Salvatore Marrone

Free-surface flows solved by means of SPH schemes with numerical diffusive terms

A novel system of equations has been defined which contains diffusive terms in both the continuity and energy equations and, at the leading order, coincides with a standard weakly-compressible SPH scheme with artificial viscosity. A proper state equation is used to associate the internal energy variation to the pressure field and to increase the speed of sound when strong deformations/compressions of the fluid occur. The increase of the sound speed is associated to the shortening of the time integration step and, therefore, allows a larger accuracy during both breaking and impact events. Moreover, the diffusive terms allows reducing the high frequency numerical acoustic noise and smoothing the pressure field. Finally, an enhanced formulation for the second-order derivatives has been defined which is consistent and convergent all over the fluid domain and, therefore, permits to correctly model the diffusive terms up to the free surface. The model has been tested using different free surface flows clearly showing to be robust, efficient and accurate. An analysis of the CPU time cost and comparisons with the standard SPH scheme is provided.

Numerical diffusive terms in weakly-compressible SPH schemes

Abstract A discussion on the use of numerical diffusive terms in SPH models is proposed. Such terms are, generally, added in the continuity equation, in order to reduce the spurious numerical noise that affects the density and pressure fields in weakly-compressible SPH schemes. Specific focus has been given to the theoretical analysis of the diffusive term structure, highlighting the main benefits and drawbacks of the most widespread formulations. Finally, specific test cases have been used to compare such formulations and to confirm the theoretical findings.

An accurate SPH modeling of viscous flows around bodies at low and moderate Reynolds numbers

Abstract A weakly compressible SPH scheme has been used to describe the evolution of viscous flows around blunt bodies at Reynolds numbers ranging from 10 to 2400. The simulation of such a wide range, rarely addressed to in the SPH literature, has been possible thanks to the use of a proper ghost-fluid technique and to an accurate enforcement of the boundary conditions along the solid boundaries. In this context, a new numerical technique based on previous works by Takeda et al. (1994) [48] , Marrone et al. (2011) [28] and De Leffe et al. (2011) [16] has been proposed, along with a new method for the evaluation of the global loads on bodies. Particular care has been taken to study the influence of the weakly-compressibility assumption and of different ghost-fluid techniques on the numerical results. An in-depth validation of the model has been performed by comparing the numerical outcome with experimental data from the literature and other numerical references. The influence of the domain size has been discussed in order to avoid wall side effects and, at the same time, to limit the computational costs. The convergence of the numerical solutions has been checked on both global and local quantities by choosing appropriate Reynolds-cell number.

SPH accuracy improvement through the combination of a quasi-Lagrangian shifting transport velocity and consistent ALE formalisms

This paper addresses the accuracy of the weakly-compressible SPH method. Interpolation defects due to the presence of anisotropic particle structures inherent to the Lagrangian character of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method are highlighted. To avoid the appearance of these structures which are detrimental to the quality of the simulations, a specific transport velocity is introduced and its inclusion within an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formalism is described. Unlike most of existing particle disordering/shifting methods, this formalism avoids the formation of these anisotropic structures while a full consistency with the original Euler or Navier-Stokes equations is maintained. The gain in accuracy, convergence and numerical diffusion of this formalism is shown and discussed through its application to various challenging test cases.

A measure of spatial disorder in particle methods

Abstract In the present work we describe a numerical algorithm which gives a measure of the disorder in particle distributions in two and three dimensions. This applies to particle methods in general, disregarding the fact they use topological connections between particles or not. The proposed measure of particle disorder is tested on specific configurations obtained through the perturbation of a regular lattice. It turns out that the disorder measure may be qualitatively related to the mean absolute value of the perturbation. Finally, some applications of the proposed algorithm are shown by using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method.

Coupling of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics with Finite Volume method for free-surface flows

A new algorithm for the solution of free surface flows with large front deformation and fragmentation is presented. The algorithm is obtained by coupling a classical Finite Volume (FV) approach, that discretizes the Navier-Stokes equations on a block structured Eulerian grid, with an approach based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, implemented in a Lagrangian framework. The coupling procedure is formulated in such a way that each solver is applied in the region where its intrinsic characteristics can be exploited in the most efficient and accurate way: the FV solver is used to resolve the bulk flow and the wall regions, whereas the SPH solver is implemented in the free surface region to capture details of the front evolution. The reported results clearly prove that the combined use of the two solvers is convenient from the point of view of both accuracy and computing time. A new algorithm for coupling meshless Lagrangian methods and Eulerian grid-based methods is proposed.A detailed validation using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Finite Volume (FV) solvers is provided.To our knowledge this is the first time that a coupling like the present one is proposed, implemented and validated.The intrinsic characteristics of both solvers can be exploited to efficiently and accurately solve complex free-surface flows.The results prove that the coupling strategy is convenient from the point of view of both accuracy and computing time.

Multi-resolution Delta-plus-SPH with tensile instability control: Towards high Reynolds number flows

Abstract It is well known that the use of SPH models in simulating flow at high Reynolds numbers is limited because of the tensile instability inception in the fluid region characterized by high vorticity and negative pressure. In order to overcome this issue, the δ + -SPH scheme is modified by implementing a Tensile Instability Control (TIC). The latter consists of switching the momentum equation to a non-conservative formulation in the unstable flow regions. The loss of conservation properties is shown to induce small errors, provided that the particle distribution is regular. The latter condition can be ensured thanks to the implementation of a Particle Shifting Technique (PST). The novel variant of the δ + -SPH is proved to be effective in preventing the onset of tensile instability. Several challenging benchmark tests involving flows past bodies at large Reynolds numbers have been used. Within this a simulation characterized by a deforming foil that resembles a fish-like swimming body is used as a practical application of the δ + -SPH model in biological fluid mechanics.

Analysis of free-surface flows through energy considerations: Single-phase versus two-phase modeling.

The study of energetic free-surface flows is challenging because of the large range of interface scales involved due to multiple fragmentations and reconnections of the air-water interface with the formation of drops and bubbles. Because of their complexity the investigation of such phenomena through numerical simulation largely increased during recent years. Actually, in the last decades different numerical models have been developed to study these flows, especially in the context of particle methods. In the latter a single-phase approximation is usually adopted to reduce the computational costs and the model complexity. While it is well known that the role of air largely affects the local flow evolution, it is still not clear whether this single-phase approximation is able to predict global flow features like the evolution of the global mechanical energy dissipation. The present work is dedicated to this topic through the study of a selected problem simulated with both single-phase and two-phase models. It is shown that, interestingly, even though flow evolutions are different, energy evolutions can be similar when including or not the presence of air. This is remarkable since, in the problem considered, with the two-phase model about half of the energy is lost in the air phase while in the one-phase model the energy is mainly dissipated by cavity collapses.

Energy-decomposition analysis for viscous free-surface flows.

This work is dedicated to the energy decomposition analysis of a viscous free-surface flow. In the presence of a free surface, the viscous dissipation for a Newtonian liquid can be decomposed into two terms: an enstrophy component and a free-surface deformation component. The latter requires the evaluation of volume and surface integrals in the meshless framework. The analysis is based on the weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics formalism. The behavior of the energy terms is studied in standing wave problems by changing the viscosity and the wave amplitude. Finally, an analysis of a complex shallow water breaking wave case is provided. It is shown that in presence of intense breaking phenomena the two energy components are always comparable, whereas generally the free surface component is dominant on the viscous dissipation of gravity waves.

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics method from a large eddy simulation perspective

The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, often used for the modelling of the Navier–Stokes equations by a meshless Lagrangian approach, is revisited from the point of view of Large Eddy Simulation (LES). To this aim, the LES filtering procedure is recast in a Lagrangian framework by defining a filter that moves with the positions of the fluid particles at the filtered velocity. It is shown that the SPH smoothing procedure can be reinterpreted as a sort of LES Lagrangian filtering, and that, besides the terms coming from the LES convolution, additional contributions (never accounted for in the SPH literature) appear in the equations when formulated in a filtered fashion. Appropriate closure formulas are derived for the additional terms and a preliminary numerical test is provided to show the main features of the proposed LES-SPH model.