Dmitry V. Kotov

Spurious behavior of shock-capturing methods by the fractional step approach: Problems containing stiff source terms and discontinuities

The goal of this paper is to relate numerical dissipations that are inherited in high order shock-capturing schemes with the onset of wrong propagation speed of discontinuities. For pointwise evaluation of the source term, previous studies indicated that the phenomenon of wrong propagation speed of discontinuities is connected with the smearing of the discontinuity caused by the discretization of the advection term. The present study focuses only on solving the reactive system by the fractional step method using the Strang splitting. Studies shows that the degree of wrong propagation speed of discontinuities is highly dependent on the accuracy of the numerical method. The manner in which the smearing of discontinuities is contained by the numerical method and the overall amount of numerical dissipation being employed play major roles. Depending on the numerical method, time step and grid spacing, the numerical simulation may lead to (a) the correct solution (within the truncation error of the scheme), (b) a divergent solution, (c) a wrong propagation speed of discontinuities solution or (d) other spurious solutions that are solutions of the discretized counterparts but are not solutions of the governing equations. The findings might shed some light on the reported difficulties in numerical combustion and problems with stiff nonlinear (homogeneous) source terms and discontinuities in general.

Computational challenges for simulations related to the NASA electric arc shock tube (EAST) experiments

Abstract The goal of this study is to gain some physical insights and an understanding of the computational challenges for the simulations related to the hypersonic nonequilibrium multi-species and multi-reaction experiments on the NASA Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST). While experimental measurement does not provide any information about the radial structure of this type of flow, accurate and reliable numerical simulations can provide more insight into the physical structure of the flow to aid the design of atmospheric entry spacecrafts. The paper focuses on the spurious numerics which take place in numerical simulations of the subject physics containing stiff source terms and discontinuities. This paper is based on the knowledge gained from Yee et al. on simple reacting test cases (Yee et al. 2013, [9] ) as a guide to reveal the computational challenges involved for such an extreme flow type. The results of the 1D and 2D EAST viscous and inviscid simulations using a simplified physical model are presented. The computation reveals, for the first time, that the 2D viscous model which contains both shocks and shears exhibits Tollmien–Schlichting-like instability complex patterns at the boundary layer. In addition to exhibiting spurious numerical behavior of wrong propagation speed of discontinuities by typical shock-capturing methods, there is improved understanding on the cause of numerical difficulties by previous investigators. One example is that the relative distance between the shocks and shear/contact is different from one grid spacing to another for each considered high order shock-capturing scheme. The results presented can provide insight on the numerical instability observed by previous investigations and future algorithm development for this type of extreme flow.

Corrigendum: Corrigendum to Spurious behavior of shock-capturing methods by the fractional step approach: Problems containing stiff source terms and discontinuities [J. Comput. Phys. 241 (2013) 266-291]

The goal of this paper is to relate numerical dissipations that are inherited in high order shock-capturing schemes with the onset of wrong propagation speed of discontinuities. For pointwise evaluation of the source term, previous studies indicated that the phenomenon of wrong propagation speed of discontinuities is connected with the smearing of the discontinuity caused by the discretization of the advection term. The present study focuses only on solving the reactive system by the fractional step method using the Strang splitting. Studies shows that the degree of wrong propagation speed of discontinuities is highly dependent on the accuracy of the numerical method. The manner in which the smearing of discontinuities is contained by the numerical method and the overall amount of numerical dissipation being employed play major roles. Depending on the numerical method, time step and grid spacing, the numerical simulation may lead to (a) the correct solution (within the truncation error of the scheme), (b) a divergent solution, (c) a wrong propagation speed of discontinuities solution or (d) other spurious solutions that are solutions of the discretized counterparts but are not solutions of the governing equations. The findings might shed some light on the reported difficulties in numerical combustion and problems with stiff nonlinear (homogeneous) source terms and discontinuities in general. Published by Elsevier Inc.

High Order Numerical Methods for the Dynamic SGS Model of Turbulent Flows with Shocks

Simulation of turbulent flows with shocks employing subgrid-scale (SGS) filtering may encounter a loss of accuracy in the vicinity of a shock. This paper addresses the accuracy improvement of LES of turbulent flows in two ways: (a) from the SGS model standpoint and (b) from the numerical method improvement standpoint. In an internal report, Kotov et al. ( ”High Order Numerical Methods for large eddy simulation (LES) of Turbulent Flows with Shocks”, CTR Tech Brief, Oct. 2014, Stanford University), we performed a preliminary comparative study of different approaches to reduce the loss of accuracy within the framework of the dynamic Germano SGS model. The high order low dissipative method of Yee & Sjögreen (2009) using local flow sensors to control the amount of numerical dissipation where needed is used for the LES simulation. The considered improved dynamics model approaches include applying the one-sided SGS test filter of Sagaut & Germano (2005) and/or disabling the SGS terms at the shock location. For Mach 1.5 and 3 canonical shock-turbulence interaction problems, both of these approaches show a similar accuracy improvement to that of the full use of the SGS terms. The present study focuses on a five levels of grid refinement study to obtain the reference direct numerical simulation (DNS) solution for additional LES SGS comparison and approaches. One of the numerical accuracy improvements included here applies Harten’s subcell resolution procedure to locate and sharpen the shock, and uses a one-sided test filter at the grid points adjacent to the exact shock location. AMS subject classifications: 65Z05, 65M06, 65M50, 65M55, 65M60, 65M99, 65Y99