Meiliang Mao

Geometric conservation law and applications to high-order finite difference schemes with stationary grids

The geometric conservation law (GCL) includes the volume conservation law (VCL) and the surface conservation law (SCL). Though the VCL is widely discussed for time-depending grids, in the cases of stationary grids the SCL also works as a very important role for high-order accurate numerical simulations. The SCL is usually not satisfied on discretized grid meshes because of discretization errors, and the violation of the SCL can lead to numerical instabilities especially when high-order schemes are applied. In order to fulfill the SCL in high-order finite difference schemes, a conservative metric method (CMM) is presented. This method is achieved by computing grid metric derivatives through a conservative form with the same scheme applied for fluxes. The CMM is proven to be a sufficient condition for the SCL, and can ensure the SCL for interior schemes as well as boundary and near boundary schemes. Though the first-level difference operators ?3 have no effects on the SCL, no extra errors can be introduced as ?3=?2. The generally used high-order finite difference schemes are categorized as central schemes (CS) and upwind schemes (UPW) based on the difference operator ?1 which are used to solve the governing equations. The CMM can be applied to CS and is difficult to be satisfied by UPW. Thus, it is critical to select the difference operator ?1 to reduce the SCL-related errors. Numerical tests based on WCNS-E-5 show that the SCL plays a very important role in ensuring free-stream conservation, suppressing numerical oscillations, and enhancing the robustness of the high-order scheme in complex grids.

Extending Weighted Compact Nonlinear Schemes to Complex Grids with Characteristic-Based Interface Conditions

There are still some challenges, such as grid quality, numerical stability, and boundary schemes, in the practical application of high-order finite difference schemes for complex configurations. This study presents some improved strategies that indicate potential engineering applications of high-order schemes. The formally fifth-order weighted compact nonlinear scheme developed by the authors is implemented on point-matched multiblock structured grids, which are generated over complex configurations to ensure the grid quality of each component block. The information transmission between neighboring blocks is carried out by new characteristic-based interface conditions that directly exchange the spatial derivatives on each side of an interface by means of a characteristic-based projection to keep the high-order accuracy and high resolution of a spatial difference scheme. The high-order scheme combined with the interface conditions is shown to be asymptotically stable. The engineering-oriented applications of the high-order strategy are demonstrated by solving several two- and three-dimensional problems with complex grid systems.

Evaluation of Euler fluxes by a high-order CFD scheme: shock instability

The construction of Euler fluxes is an important step in shock-capturing/upwind schemes. It is well known that unsuitable fluxes are responsible for many shock anomalies, such as the carbuncle phenomenon. Three kinds of flux vector splittings (FVSs) as well as three kinds of flux difference splittings (FDSs) are evaluated for the shock instability by a fifth-order weighted compact nonlinear scheme. The three FVSs are Steger–Warming splitting, van Leer splitting and kinetic flux vector splitting (KFVS). The three FDSs are Roes splitting, advection upstream splitting method (AUSM) type splitting and Harten–Lax–van Leer (HLL) type splitting. Numerical results indicate that FVSs and high dissipative FDSs undergo a relative lower risk on the shock instability than that of low dissipative FDSs. However, none of the fluxes evaluated in the present study can entirely avoid the shock instability. Generally, the shock instability may be caused by any of the following factors: low dissipation, high Mach number, unsuitable grid distribution, large grid aspect ratio, and the relative shock-internal flow state (or position) between upstream and downstream shock waves. It comes out that the most important factor is the relative shock-internal state. If the shock-internal state is closer to the downstream state, the computation is at higher susceptibility to the shock instability. Wall-normal grid distribution has a greater influence on the shock instability than wall-azimuthal grid distribution because wall-normal grids directly impact on the shock-internal position. High shock intensity poses a high risk on the shock instability, but its influence is not as much as the shock-internal state. Large grid aspect ratio is also a source of the shock instability. Some results of a second-order scheme and a first-order scheme are also given. The comparison between the high-order scheme and the two low-order schemes indicates that high-order schemes are at a higher risk of the shock instability. Adding an entropy fix is very helpful in suppressing the shock instability for the two low-order schemes. When the high-order scheme is used, the entropy fix still works well for Roes flux, but its effect on the Steger–Warming flux is trivial and not much clear.

Numerical Simulation of Control of Flow Past a Stalled NACA0015 Airfoil with Plasma-based Body Forces

Plasma-based techniques exploiting electromagnetic forces for flow control are currently of considerable interest. Particularly attractive properties stem from the absence of moving parts and lack of mechanical inertia, which permits near instantaneous deployment over a broad range of frequencies. Recent studies have demonstrated the capability of the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) to promote boundary layer attachment on airfoil at a high angle of attack[1, 2, 8] at atmospheric pressure.

Gas-Kinetic BGK Scheme for Hypersonic Viscous Flow

This paper is about the application of a gas-kinetic scheme based on the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) model for the Navier-Stokes equations in the study of hypersonic viscous flow. In the laminar hypersonic viscous flow computations, complicated flow phenomena, i.e., shock boundary layer interaction, flow separation, and viscous/inviscid interaction, will be encountered. The cases studied include the type IV shock-shock interaction around a circular cylinder and hypersonic flow passing through a double-cone geometry.