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Article
Publication date: 19 June 2019

Yunxia Sun, Xufeng Xiao, Zhiming Gao and Xinlong Feng

The purpose of this paper is to propose an efficient space-time operator-splitting method for the high-dimensional vector-valued Allen–Cahn (AC) equations. The key of the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose an efficient space-time operator-splitting method for the high-dimensional vector-valued Allen–Cahn (AC) equations. The key of the space-time operator-splitting is to devide the complex partial differential equations into simple heat equations and nolinear ordinary differential equations.

Design/methodology/approach

Each component of high-dimensional heat equations is split into a series of one-dimensional heat equations in different spatial directions. The nonlinear ordinary differential equations are solved by a stabilized semi-implicit scheme to preserve the upper bound of the solution. The algorithm greatly reduces the computational complexity and storage requirement.

Findings

The theoretical analyses of stability in terms of upper bound preservation and mass conservation are shown. The numerical results of phase separation, evolution of the total free energy and total mass conservation show the effectiveness and accuracy of the space-time operator-splitting method.

Practical implications

Extensive 2D/3D numerical tests demonstrated the efficacy and accuracy of the proposed method.

Originality/value

The space-time operator-splitting method reduces the complexity of the problem and reduces the storage space by turning the high-dimensional problem into a series of 1D problems. We give the theoretical analyses of upper bound preservation and mass conservation for the proposed method.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 29 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2003

Nahidh Hamid Sharif and Nils‐Erik Wiberg

A numerical model is presented for the computation of unsteady two‐fluid interfaces in nonlinear porous media flow. The nonlinear Forchheimer equation is included in the…

Abstract

A numerical model is presented for the computation of unsteady two‐fluid interfaces in nonlinear porous media flow. The nonlinear Forchheimer equation is included in the Navier‐Stokes equations for porous media flow. The model is based on capturing the interface on a fixed mesh domain. The zero level set of a pseudo‐concentration function, which defines the interface between the two fluids, is governed by a time‐dependent advection equation. The time‐dependent Navier‐Stokes equations and the advection equation are spatially discretized by the finite element (FE) method. The fully coupled implicit time integration scheme and the explicit forward Eulerian scheme are implemented for the advancement in time. The trapezoidal rule is applied to the fully implicit scheme, while the operator‐splitting algorithm is used for the velocity‐pressure segregation in the explicit scheme. The spatial and time discretizations are stabilized using FE stabilization techniques. Numerical examples of unsteady flow of two‐fluid interfaces in an earth dam are investigated.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 20 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 August 2019

Gang Peng, Zhiming Gao, Wenjing Yan and Xinlong Feng

This paper aims to consider numerical simulation for radionuclide transport calculations in geological radioactive waste repository.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to consider numerical simulation for radionuclide transport calculations in geological radioactive waste repository.

Design/methodology/approach

The nonlinear two-point flux approximation is used to discretize the diffusion flux and has a fixed stencil. The cell-vertex unknowns are applied to define the auxiliary unknowns and can be interpolated by the cell-centered unknowns. The approximation of convection flux is based on the second-order upwind method with a slope limiter.

Findings

Numerical results illustrate that the positivity-preserving is satisfied in solving this convection-diffusion system and has a second-order convergence rate on the distorted meshes.

Originality/value

A new positivity-preserving nonlinear finite volume scheme is proposed to simulate the far-field model used in the geological radioactive waste repository. Numerical results illustrate that the positivity-preserving is satisfied in solving this convection-diffusion system and has a second-order convergence rate on the distorted meshes.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1998

Asuquo B. Ebiana

A computational procedure based on a hybrid Lagrangian‐Eulerian discrete‐vortical element formulation and conformal transformation schemes are employed in this study to simulate…

Abstract

A computational procedure based on a hybrid Lagrangian‐Eulerian discrete‐vortical element formulation and conformal transformation schemes are employed in this study to simulate the interaction of an air jet with swirling air flow inside a two‐dimensional cylinder. Such an investigation is of importance to many flow‐related industrial and environmental problems, such as mixing, cooling, combustion and dispersion of air‐borne or water‐borne contaminants because of the role of vortices in the global transport of matter and heat. The basis for the simulation is discussed and numerical results compared with theoretical results for the velocity field and streamfunction obtained by the method of images. The swirling air motion and the features of a real jet are well simulated and numerical results are validated by predictions of theory to within 20 per cent. To illustrate the merging and interaction processes of vortices and the formation of large eddies, velocity vectors, particle trajectories and streamline contours are presented.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 8 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 January 2021

Ram Jiwari and Alf Gerisch

This paper aims to develop a meshfree algorithm based on local radial basis functions (RBFs) combined with the differential quadrature (DQ) method to provide numerical…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a meshfree algorithm based on local radial basis functions (RBFs) combined with the differential quadrature (DQ) method to provide numerical approximations of the solutions of time-dependent, nonlinear and spatially one-dimensional reaction-diffusion systems and to capture their evolving patterns. The combination of local RBFs and the DQ method is applied to discretize the system in space; implicit multistep methods are subsequently used to discretize in time.

Design/methodology/approach

In a method of lines setting, a meshless method for their discretization in space is proposed. This discretization is based on a DQ approach, and RBFs are used as test functions. A local approach is followed where only selected RBFs feature in the computation of a particular DQ weight.

Findings

The proposed method is applied on four reaction-diffusion models: Huxley’s equation, a linear reaction-diffusion system, the Gray–Scott model and the two-dimensional Brusselator model. The method captured the various patterns of the models similar to available in literature. The method shows second order of convergence in space variables and works reliably and efficiently for the problems.

Originality/value

The originality lies in the following facts: A meshless method is proposed for reaction-diffusion models based on local RBFs; the proposed scheme is able to capture patterns of the models for big time T; the scheme has second order of convergence in both time and space variables and Nuemann boundary conditions are easy to implement in this scheme.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 38 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 March 2018

Xue Yang, Li Yu and Xiao-Shun Zhao

The purpose of this study is to model the dynamic characteristics of an opened supersonic disk-gap-band parachute.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to model the dynamic characteristics of an opened supersonic disk-gap-band parachute.

Design/methodology/approach

A fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method with body-fitted mesh is used to simulate the supersonic parachute. The compressible flow is modeled using large-eddy simulation (LES). A contact algorithm based on the penalty function with a virtual contact domain is proposed to solve the negative volume problem of the body-fitted mesh. Automatic unstructured mesh generation and automatic mesh moving schemes are used to handle complex deformations of the canopy.

Findings

The opened disk-gap-band parachute is simulated using Mach 2.0, and the simulation results fit well with the wind tunnel test data. It is found that the LES model can successfully predict large-scale turbulent vortex in the flow. This study also demonstrates the capability of the present FSI method as a tool to predict shock oscillation and breathing phenomenon of the canopy.

Originality/value

The contact algorithm based on the penalty function with a virtual contact domain is proposed for the first time. This methodology can be used to solve the negative volume problem of the dynamic mesh in the flow field.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 June 2020

Tahir Nazir, Muhammad Abbas and Muhammad Kashif Iqbal

The purpose of this paper is to present a new cubic B-spline (CBS) approximation technique for the numerical treatment of coupled viscous Burgers’ equations arising in the study…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a new cubic B-spline (CBS) approximation technique for the numerical treatment of coupled viscous Burgers’ equations arising in the study of fluid dynamics, continuous stochastic processes, acoustic transmissions and aerofoil flow theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The system of partial differential equations is discretized in time direction using the finite difference formulation, and the new CBS approximations have been used to interpolate the solution curves in the spatial direction. The theoretical estimation of stability and uniform convergence of the proposed numerical algorithm has been derived rigorously.

Findings

A different scheme based on the new approximation in CBS functions is proposed which is quite different from the existing methods developed (Mittal and Jiwari, 2012; Mittal and Arora, 2011; Mittal and Tripathi, 2014; Raslan et al., 2017; Shallal et al., 2019). Some numerical examples are presented to validate the performance and accuracy of the proposed technique. The simulation results have guaranteed the superior performance of the presented algorithm over the existing numerical techniques on approximate solutions of coupled viscous Burgers’ equations.

Originality/value

The current approach based on new CBS approximations is novel for the numerical study of coupled Burgers’ equations, and as far as we are aware, it has never been used for this purpose before.

Article
Publication date: 30 September 2014

A.A. Aderogba, M. Chapwanya and J.K. Djoko

For a partial differential equation with a fourth-order derivative such as the Cahn-Hilliard equation, it is always a challenge to design numerical schemes that can handle the…

Abstract

Purpose

For a partial differential equation with a fourth-order derivative such as the Cahn-Hilliard equation, it is always a challenge to design numerical schemes that can handle the restrictive time step introduced by this higher order term. The purpose of this paper is to employ a fractional splitting method to isolate the convective, the nonlinear second-order and the fourth-order differential terms.

Design/methodology/approach

The full equation is then solved by consistent schemes for each differential term independently. In addition to validating the second-order accuracy, the authors will demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method by validating the dissipation of the Ginzberg-Lindau energy and the coarsening properties of the solution.

Findings

The scheme is second-order accuracy, the authors will demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method by validating the dissipation of the Ginzberg-Lindau energy and the coarsening properties of the solution.

Originality/value

The authors believe that this is the first time the equation is handled numerically using the fractional step method. Apart from the fact that the fractional step method substantially reduces computational time, it has the advantage of simplifying a complex process efficiently. This method permits the treatment of each segment of the original equation separately and piece them together, in a way that will be explained shortly, without destroying the properties of the equation.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 31 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2009

Adnan Ibrahimbegovic, Guillaume Hervé and Pierre Villon

The purpose of this paper is to provide the methodology for structural design of complex massive structures under impact by a large airplane.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide the methodology for structural design of complex massive structures under impact by a large airplane.

Design/methodology/approach

Using case studies, the issues related to multi‐scale modelling of inelastic damage mechanisms for massive structures are discussed, as well as the issues pertaining to the time integration schemes in presence of different scales in time variation of different sub‐problems, brought by a particular nature of loading with a very short duration) and finally the issues related to model reduction seeking to provide an efficient and yet sufficiently reliable basis for parametric studies which are an indispensable part of a design procedure.

Findings

Several numerical simulations are presented in order to further illustrate the approaches proposed herein. Concluding remarks are stated regarding the current and future research in this domain.

Originality/value

Proposed design procedure for complex massive engineering structures under impact by a large airplane provides on one side a very reliable representation of inelastic damage mechanisms and external loading represented by the solution of the corresponding contact/impact problem, and on the other side a very efficient basis obtained by model reduction for performing the parametric design studies.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 26 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 August 2021

Francisco Sastre, Elena B. Martin, Angel Velazquez and Abderrahmane Baïri

This paper aims to compare the performance of flow pulsation versus flow stirring in the context of mixing of a passive scalar at moderate Reynolds numbers in confined flows. This…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to compare the performance of flow pulsation versus flow stirring in the context of mixing of a passive scalar at moderate Reynolds numbers in confined flows. This comparison has been undertaken in two limits: diffusion can be neglected as compared to convection (very large Peclet) and diffusion and convection effects are comparable. The comparison was performed both in terms of global parameters: pumping power and mixing efficiency and local flow topology.

Design/methodology/approach

The study has been addressed by setting up a common conceptual three-dimensional problem that consisted of the mixing of two parallel streams in a square section channel past a square section prism. Stirring and pulsation frequencies and amplitudes were changed and combined at an inlet Reynolds number of 200. The numerical model was solved using a finite volume formulation by adapting a series of open-source OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamic (CFD) libraries. For cases with flow pulsation, the icoFoam solver for laminar incompressible transient flows was used. For cases with stirring, the icoDyMFoam solver, which uses the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method for the description of the moving dynamical mesh, was used to model the prism motion. At the local flow topology level, a new method was proposed to analyze mixing. Time evolution of folding and wrinkling of sheets made up of virtual particles that travel along streak lines was quantified by generating lower rank projections of the sheets onto the spaces spanned by the main eigenvectors of an appropriate space-temporal data decomposition.

Findings

In the limit when convection is dominant, the results showed the superior performance of stirring versus flow pulsation both in terms of mixing and required pumping power. In the cases with finite Peclet, the mixing parameters by stirring and flow pulsation were comparable, but pulsation required larger pumping power than stirring. For some precise synchronization of stirring and pulsation, the mixing parameter reached its maximum, although at the expense of higher pumping power. At the local flow topology level, the new method proposed to quantify mixing has been found to correlate well with the global mixing parameter.

Originality/value

A new systematic comparative study of two methods, stirring and pulsation, to achieve mixing of passive scalars in the mini scale for confined flows has been presented. The main value, apart from the conclusions, is that both methods have been tested against the same flow configuration, which allows for a self-consistent comparison. Of particular interest is the fact that it has been found that accurate synchronization of both methods yields mixing parameters higher than those associated to both methods taken separately. This suggests that it is possible to synchronize mixing methods of a different nature to achieve optimum designs. The new theoretical method that has been proposed to understand the mixing performance at the local level has shown promising results, and it is the intention of the authors to test its validity in a broader range of flow parameters. All these findings could be taken as potential guidelines for the design of mixing processes in the mini scale in the process industry.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 32 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

1 – 10 of 12