Search results

21 – 30 of over 26000
Article
Publication date: 1 February 1996

C. Shu, Y.T. Chew, B.C. Khoo and K.S. Yeo

The global methods of generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) andgeneralized integral quadrature (GIQ) are applied to solve three‐dimensional,incompressible, laminar boundary…

Abstract

The global methods of generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) and generalized integral quadrature (GIQ) are applied to solve three‐dimensional, incompressible, laminar boundary layer equations. The streamwise and crosswise velocity components are taken as the dependent variables. The normal velocity is obtained by integrating the continuity equation along the normal direction where the integral is approximated by GIQ approach with high order of accuracy. All the spatial derivatives are discretized by a GDQ scheme. After spatial discretization, the resultant ordinary differential equations are solved by the 4‐stage Runge—Katta scheme. Application of GDQ—GIQ approach to a test problem demonstrated that accurate numerical results can be obtained using just a few grid points.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 November 2021

Chongbin Zhao, B.E. Hobbs and Alison Ord

The objective of this paper is to develop a semi-analytical finite element method for solving chemical dissolution-front instability problems in fluid-saturated porous media.

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this paper is to develop a semi-analytical finite element method for solving chemical dissolution-front instability problems in fluid-saturated porous media.

Design/methodology/approach

The porosity, horizontal and vertical components of the pore-fluid velocity and solute concentration are selected as four fundamental unknown variables for describing chemical dissolution-front instability problems in fluid-saturated porous media. To avoid the use of numerical integration, analytical solutions for the property matrices of a rectangular element are precisely derived in a purely mathematical manner. This means that the proposed finite element method is a kind of semi-analytical method. The column pivot element solver is used to solve the resulting finite element equations of the chemical dissolution-front instability problem.

Findings

The direct use of horizontal and vertical components of the pore-fluid velocity as fundamental unknown variables can improve the accuracy of the related numerical solution. The column pivot element solver is useful for solving the finite element equations of a chemical dissolution-front instability problem. The proposed semi-analytical finite element method can produce highly accurate numerical solutions for simulating chemical dissolution-front instability problems in fluid-saturated porous media.

Originality/value

Analytical solutions for the property matrices of a rectangular element are precisely derived for solving chemical dissolution-front instability problems in fluid-saturated porous media. The proposed semi-analytical finite element method provides a useful way for understanding the underlying dynamic mechanisms of the washing land method involved in the contaminated land remediation.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 39 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 2001

Chongbin Zhao, Ge Lin, B.E. Hobbs, H.B. Mühlhaus, A. Ord and Yuejun Wang

We use the finite element method to model the heat transfer phenomenon through permeable cracks in hydrothermal systems with upward throughflow. Since the finite element method is…

Abstract

We use the finite element method to model the heat transfer phenomenon through permeable cracks in hydrothermal systems with upward throughflow. Since the finite element method is an approximate numerical method, the method must be validated before it is used to solve any new kind of problem. However, the analytical solution, which can be used to validate the finite element method and other numerical methods, is rather limited in the literature, especially for the problem considered here. Keeping this in mind, we have derived analytical solutions for the temperature distribution along the vertical axis of a crack in a fluid‐saturated porous layer. After the finite element method is validated by comparing the numerical solution with the analytical solution for the same benchmark problem, it is used to investigate the pore‐fluid flow and heat transfer in layered hydrothermal systems with vertical permeable cracks. The related analytical and numerical results have demonstrated that vertical cracks are effective and efficient members to transfer heat energy from the bottom section to the top section in hydrothermal systems with upward throughflow.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 18 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 December 2021

Alexander Idesman and Bikash Dey

The purpose of this paper is as follows: to significantly reduce the computation time (by a factor of 1,000 and more) compared to known numerical techniques for real-world…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is as follows: to significantly reduce the computation time (by a factor of 1,000 and more) compared to known numerical techniques for real-world problems with complex interfaces; and to simplify the solution by using trivial unfitted Cartesian meshes (no need in complicated mesh generators for complex geometry).

Design/methodology/approach

This study extends the recently developed optimal local truncation error method (OLTEM) for the Poisson equation with constant coefficients to a much more general case of discontinuous coefficients that can be applied to domains with different material properties (e.g. different inclusions, multi-material structural components, etc.). This study develops OLTEM using compact 9-point and 25-point stencils that are similar to those for linear and quadratic finite elements. In contrast to finite elements and other known numerical techniques for interface problems with conformed and unfitted meshes, OLTEM with 9-point and 25-point stencils and unfitted Cartesian meshes provides the 3-rd and 11-th order of accuracy for irregular interfaces, respectively; i.e. a huge increase in accuracy by eight orders for the new 'quadratic' elements compared to known techniques at similar computational costs. There are no unknowns on interfaces between different materials; the structure of the global discrete system is the same for homogeneous and heterogeneous materials (the difference in the values of the stencil coefficients). The calculation of the unknown stencil coefficients is based on the minimization of the local truncation error of the stencil equations and yields the optimal order of accuracy of OLTEM at a given stencil width. The numerical results with irregular interfaces show that at the same number of degrees of freedom, OLTEM with the 9-points stencils is even more accurate than the 4-th order finite elements; OLTEM with the 25-points stencils is much more accurate than the 7-th order finite elements with much wider stencils and conformed meshes.

Findings

The significant increase in accuracy for OLTEM by one order for 'linear' elements and by 8 orders for 'quadratic' elements compared to that for known techniques. This will lead to a huge reduction in the computation time for the problems with complex irregular interfaces. The use of trivial unfitted Cartesian meshes significantly simplifies the solution and reduces the time for the data preparation (no need in complicated mesh generators for complex geometry).

Originality/value

It has been never seen in the literature such a huge increase in accuracy for the proposed technique compared to existing methods. Due to a high accuracy, the proposed technique will allow the direct solution of multiscale problems without the scale separation.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 32 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 March 2011

Jianhua Dai, Helder Pinheiro, Jonathan P. Webb and Igor Tsukerman

The purpose of this paper is to extend the generalized finite‐difference calculus of flexible local approximation methods (FLAME) to problems where local analytical solutions are…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the generalized finite‐difference calculus of flexible local approximation methods (FLAME) to problems where local analytical solutions are unavailable.

Design/methodology/approach

FLAME uses accurate local approximations of the solution to generate difference schemes with small consistency errors. When local analytical approximations are too complicated, semi‐analytical or numerical ones can be used instead. In the paper, this strategy is applied to electrostatic multi‐particle simulations and to electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering. The FLAME basis is constructed by solving small local finite‐element problems or, alternatively, by a local multipole‐multicenter expansion. As yet another alternative, adaptive FLAME is applied to problems of wave propagation in electromagnetic (photonic) crystals.

Findings

Numerical examples demonstrate the high rate of convergence of new five‐ and nine‐point schemes in 2D and seven‐ and 19‐point schemes in 3D. The accuracy of FLAME is much higher than that of the standard FD scheme. This paves the way for solving problems with a large number of particles on relatively coarse grids. FLAME with numerical bases has particular advantages for the multi‐particle model of a random or quasi‐random medium.

Research limitations/implications

Irregular stencils produced by local refinement may adversely affect the accuracy. This drawback could be rectified by least squares FLAME, where the number of stencil nodes can be much greater than the number of basis functions, making the method more robust and less sensitive to the irregularities of the stencils.

Originality/value

Previous applications of FLAME were limited to purely analytical basis functions. The present paper shows that numerical bases can be successfully used in FLAME when analytical ones are not available.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 June 2020

Chein-Shan Liu and Jiang-Ren Chang

The purpose of this paper is to solve the second-order nonlinear boundary value problem with nonlinear boundary conditions by an iterative numerical method.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to solve the second-order nonlinear boundary value problem with nonlinear boundary conditions by an iterative numerical method.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors introduce eigenfunctions as test functions, such that a weak-form integral equation is derived. By expanding the numerical solution in terms of the weighted eigenfunctions and using the orthogonality of eigenfunctions with respect to a weight function, and together with the non-separated/mixed boundary conditions, one can obtain the closed-form expansion coefficients with the aid of Drazin inversion formula.

Findings

When the authors develop the iterative algorithm, removing the time-varying terms as well as the nonlinear terms to the right-hand sides, to solve the nonlinear boundary value problem, it is convergent very fast and also provides very accurate numerical solutions.

Research limitations/implications

Basically, the authors’ strategy for the iterative numerical algorithm is putting the time-varying terms as well as the nonlinear terms on the right-hand sides.

Practical implications

Starting from an initial guess with zero value, the authors used the closed-form formula to quickly generate the new solution, until the convergence is satisfied.

Originality/value

Through the tests by six numerical experiments, the authors have demonstrated that the proposed iterative algorithm is applicable to the highly complex nonlinear boundary value problems with nonlinear boundary conditions. Because the coefficient matrix is set up outside the iterative loop, and due to the property of closed-form expansion coefficients, the presented iterative algorithm is very time saving and converges very fast.

Article
Publication date: 23 August 2011

Alper Korkmaz and İdris Dağ

This paper aims to present a numerical solution of non‐linear Burger's equation using differential quadrature method based on sinc functions.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a numerical solution of non‐linear Burger's equation using differential quadrature method based on sinc functions.

Design/methodology/approach

Sinc Differential Quadrature Method is used for space discretization and four stage Runge‐Kutta algorithm is used for time discretization. A rate of convergency analysis is also performed for shock‐like solution. Numerical stability analysis is performed.

Findings

Sinc Differential Quadrature Method generates more accurate solutions of Burgers' equation when compared with the other methods.

Originality/value

This combination, Sinc Differential Quadrature and Runge‐Kutta of order four, has not been used to obtain numerical solutions of Burgers' equation.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 April 2009

C.C. Tsai

The purpose of this paper is to develop a meshless numerical method for three‐dimensional isotropic thermoelastic problems with arbitrary body forces.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a meshless numerical method for three‐dimensional isotropic thermoelastic problems with arbitrary body forces.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper combines the method of fundamental solutions (MFS) and the dual reciprocity method (DRM) as a meshless numerical method (MFS‐DRM) to solve three‐dimensional isotropic thermoelastic problems with arbitrary body forces. In the DRM, the arbitrarily distributed temperature and body force are approximated by polyharmonic splines with augmented polynomial basis, whose particular solutions and the corresponding tractions are reviewed and given explicitly. The MFS is then applied to solve the complementary solution. Numerical experiments of Dirchlet, Robin, and peanut‐shaped‐domain problems are carried out to validate the method.

Findings

In literature, it is commented that the Gaussian elimination can be used reliably to solve the MFS equations for non‐noisy boundary conditions. For noisy boundary conditions, the truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) is more accurate than the Gaussian elimination. In this paper, it was found that the particular solutions obtained by the DRM act like noises and the use of TSVD improves the accuracy.

Originality/value

It is the first time that the MFS‐DRM is derived to solve three‐dimensional isotropic thermoelastic problems with arbitrary body forces.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 July 2019

Jiao Wang

Fokker–Planck equation appears in various areas in natural science, it is used to describe solute transport and Brownian motion of particles. This paper aims to present an…

Abstract

Purpose

Fokker–Planck equation appears in various areas in natural science, it is used to describe solute transport and Brownian motion of particles. This paper aims to present an efficient and convenient numerical algorithm for space-time fractional differential equations of the Fokker–Planck type.

Design/methodology/approach

The main idea of the presented algorithm is to combine polynomials function approximation and fractional differential operator matrices to reduce the studied complex equations to easily solved algebraic equations.

Findings

Based on Taylor basis, simple and useful fractional differential operator matrices of alternative Legendre polynomials can be quickly obtained, by which the studied space-time fractional partial differential equations can be transformed into easily solved algebraic equations. Numerical examples and error date are presented to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of this technique.

Originality/value

Various numerical methods are proposed in complex steps and are computationally expensive. However, the advantage of this paper is its convenient technique, i.e. using the simple fractional differential operator matrices of polynomials, numerical solutions can be quickly obtained in high precision. Presented numerical examples can also indicate that the technique is feasible for this kind of fractional partial differential equations.

Article
Publication date: 20 June 2018

Mousa Huntul, Daniel Lesnic and Tomas Johansson

The purpose of this study is to provide an insight and to solve numerically the identification of an unknown coefficient of radiation/absorption/perfusion appearing in the heat…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to provide an insight and to solve numerically the identification of an unknown coefficient of radiation/absorption/perfusion appearing in the heat equation from additional temperature measurements.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the uniqueness of solution of the inverse coefficient problem is briefly discussed in a particular case. However, the problem is still ill-posed as small errors in the input data cause large errors in the output solution. For numerical discretization, the finite difference method combined with a regularized nonlinear minimization is performed using the MATLAB toolbox routine lsqnonlin.

Findings

Numerical results presented for three examples show the efficiency of the computational method and the accuracy and stability of the numerical solution even in the presence of noise in the input data.

Research limitations/implications

The mathematical formulation is restricted to identify coefficients which separate additively in unknown components dependent individually on time and space, and this may be considered as a research limitation. However, there is no research implication to overcome this, as the known input data are also limited to single measurements of temperature at a particular time and space location.

Practical implications

As noisy data are inverted, the study models real situations in which practical measurements are inherently contaminated with noise.

Social implications

The identification of the additive time- and space-dependent perfusion coefficient will be of great interest to the bio-heat transfer community and applications.

Originality/value

The current investigation advances previous studies which assumed that the coefficient multiplying the lower-order temperature term depends on time or space separately. The knowledge of this physical property coefficient is very important in biomedical engineering for understanding the heat transfer in biological tissues. The originality lies in the insight gained by performing for the first time numerical simulations of inversion to find the coefficient additively dependent on time and space in the heat equation from noisy measurements.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

21 – 30 of over 26000