address these issues through the development
of an improved unsteady AC scheme.
First, a locally generalized preconditioner is introduced to eect enhanced convergence while
maintaining robustness. Second, it is endeavoured to automate free AC parameters in order
to facilitate optimal or near-optimal convergence as compared with the manually optimized
standard scheme. Third, special treatment is given to the construction of articial dissipation
in the interest of consistency with preconditioning. Spatial discretization is performed using
a node-centred dual-cell edge-based nite volume scheme and a scalar-valued articial dissi-
pation operator proposed for compressible ow cell-centred schemes extended for use on the
vertex-based scheme.
In Part II of the paper, the developed scheme is applied to a number of benchmark problems
to solve ow over a wide range of Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers. In all cases convergence
comparisons are made with the standard AC scheme.
2. GOVERNING EQUATIONS
The NavierStokes equation describing the non-isothermal laminar ow of a uid consists of
equations enforcing the principles of mass, momentum and energy conservation. Assuming a
Newtonian uid with negligible thermal viscous dissipation, the governing system of equations
may be written for a Cartesian co-ordinate system in non-dimensional conservative form as
cW
ct
+
cF
)
cx
)
cG
)
cx
)
=S (1)
where
W=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
j
ju
1
ju
2
ju
3
j1
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
, F
)
=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
ju
)
ju
1
u
)
ju
2
u
)
ju
3
u
)
j1u
)
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
, G
)
=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
0
o
1)
o
2)
o
3)
1
Re Pr
c1
cx
)
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
, S=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
0
0
0
j
Gr
Re
1
0
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
(2)
and j is the density; u
)
the velocity component in direction x
)
; the pressure and 1 the
temperature. Non-dimensional quantities are related to their dimensional counterparts (depicted
with superscript

) through the following relations:
t =t
0
}L
, u
)
=u
)
}J
0
, =
}j
0
J
2
0
, 1 =(1
0
)}(1
W
1
0
)
j =j
}j
0
, x
)
=x
)
}L
, j =j
}j
0
(3)
In Equation (1), S depicts a gravitational buoyancy force in direction x
2
. Here, the density
variation is interpolated by invoking the Boussinesq approximation. The Reynolds, Prandtl
and Grashof numbers are dened as
Re =
j
0
J
0
L
0
, Pr =
j
0
C
, Gr =
L
3
j
2
0
q([
1
1)
j
2
0
(4)
where J
0
and L
are respectively, the characteristic velocity and length used for non-
dimensionalization. j
0
, j
0
and k
are the density, molecular dynamic viscosity and ther-

mal conductivity, respectively. The reference temperature is given by 1
0
and C
depicts the
specic heat. [
1
and q are the coecients of thermal expansion and gravitational acceleration,
respectively.
The stress term o
ij
is dened as
o
ij
=
j
Re
_
cu
i
cx
)
+
cu
)
cx
i
2
3
cu
k
cx
k
o
ij
_
o
ij
(5)
where o
ij
is the Kronecker delta and is equal to unity when i =) and equal to zero when
i =).
3. IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTIFICIAL COMPRESSIBILITY
3.1. Introduction of articial compressibility
Equation (1) is numerically problematic when applied to incompressible ows. This is due to
the large disparity between the acoustic and convective velocities resulting in an extremely
sti system. Chorin [2] proposed a method for addressing this through the introduction of an
articial relation between density and pressure and christened the method articial compress-
ibility. The proposed method involved replacing the density in the time derivative term by
(1}[
2
) where (1}[
2
) is the articial compressibility. Having altered the acoustic velocity,
the time accuracy of the equation is destroyed and time t is replaced with pseudo-time t
t
.
In summary, AC in essence comprises altering the relation between density and pressure in
pseudo-time, viz. j=[((t
t
)). The concept may be implemented into the continuity equation
through the use of a dierential operator as follows:
cj
ct
t
=
cj
c
c
ct
t
Now, by applying the above dierential operator consistently to all transient terms in
Equation (1) similar to Weiss and Smith [12], and replacing t with t
t
we may write
cW
cQ
cQ
ct
t
+
cF
)
cx
)
cG
)
cx
)
=S (6)
where Q=(, u
1
, u
2
, u
3
, 1)
T
and
cW
cQ
=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
cj
c
0 0 0 0
cj
c
u
1
j 0 0 0
cj
c
u
2
0 j 0 0
cj
c
u
3
0 0 j 0
cj
c
1 0 0 0 j
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
(7)
The dependent variable Q is now similar to that solved for in the standard articial com-
pressibility approach and hold advantages such as elimination of the possibility for time
reversals in the viscous terms, as pointed out by Choi and Merkle [11].
To complete the introduction of AC, the term cj}c, which is equal to 1}c
2
for compressible
ows, is replaced by the pseudo-acoustic velocity counterpart, viz. 1}c
2
t
. c
t
(equivalent to [
used above) must be chosen for each problem and is also referred to as the free AC parameter.
3.2. Generalized preconditioning
Turkel [10] proposed a technique to generalize the preconditioning matrix by introducing
an arbitrary constant which facilitates switching between dierent types of preconditioners.
Introducing c
t
into Equation (7), and generalizing via the addition of two arbitrary constants
a
u
(proposed by Turkel) and a
1
we write
=
cW
cQ
t
=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
1}c
2
t
0 0 0 0
a
u
u
1
}c
2
t
j 0 0 0
a
u
u
2
}c
2
t
0 j 0 0
a
u
u
3
}c
2
t
0 0 j 0
a
1
1}c
2
t
0 0 0 j
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
(8)
where
a
1
=
_
0 if a
u
=0
1 if a
u
0
By setting a
u
=0, the standard scheme is recovered while a
u
=1 corresponds to the form
given above (Equation (7)). Turkel [10] proposes setting a
u
=2, which results in improved
convergence rates due to the condition number approaching unity. For this reason, others such
as Michelassi et al. [14] and Liu et al. [23] have used the preconditioner in this form. Turkel
[13] has, however, shown that setting a
u
=2, does deteriorate the robustness of the scheme
as compared with a
u
=0. In our experience (through numerical experimentation) this is also
less robust than setting a
u
=1. The preconditioner resulting from the three values for a
u
is
summarized as follows:
a
u
=0: Standard scheme. The scheme is more robust as compared with a
u
=2 but may
result in poorer convergence rates.
a
u
=1: Consistently introduced AC scheme.
Turkels preconditioner (a
u
=2): Results in improved convergence rates as compared
with the above. Through numerical experimentation it is, however, found to be the least
robust of the three.
The reason for the less robust nature of the preconditioner resulting in faster convergence
is not well understood, and, therefore, dicult to address. In the next section, we will forward
our view on this and propose a method for calculating a
u
locally at each pseudo-time step.
We will refer to this method as locally generalized preconditioning (LGP).
3.3. Locally generalized preconditioner (LGP)
In developing the LGP, we rst attempt to gain insight into why certain values for the
preconditioning parameter a
u
are more prone to instability in pseudo-time. To evaluate the
eect that the preconditioner has on the change in primitive variables at each pseudo-time
step, it is instructive to look at the inverted form of Equation (8)
1
=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
c
2
t
0 0 0 0
a
u
u
1
}j 1}j 0 0 0
a
u
u
2
}j 0 1}j 0 0
a
u
u
3
}j 0 0 1}j 0
a
1
1}j 0 0 0 1}j
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
(9)
What is evident is that a
u
serves to add spatial terms of the continuity equation to the
other (momentum and energy) equations. Oscillations in the continuity equation will thus
have a direct eect on the other equations possibly eecting stability. For a
u
=0 this eect
is cancelled while when a
u
=2 it is most pronounced. This is consistent with the observation
mentioned above.
As before we prefer large a
u
values (as close as possible to a
u
=2) in the interest of
convergence. This may, however, detrimentally eect the overall scheme stability, especially
when the computational domain contains regions with high primitive variable gradients. It is,
therefore, advisable to devise a method of establishing a
u
values locally.
It is proposed to utilize a pressure switch to gauge evolving gradients in pseudo-time at
each point in the domain. The logic behind this being that this would oer an indication of
both pressure gradients as well as local oscillation in the continuity equation in pseudo-time.
It is proposed that a pressure sensor, similar to the one used for transonic purposes [24],
be applied and the free preconditioning parameter a
u
scaled accordingly.
Dening the pressure sensor we write in one-dimensional space, where (x) is the pressure
at x =x
m
(point m in space)
A
m
= lim
xx
m
+
|(x
m
) (x)|
|(x
m
)| |(x)|
(10)
where
(x
m
) = lim
xx
m
(x) (x
m
)
x x
m
(11)
The preconditioning parameter a
u
is now set to a
u
=2(1 A
) which will vary from a

u
=2
in smooth regions to a
u
0 in regions containing large gradients. Implementing this into
Equation (8) we write
LGP
=
cW
cQ
t
LGP
=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
1}c
2
t
0 0 0 0
2(1 A
)u
1
}c
2
t
j 0 0 0
2(1 A
)u
2
}c
2
t
0 j 0 0
2(1 A
)u
3
}c
2
t
0 0 j 0
a
1
1}c
2
t
0 0 0 j
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
(12)
The choice of the pseudo-acoustic velocity is the remaining AC-related issue and is addressed
in the next subsection.
3.4. Automation of pseudo-acoustic velocities and time step calculations
As mentioned before, it is evident from the literature that the choice of the pseudo-acoustic
velocity is of importance as it eects the stability and convergence characteristics of the
scheme. In the interest of general applicability and ease of use, this parameter should ideally
be automated. A local treatment at each computational cell in the grid will be eected to
ensure applicability to problems containing ows with both diusion and convection dominated
regions.
The rst consideration is that the Mach number be kept below unity [2]. Next, in
calculating c
t
, a distinction is made between convective-dominated (high Reynolds numbers)
and diusion-dominated (low Reynolds number) ow regions. This is as the pseudo-acoustic
velocity c
t
will be scaled in a dierent manner in each case. For the purpose of discussion,
we designate the pseudo-acoustic velocity scaled in accordance with convective terms as c
t
conv
,
and those scaled in accordance with diusion velocities by c
t
di
.
3.4.1. Convection dominated ow. Considering rst high Reynolds number ows, Turkel [10]
has shown that, in the interest of convergence rate, the parameter c
t
conv
, in the inviscid limit,
should be kept as close as possible to the local convective velocity. This is implemented as
follows:
c
t
conv
=
_
c
t
conv
if |u|6c
c
t
conv
|u| if |u|c
c
t
conv
(13)
where |u| =
u
)
u
)
and c
c
t
conv
is typically set to 10
5
J
max
with J
max
being the maximum velocity
magnitude in the eld. c
c
t
conv
is dened in this manner to ensure that the pseudo-acoustic
velocities do not go to zero at stagnation points.
In the case of articial dissipation stabilized schemes, it is found by numerical experimen-
tation that very small values for c
t
conv
, however, result in instabilities in pseudo-time, eecting
convergence. As a rst attempt at addressing this issue, we postulate that the instabilities
are due to c
t
conv
being used to scale the dissipation terms (the stabilization scheme will be
discussed in a later section). This, together with a rst attempt at addressing this problem,
follows.
In the case of low Reynolds number ows, the large local diusion velocities ensure
adequately large values for the pseudo-acoustic (c
t
) velocity (to be discussed below) and
above-mentioned articial dissipation scaling problem is of no concern. At intermediate and
high Reynolds numbers this may not be the case. It may, therefore, be insightful to investigate
the relation between diusion velocities and Reynolds number by considering a hypothetical
case of laminar ow over a at plate of unit length at zero incidence.
Of importance in the at plate problem are the diusion velocities within the boundary layer
and how these reduce as the Reynolds number increases. This region is of importance as it,
as mentioned before, contains large velocity gradients thus requiring smoothing. Following,
we attempt to estimate the local diusion velocities within the boundary layer and how these
change with the Reynolds number.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1 10 100 1000 10000
K
i
n
e
m
a
t
i
c

V
i
s
c
o
u
s

V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
Log(Re)
x=0.1
x=0.5
x=0.8
Figure 1. Kinetic viscous velocity vs Reynolds number at distance x from leading edge.
Using the Blasius [25] solution, the 99 per cent boundary layer thickness, in non-dimensional
form as a function of Reynolds number and non-dimensional distance x
1
from the leading edge,
is calculated as follows:
o
99 per cent
=3.5
_
2x
1
Re
(14)
Using this, the kinetic viscous diusion velocity in the boundary layer may be calculated.
For the purpose of the calculation, we assume a grid with vertical edges orthogonal (in direc-
tion x
2
) to the plate with six equally spaced nodes through the cross-section of the boundary
layer o
99 per cent
=6x
2
. The diusion velocity is now given by
u
di

j
jx
1
Re,
(15)
where assuming that x
1
x
2
,
, =
x
1
x
2
x
1
+ x
2
x
2
By setting o
99 per cent
=6x
2
in Equation (14), rearranging and setting into Equation (15)
in terms of x
2
, we compute the diusion velocity as a function of the position from the
leading edge of the plate and the Reynolds number as follows:
u
di

1.212
x
1
Re
(16)
The variation of u
di
with the Reynolds number is shown graphically in Figure 1. u
di
clearly drops drastically with an increase in the Reynolds number, and at Re =1000 is up to
Figure 2. Convergence history for lid-driven cavity, Re=1000 for various values for c
c
t
conv
.
an order of magnitude smaller than the free stream velocity. As the convective velocities are
similarly small close to the plate, c
t
conv
is to be based on another quantity to avoid excessive
down-scaling of the articial dissipation in boundary layers and stagnation points. This may
be done through setting a minimum value i.e. a suitable value for c
c
t
conv
.
Values used by other researchers for c
c
t
conv
range from 0.3 [26] to 1.0 [12]. Although
robust, the latter value may result in large disparities between pseudo-acoustic and convective
velocities for medium range Reynolds numbers (O(1000)), thereby slowing down the conver-
gence rate. This is demonstrated in Figure 2 (L
2
is the average norm of the dierence in
the pressure variable between successive iterations, normalized to that of the rst iteration),
which shows the convergence for a lid-driven cavity problem (to be discussed in Part II) for
dierent values of c
c
t
conv
.
Setting a xed minimum value for c
c
t
conv
that is notably smaller than the free stream velocity
does not exhibit the above deciency but, however, may not be in the best interest of stability
at all Reynolds numbers. In Figure 3 it is seen that for a value of 0.3 convergence is not
achieved for the Re =5000 case. To ensure convergence, we propose as a rst attempt to
vary c
c
t
conv
with the Reynolds number as follows:
c
c
t
conv
=
_
Re}10000 J
max
Re6110
4
1.0 J
max
Re110
4
(17)
where the Reynolds number is representative of similar boundary layer length scales compared
to the at plate example. Note that in contrast to the work of Rizzi and Eriksson [26] the
minimum value for c
2
t
conv
extends above 0.3 to 1.0 at high Reynolds numbers. The latter is
Figure 3. Convergence history for lid-driven cavity, Re=5000 for various values for c
c
t
conv
.
consistent at high Reynolds numbers with Turkel [12] who proposed using a value of one at
Re =500 000.
3.4.2. Diusion-dominated ow. Low Reynolds number ow is generally diusion dominated.
As shown in Figure 1, the kinetic viscous diusion velocities typically increase with decrease
in Reynolds number to a value above the free stream velocity in regions where the Reynolds
numbers are of the order 10. The diusive and convective velocities in the boundary layer
will thus dier by orders of magnitude in certain regions. Pseudo-acoustic velocities computed
from Equation (13), being far smaller than the local diusive velocities, will, as pointed out
by Choi and Merkle [11], signicantly impair the rate of convergence. This is dealt with by
ensuring that the maximum convective and diusion time steps are of similar magnitude.
The convective time step is, as is typical, dened as
t
t
=
CFL,
z
max
(18)
CFL is the CourantFriedrichsLewy number and the length scale , is given by
, =
_
1
x
)
x
)
_
1
(19)
which is similar to that used in nite dierence electromagnetic wave propagation problems
[27] and analogous to the eective element size used in explicit nite element computational
uid dynamics calculations [28]. The parameter z
max
designates the maximum eigenvalue and
is given by
z
max
=
1
2
_
|u|(2 a
u
) +
_
|u|
2
(2 a
u
)
2
+ 4c
2
t
_
(20)
Choi and Merkle [11] dene the diusion time step t
di
as a function of the grid size and
diusion velocity u
di
. We, however, prefer, consistent with the Eulerian approach, to dene
t
di
as a function of the diusion velocity in addition as follows:
t
di
=,
_
u
di
o
vN
+|u|
_
1
(21)
where o
vN
is the von Neumann number and in general taken as 0.5 [28]. u
di
is calculated as
u
di
=
j
jRe,
(22)
For diusion dominated ows the pseudo-acoustic velocity is now computed by setting
t
t
equal to t
di
(ensuring that these are of similar magnitudes) resulting in the following
expression:
c
2
t
di
=
1
4
_
2CFL,
t
di
|u|(2 a
u
)
_
2
|u|
2
(2 a
u
)
2
(23)
This concludes the calculation of c
t
di
. In the general case, the pseudo-acoustic velocity is
calculated as c
t
=max{c
t
conv
, c
t
di
}. Above relations are then applied to automate the calculation
of c
t
at each computational cell for a wide spectrum of Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers.
For the standard scheme (a
u
=0), the value of c
t
giving optimal convergence is typi-
cally obtained through numerical experimentation techniques. Two widely used methods are;
(a) using a constant value for c
t
across the eld where c
t
is found through numerical exper-
imentation as used in recent publications by Tamamidis et al. [7] and Zhao and Zhang [6],
and (b) using the relation c
2
t
=max{0.3, ru
)
u
)
} with 1r5 being obtained for each problem
via numerical experimentation as proposed by Rizzi and Eriksson [26]. These methods
will be employed in Part II for comparison with the proposed automation procedure
in an attempt to evaluate its eectiveness in consistently facilitating comparable or improved
convergence rates.
4. SOLUTION PROCEDURE
4.1. Spatial discretization
The rst stage in solving the system of governing equations is transformation into an integral
or weak form. Equation (6) is integrated on an arbitrary control volume as follows:
_
LGP
cQ
ct
t
d +
_
_
cF
)
cx
)
cG
)
cx
)
_
d=
_
Sd (24)
where the state, ux and source vectors are dened in Equations (2)(5).
m
n
m
Figure 4. Vertex-centred dual cell nite volume (control volume) surrounding node m.
The nite volume approach involves casting the volume integrals containing spatial deriva-
tives of the inviscid and viscous ux vectors, into a surface integral through the application of
the divergence theorem. For an arbitrary volume , bounded by the surface , Equation (24)
now becomes
_
LGP
cQ
ct
t
d +
_
(F
)
G
)
)n
)
d=
_
Sd (25)
where n is the unit vector in the direction normal to the boundary segment d.
The spatial domain is subdivided into triangular cells (in 2D) and integrals applied to each
cell, as shown in Figure 4. The state variable vector Q is stored at each node or vertex, and the
surface integrals computed in an edge-wise manner on the vertex-centred cells (volumes). The
vertex-centred dual cells are dened by connecting the mid-points of the edges and centroids
of the associated triangles. This technique facilitates edge-based storage which is ecient both
computationally and in terms of memory resources as compared with cell-based schemes.
Moving on to the computation of each term in Equation (25), the surface integrals are
rewritten in discrete form for vertex m as follows:
_
m
n
)
d

edges

mn
C
)
mn
+ B
)
m
(26)
where

mn
=
1
2
(
m
+
n
)
and C
)
mn
=n
)
d is the edge coecient of the edge dened by nodes m-n. Summation is
performed over all edges connected to node m. B
m
denotes the boundary contribution in the
case where m designates a boundary node and is computed as follows:
B
)
m
() =

bound. edges
_
1
4
(3
m
+
n
)
_
n
)
d
Volume integrals are computed by assuming that the nodal value represents an average
over the volume as follows:
_
m
d=
m
(27)
Equation (27) is formally second-order accurate on a nite dierence-type grid. This concept
is also implemented in calculating the derivatives in the viscous stress terms (Equation (5))
as follows:
c
cx
)
c
cx
)
m
=
1
m
_
m
c
cx
)
d=
1
m
_
m
n
)
d (28)
Above surface integral is now again discretized using Equation (26).
The pressure sensor (Equation (10)) is calculated using a harmonic operator [24]:
A
m
=
|
edges
(
n

m
)|
edges
|
n

m
|
(29)
Implementing the above, Equation (24) discretized at node m now becomes
t
LGP
m
dQ
m
dt
t
m
+
_
edges
[

F
)
mn

G
)
mn
]C
)
mn
+ B
)
m
_
m
=[S]
m
(30)
where B
)
m
is non-zero only at boundary nodes.
4.2. Articial dissipation
Owing to the central dierence explicit nature of the AC scheme, stabilization is required to
eliminate spurious oscillations. Scalar-valued dissipation, based on work done by Jameson [20]
is implemented for this purpose and involves the addition of an articial dissipation term to
the right-hand side of the discretized governing equation (Equation (30)). The dissipation term
D may be constructed on an unstructured vertex-centred grid through the use of a biharmonic
operator as proposed by Mavriplis [21]. This term is constructed on the vertex-based scheme
described above by forming an approximation to a double Laplacian (one inside another) on
the state variables at each node. The rst (inner) operator is calculated using an edge-based
approach as follows:
m
=

edges
(
n

m
) (31)
where summation is performed over all edges connected to node m and typically designates
the dependent variable vector. The biharmonic operator is constructed by essentially repeating
the above step
D
m
=c
4
m
+
n
2
edges
(
2
n

2
m
) (32)
where c
4
is an empirical constant, the value of which is to be determined for each problem
through numerical experimentation (the objective is to use the smallest possible value to
stabilize and eliminate spurious oscillations).
m
is the isotropic scaling coecient at node m
and is calculated as follows:
m
=

edges
|u C
mn
| + c
t
|C
mn
| (33)
The current method used by many researchers to calculate the dissipation for application to
the standard AC scheme [4, 19, 29, 30] is by setting =Q. D is then added to the right-hand
side of Equation (30) after all terms have been premultiplied by
1
m
such that the transient
term reduces to (dQ}dt
t
).
For the preconditioned system, a more consistent approach is proposed in this paper by
adding the dissipation term to the right-hand side of Equation (1) and setting =W. The
use of w
)
as a dependent variable is, however, not meaningful as the pressure dissipation
term will be zero for incompressible ows. The problem of the vanishing dissipation term is
solved by the application of the AC concept to the above operator.
Considering a one-dimensional case, the Laplacian operator may be written as follows:
lim
x0
2
W
x
2
=
_
c
2
W
cx
2
_
=
_
c
2
j
cx
2
c
2
(ju)
cx
2
c
2
(j1)
cx
2
_
T
(34)
By now introducing AC in a spatial sense, Equation (34) becomes
_
c
2
W
cx
2
_
=
c
cx
_
cj
c
c
cx
u
cj
c
c
cx
+ j
cu
cx
1
cj
c
c
cx
+ j
c1
cx
_
T
=
c
cx
_
1
c
2
t
c
cx
u
c
2
t
c
cx
+ j
cu
cx
1
c
2
t
c
cx
+ j
c1
cx
_
T
= lim
x0
_
1
x
2
Q
_
(35)
Writing this in discrete form, extending to multidimensions and implementing into the
approximate Laplacian operator, the rst (inner) approximate operator becomes
2
W
t
m
=

edges
m
(Q
n
Q
m
) (36)
The biharmonic operator (Equation (32)) is now constructed by setting
2
m
=
2
W
t
m
. As
previously, D
m
is added to the right-hand side of Equation (30). Calculating the dissipation
term in this way has not, to the authors knowledge, to date been applied in this manner to an
AC scheme. It proved signicant in the solution of pure viscous ows (Stokes ow) which
will be demonstrated in Part II.
We digress briey to the point raised previously on the sensitivity of the stability of the
scheme to small values of c
t
. It is clear from Equation (32) that the dissipation term D will
be signicantly down-scaled in regions where both the local convective and pseudo-acoustic
velocities are small. This will typically be the case inside boundary layers near the boundary
walls at high Reynolds numbers. The problem is that a small scaling factor () would work
against the dissipation operators task of increasing D in regions where higher gradients are
present, resulting in possible instability. As this counter productive behaviour is expected to
increase with increasing Reynolds number, it was proposed to scale the minimum allowable
value for c
t
as a function of Reynolds number (Equation (17)).
n
bound
m
n
Figure 5. Unstructured grid adjacent to the boundary.
The nal point to be addressed regarding articial dissipation is its treatment on boundaries.
This is of importance as it can have a signicant eect on solution accuracy. It is not possible
to evaluate Equation (32) on the boundary as
2
m
requires the use of nodes that lie outside
the domain. An approximation is, therefore, required and we subdivide treatment into two
cases, viz. variables with a normal gradient of change component i.e. dq
)
}dn =0 and those
where the normal gradient is zero.
A typical example of dq
)
}dn =0 is velocities on viscous (no-slip) type boundaries. For the
approximation of the dissipation term on the boundary, we again start out by considering a
one-dimensional case. The second-order derivative on a boundary may be approximated to
rst-order accuracy by setting it equal to the value calculated for
2
at the adjacent node.
This is not expected to introduce a signicant error into the solution as the central dierence
scheme described in this paper is at best only rst-order accurate on the boundary in the
direction normal to the boundary. An ecient and straightforward method of extending this
approximation to multidimensional unstructured grids, is by setting the rst approximate Lapla-
cian operator (Equation (36)) at a boundary node (m in Figure 5) equal to the value calculated
at the corresponding edge node of the edge closest in the direction to the boundary normal
(node n). Although being a simplied version of the approximation advocated by Mavriplis
[21], it was found to give good results on all problems attempted to date.
For the case where dq
)
}dn =0 e.g. the pressure on a viscous boundary in isothermal ow,
a dierent approximation is used. In this work, this very condition is implemented into the
calculation of
2
at boundary nodes by only doing computations on edges aligned with the
boundary. Special treatment may be required for highly stretched elements, but this was not
found to be necessary on the problems dealt with in Part II.
4.3. Pseudo-temporal discretization
The pseudo-temporal term in Equation (30) is discretized using an explicit multistage
time-stepping method. The solution is advanced from time t
t
to t
t
+ t
t
with a four-stage
RungeKutta scheme as follows:
Q
0
m
= Q
t
t
m
Q
i
m
= Q
0
m
+ :
i
t
t
i1
1
LGP
m
(RHS
i1
m
) for i =1 to 3
Q
t
t
+t
t
m
= Q
4
m
(37)
where the coecients :
i
are taken as
1
4
,
1
3
,
1
2
and 1. The right-hand side RHS
i1
m
is computed
from Equation (30) as follows:
RHS
i1
m
=
1
m
_
edges
_
F
)
i1
mn

G
)
i1
mn
_
C
)
mn
+ B
)
m
_
m
+ [S
i1
]
m
+ D
m
_
(38)
To save computational time, the articial dissipation and viscous terms are updated only at
the rst and third stages.
A local time-stepping approach is employed to accelerate convergence to steady state. In the
case where pseudo-acoustic automation is employed, the local time-step size is calculated using
Equation (18). This equation already takes into consideration both advection and diusion
components as described. This is, however, not the case with the standard scheme where
c
t
is prescribed by the user, and a dierent relation is required to account for the diusion
component. Consistent with our previous analogy, both advection and diusion components
are taken into account as follows:
t
t
=
,
max{z
max
}CFL, |u| + u
di
}o
vN
}
(39)
where z
max
and u
di
are given by Equations (20) and (22), respectively.
In the present work the CFL number is typically set to 2.4 and the von Neumann number
(o
vN
) to 0.5. The exception is natural convection ow where Rayleigh numbers are of the
order 10
8
. Here, o
vN
is reduced by an order of magnitude.
4.4. Real-time temporal discretization
Dual-time-stepping is implemented to eect ecient real-time accuracy. A real time term is
added to Equation (6) as follows:
cW
ct
+
cW
cQ
cQ
ct
t
+
cF
)
cx
)
cG
)
cx
)
=S (40)
where t and t
t
designate real-time, and pseudo-time, respectively. As before, the above equa-
tion is solved by marching in pseudo-time until a pseudo-steady state is reached (cQ}ct
t
0)
and the real-time-transient system of NavierStokes equations is recovered.
The real-time transient term in Equation (40) is discretized in an implicit manner using
a second-order-accurate three-point-backward dierence scheme. The discretized system is
written as follows:
_
1 +
2
3
t
t
t
_
m
i1
LGP
m
Q
m
=:
i
t
t
_
RHS
i1
m

3W
i1
4W
n
+ W
n+1
2t
_
m
(41)
where Q
m
=Q
i
m
Q
0
m
and i =1 to 3. The superscript n + 1 designates the real-time-step
being sought. During the pseudo-time iterations, W
n
and W
n1
are held constant with W
i1
being calculated from Q
i1
as follows:
W
i1
=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
0 0 0 0 0
0 j 0 0 0
0 0 j 0 0
0 0 0 j 0
0 0 0 0 j
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
Q
i1
(42)
When pseudo-steady state is reached and the pseudo-transient terms reach zero the solution
at the next real time-step W
n+1
is calculated from Q
t
t
+t
t
. Owing to the implicit real-time
nature of the scheme, the allowable real-time step size t is only limited by the required
temporal accuracy.
4.5. Boundary conditions
The boundary types used in this work are solid wall, symmetric plane, outow, prescribed tem-
perature and adiabatic boundary conditions. The solid wall boundary is imposed by
applying a non-slip condition i.e. the ow velocity is set equal to that of the wall. Planes
of symmetry are enforced by setting the normal component of the velocity vector to zero.
Outow conditions are applied for internal ows and in this work constitute prescribing a
pressure (typically 0). For non-isothermal problems, adiabatic boundary conditions are im-
posed implicitly by setting the normal component of the temperature derivative used in the
energy equation to zero.
5. NOTES ON IMPLEMENTATION
In this section, we list a few notes of interest regarding implementation of the scheme into a
computer code. Although, some points may seem trivial to the experienced, we list them as
pointers for rst time implementers. These are as follows:
C++ was used as the programming language. Although cumbersome in the initial stages
of program development due to time taken to design the code structure, the program-
ming system was found to be an object-oriented language that is well suited for writing
numerical code. Care should be taken when using built-in container types as these may
exhibit performance penalties. We circumvented this through specialization [31].
Regarding numerics, dependent variables should be stored in an array of objects contain-
ing smaller generic vectors (in our case Q). Operators performing tasks on the vectors
such as the calculation of derivatives, or articial dissipation, should then be written
in a manner that is independent of the number of variables contained. This makes for
straightforward extension to analysis types requiring a dierent number of variables.
Edge coecients are stored in one direction only (e.g. in direction m to n).
Code should be written in such a manner as to minimize square root computations. These
are several times more CPU intensive than e.g. multiplication and can have a notable
eect on code performance.
It is useful to number nodes and edges such that all boundary entities are clustered
together. In this work we assign the rst positions in global arrays to boundary entities.
This aids in computationally ecient treatment of boundaries.
6. CONCLUSION
A robust articial compressibility scheme is developed for modelling laminar steady state
and transient incompressible ows over a wide range of Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers.
Articial compressibility is implemented in a consistent manner and a method is proposed
to calculate generalized preconditioning parameters locally in the interest of convergence rate
and robustness. We further attempt to automate AC free parameters for all ow regimes. An
explicit pseudo-time-marching scheme was employed to facilitate memory eciency. Special
treatment of the articial dissipation terms is eected in the interest of consistency. A dual-
time-stepping scheme was employed which facilitates computational eciency and temporal
accuracy.
In Part II, the developed scheme and variations, viz. preconditioned AC scheme with
predened constant preconditioning parameter, as well as the standard scheme, are applied
to a number of example problems to solve ows over a wide range of Reynolds and Rayleigh
numbers. In all cases, the schemes are compared with regard to ease of use, robustness and
rate of convergence.
REFERENCES
1. Patankar SV. Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. McGraw-Hill: New York, 1980.
2. Chorin AJ. A numerical method for solving incompressible viscous ow problems. Journal of Computational
Physics 1967; 2:1226.
3. Belov A, Martinelli L, Jameson A. A new implicit algorithm with multigrid for unsteady incompressible ow
calculations. AIAA Paper, 95-0049, 1995.
4. Manzari MT. An explicit nite element algorithm for convection heat transfer problems. International Journal
of Numerical Methods for Heat and Fluid Flow 1999; 9(8):860877.
5. Drikakis D, Iliev OP, Vassileva DP. A nonlinear multigrid method for three-dimensional incompressible
NavierStokes equations. Journal of Computational Physics 1998; 146(1):301321.
6. Zhao Y, Zhang BL. A high-order characteristics upwind FV method for incompressible ow and heat transfer
simulation on unstructured grids. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 2000; 190
(57):733756.
7. Tamamidis P, Zhang GQ, Assanis DN. Comparison of pressure-based and articial compressibility methods for
solving 3D steady incompressible viscous ows. Journal of Computational Physics 1996; 124:113.
8. Ferziger JH, Peric M. Computational Methods for Fluid Dynamics. Springer-Verlag: New York, 1999.
9. Lakshminarayana B. An assessment of computational uid dynamic techniques in the analysis and design of
turbomachinerythe 1990 Freeman scholar lecture. Journal of Fluids Engineering-Transactions of the ASME
1991; 113(3):315352.
10. Turkel E. Preconditioning methods for solving the incompressible and low speed compressible equations. Journal
of Computational Physics 1987; 72(2):227298.
11. Choi YH, Merkle CL. The application of preconditioning in viscous ows. Journal of Computational Physics
1993; 105(2):207223.
12. Weiss JM, Smith WA. Preconditioning applied to variable and constant density ows. AIAA Journal 1995;
33(11):20502057.
13. Turkel E. Review of preconditioning methods for uid dynamics. Applied Numerical Mathematics 1993;12:
257284.
14. Michelassi V, Migliorini F, Martelli F. Preconditioned scalar approximate factorization method for incompressible
uid ows. International Journal of Computational Fluid Dynamics 1996; 7(4):311325.
15. Kwak D, Chang JLC, Shanks SP, Chakravarthy SR. A three-dimensional incompressible NavierStokes ow
solver using primitive variables. AIAA Journal 1986; 24(3):390396.
16. Lewis RW, Huang HC, Usmani AS, Cross JT. Finite element analysis of heat-transfer and ow problems
using adaptive remeshing including application to solidication problems. International Journal for Numerical
Methods in Engineering 1991; 32(4):767781.
17. Nithiarasu P, Zienkiewicz OC. Adaptive mesh generation for uid mechanics problems. International Journal for
Numerical Methods in Engineering 2000; 47(13):629662.
18. de Foy B, Dawes W. Unstructured pressure-correction solver based on a consistent discretization of the Poisson
equation. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids 2000; 34:463478.
19. Lin FB, Sotiropoulos F. Assessment of articial dissipation models for three-dimensional incompressible ow
solutions. Journal of Fluids Engineering 1997; 119:331340.
20. Jameson A, Schmidt W, Turkel E. Numerical solutions of the Euler equations by nite volume methods using
RungeKutta time-stepping schemes. AIAA Paper, 811259, 1981, unpublished.
21. Mavriplis DJ. Accurate multigrid solution of the Euler equations on unstructured and adaptive meshes. AIAA
Journal 1990; 28(2):213221.
22. Shuen JS, Chen KH, Choi YH. A coupled implicit method for chemical non-equilibrium ows at all speeds.
Journal of Computational Physics 1993; 106(2):306318.
23. Liu C, Zheng X, Sung CH. Preconditioned multigrid methods for unsteady incompressible ows. Journal of
Computational Physics 1998; 139(1):3557.
24. Morgan K, Peraire J, Peiro J, Zienkiewics OC. Adaptive remeshing applied to the solution of a shock interaction
problem on a cylindrical leading edge. Computational Methods in Aeronautical Fluid Dynamics. Clarenden
Press: Oxford, 1990, 327344.
25. White FM, Viscous Fluid Flow. McGraw-Hill International Editions: Singapore, 1991.
26. Rizzi A, Eriksson LE. Computation of inviscid incompressible ow with rotation. Journal of Fluid Mechanics
1985; 153:275312.
27. Taove A, Brodwin ME. Electromagnetic scattering problems. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and
Techniques 1975; 23:623.
28. Zienkiewicz OZ, Taylor RL. The Finite Element Method Vol. 3: Fluid Dynamics. Butterworth-Heinemann:
Oxford, 2000.
29. Cabuk H, Sung CH, Modi V. Explicit RungeKutta method for three-dimensional internal incompressible ows.
AIAA Journal 1992; 30(8):20242031.
30. L ohner R. Applied CFD Techniques. John Wiley and Sons: New York, 2001.
31. Malan AG, Lewis RW, Ransing RS. On C++ object-oriented programming techniques for high-performance
explicit CFD Codes. ECCOMAS Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference Paper 2001.

An Improved Unsteady, Unstructured Artificial Compressible Finite Volume Scheme For Viscous Incompressible Flows

Diunggah oleh

Informasi Dokumen

Deskripsi Asli:

Judul Asli

Hak Cipta

Format Tersedia

Bagikan dokumen Ini

Bagikan atau Tanam Dokumen

Opsi Berbagi

Apakah menurut Anda dokumen ini bermanfaat?

Apakah konten ini tidak pantas?

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

An Improved Unsteady, Unstructured Artificial Compressible Finite Volume Scheme For Viscous Incompressible Flows

Diunggah oleh

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2002; 54:695714 (DOI: 10.1002/nme.447)

are the density, molecular dynamic viscosity and ther-

) which will vary from a

Anda mungkin juga menyukai