We present a fast Poisson solver on spherical shells. With a special change of variable, the radial part of the Laplacian transforms to a constant coefficient differential operator. As a result, the Fast Fourier Transform can be applied to solve the Poisson equation with operations. Numerical examples have confirmed the accuracy and robustness of the new scheme.

Within the projection schemes for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations (namely “pressure-correction” method), we consider the simplest method (of order one in time) which takes into account the pressure in both steps of the splitting scheme. For this scheme, we construct, analyze and implement a new high order compact spatial approximation on nonstaggered grids. This approach yields a fourth order accuracy in space with an optimal treatment of the boundary conditions (without error on the velocity) which could be extended to more general splitting. We prove the unconditional stability of the associated Cauchy problem via von Neumann analysis. Then we carry out a normal mode analysis so as to obtain more precise results about the behavior of the numerical solutions. Finally we present detailed numerical tests for the Stokes and the Navier-Stokes equations (including the driven cavity benchmark) to illustrate the theoretical results.

This paper presents a novel high-order space-time method for hyperbolic conservation laws. Two important concepts, the staggered space-time mesh of the space-time conservation element/solution element (CE/SE) method and the local discontinuous basis functions of the space-time discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element method, are the two key ingredients of the new scheme. The staggered space-time mesh is constructed using the cell-vertex structure of the underlying spatial mesh. The universal definitions of CEs and SEs are independent of the underlying spatial mesh and thus suitable for arbitrarily unstructured meshes. The solution within each physical time step is updated alternately at the cell level and the vertex level. For this solution updating strategy and the DG ingredient, the new scheme here is termed as the discontinuous Galerkin cell-vertex scheme (DG-CVS). The high order of accuracy is achieved by employing high-order Taylor polynomials as the basis functions inside each SE. The present DG-CVS exhibits many advantageous features such as Riemann-solver-free, high-order accuracy, point-implicitness, compactness, and ease of handling boundary conditions. Several numerical tests including the scalar advection equations and compressible Euler equations will demonstrate the performance of the new method.

In this paper, a new sharp-interface approach to simulate compressible multiphase flows is proposed. The new scheme consists of a high order WENO finite volume scheme for solving the Euler equations coupled with a high order path-conservative discontinuous Galerkin finite element scheme to evolve an indicator function that tracks the material interface. At the interface our method applies ghost cells to compute the numerical flux, as the ghost fluid method. However, unlike the original ghost fluid scheme of Fedkiw et al. [15], the state of the ghost fluid is derived from an approximate-state Riemann solver, similar to the approach proposed in [25], but based on a much simpler formulation. Our formulation leads only to one single scalar nonlinear algebraic equation that has to be solved at the interface, instead of the system used in [25]. Away from the interface, we use the new general Osher-type flux recently proposed by Dumbser and Toro [13], which is a simple but complete Riemann solver, applicable to general hyperbolic conservation laws. The time integration is performed using a fully-discrete one-step scheme, based on the approaches recently proposed in [5,7]. This allows us to evolve the system also with time-accurate local time stepping. Due to the sub-cell resolution and the subsequent more restrictive time-step constraint of the DG scheme, a local evolution for the indicator function is applied, which is matched with the finite volume scheme for the solution of the Euler equations that runs with a larger time step. The use of a locally optimal time step avoids the introduction of excessive numerical diffusion in the finite volume scheme. Two different fluids have been used, namely an ideal gas and a weakly compressible fluid modeled by the Tait equation. Several tests have been computed to assess the accuracy and the performance of the new high order scheme. A verification of our algorithm has been carefully carried out using exact solutions as well as a comparison with other numerical reference solutions. The material interface is resolved sharply and accurately without spurious oscillations in the pressure field.

A novel Eulerian Gaussian beam method was developed in [8] to compute the Schrödinger equation efficiently in the semiclassical regime. In this paper, we introduce an efficient semi-Eulerian implementation of this method. The new algorithm inherits the essence of the Eulerian Gaussian beam method where the Hessian is computed through the derivatives of the complexified level set functions instead of solving the dynamic ray tracing equation. The difference lies in that, we solve the ray tracing equations to determine the centers of the beams and then compute quantities of interests only around these centers. This yields effectively a local level set implementation, and the beam summation can be carried out on the initial physical space instead of the phase plane. As a consequence, it reduces the computational cost and also avoids the delicate issue of beam summation around the caustics in the Eulerian Gaussian beam method. Moreover, the semi-Eulerian Gaussian beam method can be easily generalized to higher order Gaussian beam methods, which is the topic of the second part of this paper. Several numerical examples are provided to verify the accuracy and efficiency of both the first order and higher order semi-Eulerian methods.

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for multicomponent immiscible fluids is applied to the simulations of solid-fluid mixture flows including spherical or non-spherical particles in a square pipe at Reynolds numbers of about 100. A spherical solid particle is modeled by a droplet with strong interfacial tension and large viscosity, and consequently there is no need to track the moving solid-liquid boundary explicitly. Nonspherical (discoid, flat discoid, and biconcave discoid) solid particles are made by applying artificial forces to the spherical droplet. It is found that the spherical particle moves straightly along a stable position between the wall and the center of the pipe (the Segré-Silberberg effect). On the other hand, the biconcave discoid particle moves along a periodic helical path around the center of the pipe with changing its orientation, and the radius of the helical path and the polar angle of the orientation increase as the hollow of the concave becomes large.

We perform a comparison in terms of accuracy and CPU time between second order BDF semi-Lagrangian and Lagrange-Galerkin schemes in combination with high order finite element method. The numerical results show that for polynomials of degree 2 semi-Lagrangian schemes are faster than Lagrange-Galerkin schemes for the same number of degrees of freedom, however, for the same level of accuracy both methods are about the same in terms of CPU time. For polynomials of degree larger than 2, Lagrange-Galerkin schemes behave better than semi-Lagrangian schemes in terms of both accuracy and CPU time; specially, for polynomials of degree 8 or larger. Also, we have performed tests on the parallelization of these schemes and the speedup obtained is quasi-optimal even with more than 100 processors.

We consider constraint preserving multidimensional evolution equations. A prototypical example is provided by the magnetic induction equation of plasma physics. The constraint of interest is the divergence of the magnetic field. We design finite volume schemes which approximate these equations in a stable manner and preserve a discrete version of the constraint. The schemes are based on reformulating standard edge centered finite volume fluxes in terms of vertex centered potentials. The potential-based approach provides a general framework for faithful discretizations of constraint transport and we apply it to both divergence preserving as well as curl preserving equations. We present benchmark numerical tests which confirm that our potential-based schemes achieve high resolution, while being constraint preserving.

In this paper we present a generalized lattice Boltzmann based approach for sliding-mesh local reference frame. This scheme exactly conserves hydrodynamic fluxes across local reference frame interface. The accuracy and robustness of our scheme are demonstrated by benchmark validations.

In this paper we proposed a modified Baer-Nunziato model for compressible multi-fluid flows, with main attention on the energy exchange between the two fluids. The proposed model consists of eleven PDEs; however, the use of the particular phase evolving variables may reduce the model to have only six PDEs. The main advantage of the model is that the Abgrall's UPV criterion on mixture velocity and pressure is satisfied without affecting either its hyperbolicity or its conservations of the two individual masses, momentum or total energy. An Lax-Friedrichs scheme is built for a particular case of the proposedmodel. When the two fluids in the fluid mixture are both of the linear Mie-Gruneisen type, the scheme satisfies the Abgrall's UPV criterion on mixture velocity and pressure. Numerical experiments with polytropic, barotropic, stiffened and van der Waals fluids show that the scheme is efficient and able to treat fluids characterized with quite different thermodynamics.

A multiple-image method is proposed to approximate the reaction-field potential of a source charge inside a finite length cylinder due to the electric polarization of the surrounding membrane and bulk water. When applied to a hybrid ion-channel model, this method allows a fast and accurate treatment of the electrostatic interactions of protein with membrane and solvent. To treat the channel/membrane interface boundary conditions of the electric potential, an optimization approach is used to derive image charges by fitting the reaction-field potential expressed in terms of cylindric harmonics. Meanwhile, additional image charges are introduced to satisfy the boundary conditions at the planar membrane interfaces. In the end, we convert the electrostatic interaction problem in a complex inhomogeneous system of ion channel/membrane/water into one in a homogeneous free space embedded with discrete charges (the source charge and image charges). The accuracy of this method is then validated numerically in calculating the solvation self-energy of a point charge.

A new adaptive cell average spectral element method (SEM) is proposed to solve the time-dependent Wigner equation for transport in quantum devices. The proposed cell average SEM allows adaptive non-uniform meshes in phase spaces to reduce the high-dimensional computational cost of Wigner functions while preserving exactly the mass conservation for the numerical solutions. The key feature of the proposed method is an analytical relation between the cell averages of the Wigner function in the k-space (local electron density for finite range velocity) and the point values of the distribution, resulting in fast transforms between the local electron density and local fluxes of the discretized Wigner equation via the fast sine and cosine transforms. Numerical results with the proposed method are provided to demonstrate its high accuracy, conservation, convergence and a reduction of the cost using adaptive meshes.

Water management is a key to ensuring high performance and durability of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), and it is important to understand the behavior of liquid water in PEFC. In this study, the two-phase lattice Boltzmann method is applied to the simulations of water discharge from gas diffusion layers (GDL) to gas channels. The GDL is porous media composed of carbon fibers with hydrophobic treatment, and the gas channels are hydrophilic micro-scale ducts. In the simulations, arbitrarily generated porous materials are used as the structures of the GDL. We investigate the effects of solid surface wettabilities on water distribution in the gas channels and the GDL. Moreover, the results of X-ray computed tomography images in the operating PEFC are compared with the numerical simulations, and the mechanism of the water transport in PEFC is considered.

In this short note we present a derivation of the Spectral Difference Scheme from a Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) discretization of a nonlinear conservation law. This allows interpretation of the Spectral Difference Scheme as a particular discretization under the quadrature-free nodal DG paradigm. Moreover, it enables identification of the key differences between the Spectral Difference Scheme and standard nodal DG schemes.

Realization of the Shan-Chen multiphase flow lattice Boltzmann model is considered in the framework of the higher-order Galilean invariant lattices. The present multiphase lattice Boltzmann model is used in two-dimensional simulation of droplet collisions at high Weber numbers. Results are found to be in a good agreement with experimental findings.

The rotational incremental pressure-correction (RIPC) scheme, described in Timmermans et al. [Int. J. Numer. Methods. Fluids., 22 (1996)] and Shen et al. [Math. Comput., 73 (2003)] for non-rotational Navier-Stokes equations, is extended to rotating incompressible flows. The method is implemented in the context of a pseudo Fourier-spectral code and applied to several rotating laminar and turbulent flows. The performance of the scheme and the computational results are compared to the so-called diagonalization method (DM) developed by Morinishi et al. [Int. J. Heat. Fluid. Flow., 22 (2001)]. The RIPC predictions are in excellent agreement with the DM predictions, while being simpler to implement and computationally more efficient. The RIPC scheme is not in anyway limited to implementation in a pseudo-spectral code or periodic boundary conditions, and can be used in complex geometries and with other suitable boundary conditions.

In this exploratory study, we present a new method of approximating a large system of ODEs by one with fewer equations, while attempting to preserve the essential dynamics of a reduced set of variables of interest. The method has the following key elements: (i) put a (simple, ad-hoc) probability distribution on the phase space of the ODE; (ii) assert that a small set of replacement variables are to be unknown linear combinations of the not-of-interest variables, and let the variables of the reduced system consist of the variables-of-interest together with the replacement variables; (iii) find the linear combinations that minimize the difference between the dynamics of the original system and the reduced system. We describe this approach in detail for linear systems of ODEs. Numerical techniques and issues for carrying out the required minimization are presented. Examples of systems of linear ODEs and variable-coefficient linear PDEs are used to demonstrate the method. We show that the resulting approximate reduced system of ODEs gives good approximations to the original system. Finally, some directions for further work are outlined.

Using the lattice Boltzmann multiphase model, numerical simulations have been performed to understand the dynamics of droplet formation in a microfluidic cross-junction. The influence of capillary number, flow rate ratio, viscosity ratio, and viscosity of the continuous phase on droplet formation has been systematically studied over a wide range of capillary numbers. Two different regimes, namely the squeezinglike regime and the dripping regime, are clearly identified with the transition occurring at a critical capillary number Cacr. Generally, large flow rate ratio is expected to produce big droplets, while increasing capillary number will reduce droplet size. In the squeezing-like regime (Ca ≤ Cacr), droplet breakup process is dominated by the squeezing pressure and the viscous force; while in the dripping regime (Ca ≤ Cacr), the viscous force is dominant and the droplet size becomes independent of the flow rate ratio as the capillary number increases. In addition, the droplet size weakly depends on the viscosity ratio in both regimes and decreases when the viscosity of the continuous phase increases. Finally, a scaling law is established to predict the droplet size.

The objective of this paper is to seek an alternative to the numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations by a method similar to solving the BGK-type modeled lattice Boltzmann equation. The proposed method is valid for both gas and liquid flows. A discrete flux scheme (DFS) is used to derive the governing equations for two distribution functions; one for mass and another for thermal energy. These equations are derived by considering an infinitesimally small control volume with a velocity lattice representation for the distribution functions. The zero-order moment equation of the mass distribution function is used to recover the continuity equation, while the first-order moment equation recovers the linear momentum equation. The recovered equations are correct to the first order of the Knudsen number (Kn); thus, satisfying the continuum assumption. Similarly, the zero-order moment equation of the thermal energy distribution function is used to recover the thermal energy equation. For aerodynamic flows, it is shown that the finite difference solution of the DFS is equivalent to solving the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) with a BGK-type model and a specified equation of state. Thus formulated, the DFS can be used to simulate a variety of aerodynamic and hydrodynamic flows. Examples of classical aeroacoustics, compressible flow with shocks, incompressible isothermal and non-isothermal Couette flows, stratified flow in a cavity, and double diffusive flow inside a rectangle are used to demonstrate the validity and extent of the DFS. Very good to excellent agreement with known analytical and/or numerical solutions is obtained; thus lending evidence to the DFS approach as an alternative to solving the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow simulations.