Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “implicit solvers”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 343 records · Page 19

Numerical Evidence of Multiple Solutions for the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes Equations

In this paper, evidence is presented for the existence of multiple solutions of Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with the one-equation Spalart–Allmaras and two-equation Wilcox $k-ω$ turbulence models on fixed grids in three dimensions and how they were obtained is described. The two major configurations considered are an “academic” extruded two-dimensional airfoil geometry and the trap wing test case. The observed appearance of the multiple solutions seems to be closely related to smooth body separation (sometimes massive) routinely observed in flows over high-lift configurations, especially near stall angles of attack. The results are obtained and cross-verified with two stabilized finite-element codes (streamwise upwind Petrov–Galerkin), which provide residual converged results for complex flows with second-order discretizations. In the paper, the ways multiple solutions have been obtained are described, including such obvious ones as providing a different initial guess to the steady-state solver as well as somewhat unexpected (in this context) techniques of using implicit residual smoothing while time marching to steady state. The phenomenon of the so-called pseudosolutions is also discussed, which is loosely defined as solutions to the discrete system of equations having “sharp” convergence behavior (sometimes up to six to seven orders of the relative residual reduction), which fail to achieve the stronger, machine-zero convergence criterion. Some numerical observations are also presented on the sensitivity of the obtained multiple solutions to the discretization and grid perturbations.

Engineering↗

Counterrotating prop-fan simulations which feature a relative-motion multiblock grid decomposition enabling arbitrary time-steps

Improvements are presented of a computer algorithm developed for the time-accurate flow analysis of rotating machines. The flow model is a finite volume method utilizing a high-resolution approximate Riemann solver for interface flux definitions. The numerical scheme is a block LU implicit iterative-refinement method which possesses apparent unconditional stability. Multiblock composite gridding is used to orderly partition the field into a specified arrangement of blocks exhibiting varying degrees of similarity. Block-block relative motion is achieved using local grid distortion to reduce grid skewness and accommodate arbitrary time step selection. A general high-order numerical scheme is applied to satisfy the geometric conservation law. An even-blade-count counterrotating unducted fan configuration is chosen for a computational study comparing solutions resulting from altering parameters such as time step size and iteration count. The solutions are compared with measured data.

Janus, J. Mark↗

Computation of compressible quasi-axisymmetric slender vortex flow and breakdown

The unsteady, compressible Navier-Stokes equations are used to compute and analyze compressible quasi-axisymmetric isolated vortices. The Navier-Stokes equations are solved using an implicit, upwind, flux difference splitting finite volume scheme. The developed three dimensional solver was verified by comparing its solution profiles with those of a slender, quasi-axisymmetric vortex solver for a subsonic, quasi-axisymmetric vortex in an unbounded domain. The Navier-Stokes solver is then used to solve for a supersonic, quasi-axisymmetric vortex flow in a configured circular duct. Steady and unsteady vortex-shock interactions and breakdown were captured. The problem was also calculated using the Euler solver of the same code; the results were compared with those of the Navier-Stokes solver. The effect of the initial swirl was investigated.

Kandil, Osama A.↗

Heliospheric Termination Shock Motion Due to Fluctuations in the Solar Wind Upstream Conditions: Spherically Symmetric Model

Large-scale fluctuations in the solar wind plasma upstream of the heliospheric termination shock (TS) will cause inward and outward motions of the shock. Using numerical techniques, we extend an earlier strictly one-dimensional (planar) analytic gas dynamic model to spherical symmetry to investigate the features of global behavior of shock motion. Our starting point is to establish a steady numerical solution of the gasdynamic equations describing the interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium. We then introduce disturbances of the solar wind dynamic pressure at an inner boundary, and follow the subsequent evolution of the system, especially the motion of the termination shock. Our model solves spherically symmetric gasdynamic equations as an initial-boundary value problem. The equations in conservative form are solved using a fully implicit Total Variation Diminishing (TVD) upwind scheme with Roe-type Riemann solver. Boundary conditions are given by the solar wind parameters on an inner spherical boundary, where they are allowed to vary with time for unsteady calculations, and by a constant pressure (roughly simulating the effect of the local interstellar medium) on an outer boundary. We find that immediately after the interaction, the shock moves with speeds given by the earlier analogous analytic models. However, as the termination shock propagates it begins to slow down, seeking a new equilibrium position. In addition, the disturbance transmitted through the TS, either a shock or rarefaction wave, will encounter the heliopause boundary and be reflected back. The reflected signal will encounter the TS, causing it to oscillate. The phenomenon may be repeated for a number of reflections, resulting in a "ringing" of the outer heliosphere.

Ratkiewicz, R.↗

Graphite Ablation and Thermal Response Simulation Under Arc-Jet Flow Conditions

The Two-dimensional Implicit Thermal Response and Ablation program, TITAN, was developed and integrated with a Navier-Stokes solver, GIANTS, for multidimensional ablation and shape change simulation of thermal protection systems in hypersonic flow environments. The governing equations in both codes are demoralized using the same finite-volume approximation with a general body-fitted coordinate system. Time-dependent solutions are achieved by an implicit time marching technique using Gauess-Siedel line relaxation with alternating sweeps. As the first part of a code validation study, this paper compares TITAN-GIANTS predictions with thermal response and recession data obtained from arc-jet tests recently conducted in the Interaction Heating Facility (IHF) at NASA Ames Research Center. The test models are graphite sphere-cones. Graphite was selected as a test material to minimize the uncertainties from material properties. Recession and thermal response data were obtained from two separate arc-jet test series. The first series was at a heat flux where graphite ablation is mainly due to sublimation, and the second series was at a relatively low heat flux where recession is the result of diffusion-controlled oxidation. Ablation and thermal response solutions for both sets of conditions, as calculated by TITAN-GIANTS, are presented and discussed in detail. Predicted shape change and temperature histories generally agree well with the data obtained from the arc-jet tests.

Chen, Y.-K.↗

Scalable implicit incompressible resistive MHD with stabilized FE and fully-coupled Newton–Krylov-AMG

Here, we discuss that the computational solution of the governing balance equations for mass, momentum, heat transfer and magnetic induction for resistive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) systems can be extremely challenging. These difficulties arise from both the strong nonlinear, nonsymmetric coupling of fluid and electromagnetic phenomena, as well as the significant range of time- and length-scales that the interactions of these physical mechanisms produce. This paper explores the development of a scalable, fully-implicit stabilized unstructured finite element (FE) capability for 3D incompressible resistive MHD. The discussion considers the development of a stabilized FE formulation in context of the variational multiscale (VMS) method, and describes the scalable implicit time integration and direct-to-steady-state solution capability. The nonlinear solver strategy employs Newton–Krylov methods, which are preconditioned using fully-coupled algebraic multilevel preconditioners. These preconditioners are shown to enable a robust, scalable and efficient solution approach for the large-scale sparse linear systems generated by the Newton linearization. Verification results demonstrate the expected order-of-accuracy for the stabilized FE discretization. The approach is tested on a variety of prototype problems, that include MHD duct flows, an unstable hydromagnetic Kelvin–Helmholtz shear layer, and a 3D island coalescence problem used to model magnetic reconnection. Initial results that explore the scaling of the solution methods are also presented on up to 128K processors for problems with up to 1.8B unknowns on a CrayXK7.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

An implicit marching procedure for the treatment of supersonic flow fields using the conservative full potential equation

A new aerodynamic prediction technique based on the conservative full potential equation is developed for the treatment of supersonic flow fields. This new technique bridges the gap between simplistic linear theory methods and complex Euler solvers. A novel local density linearization concept and a second order accurate retarded density scheme, both producing the correct artificial viscosity, are introduced in developing an implicit marching scheme for solving the scalar phi. The method produces results that compare well with Euler solvers and requires an order of magnitude less computer time and significantly less computer memory over existing nonlinear codes. The scalar phi formulation can be extended to handle subsonic pockets in the marching direction and also is suitable for developing inverse procedures where the shape corresponding to a prescribed loading is sought.

Shankar, V.↗

Application of fast Fourier transforms to the direct solution of a class of two-dimensional separable elliptic equations on the sphere

An efficient, direct, second-order solver for the discrete solution of a class of two-dimensional separable elliptic equations on the sphere (which generally arise in implicit and semi-implicit atmospheric models) is presented. The method involves a Fourier transformation in longitude and a direct solution of the resulting coupled second-order finite-difference equations in latitude. The solver is made efficient by vectorizing over longitudinal wave-number and by using a vectorized fast Fourier transform routine. It is evaluated using a prescribed solution method and compared with a multigrid solver and the standard direct solver from FISHPAK.

Moorthi, Shrinivas↗

Geometric multigrid for an implicit-time immersed boundary method

The immersed boundary (IB) method is an approach to fluid-structure interaction that uses Lagrangian variables to describe the deformations and resulting forces of the structure and Eulerian variables to describe the motion and forces of the fluid. Explicit time stepping schemes for the IB method require solvers only for Eulerian equations, for which fast Cartesian grid solution methods are available. Such methods are relatively straightforward to develop and are widely used in practice but often require very small time steps to maintain stability. Implicit-time IB methods permit the stable use of large time steps, but efficient implementations of such methods require significantly more complex solvers that effectively treat both Lagrangian and Eulerian variables simultaneously. Moreover, several different approaches to solving the coupled Lagrangian-Eulerian equations have been proposed, but a complete understanding of this problem is still emerging. This paper presents a geometric multigrid method for an implicit-time discretization of the IB equations. This multigrid scheme uses a generalization of box relaxation that is shown to handle problems in which the physical stiffness of the structure is very large. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithms described herein. Finally, these tests show that using multigrid as a preconditioner for a Krylov method yields improvements in both robustness and efficiency as compared to using multigrid as a solver. They also demonstrate that with a time step 100–1000 times larger than that permitted by an explicit IB method, the multigrid-preconditioned implicit IB method is approximately 50–200 times more efficient than the explicit method.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Navier-Stokes calculations with a coupled strongly implicit method. II Spline deferred-corrector solutions

The coupled strongly implicit (CSIP) method described previously is combined with a deferred-corrector spline solver for the vorticity-stream function form of the Navier-Stokes equations. Solutions for cavity, channel and cylinder flows are obtained with the fourth-order spline 4 procedure. The strongly coupled spline corrector method converges as rapidly as the finite difference calculations and also allows for arbitrary large time increments for the Reynolds numbers considered (equal to or less than 1000). In some cases fourth-order smoothing or filtering is required in order to suppress high frequency oscillations.

Rubin, S. G.↗

Hypersonic blunt body computations including real gas effects

Various second-order explicit and implicit TVD shock-capturing methods, a generalization of Roe's approximate Riemann solver, and a generalized flux-vector splitting scheme are used to study two-dimensional hypersonic real-gas flows. Special attention is given to the identification of some of the elements and parameters which can affect the convergence rate for high Mach numbers or real gases, but have negligible effect for low Mach numbers, for cases involving steady-state inviscid blunt flows. Blunt body calculations at Mach numbers of greater than 15 are performed to treat real-gas effects, and impinging shock results are obtained to test the treatment of slip surfaces and complex structures. Even with the addition of improvements, the convergence rate of algorithms in the hypersonic flow regime is found to be generally slower for a real gas than for a perfect gas.

Montagne, J.-L.↗

Generalized conjugate-gradient methods for the Navier-Stokes equations

A generalized conjugate-gradient method is used to solve the two-dimensional, compressible Navier-Stokes equations of fluid flow. The equations are discretized with an implicit, upwind finite-volume formulation. Preconditioning techniques are incorporated into the new solver to accelerate convergence of the overall iterative method. The superiority of the new solver is demonstrated by comparisons with a conventional line Gauss-Siedel Relaxation solver. Computational test results for transonic flow (trailing edge flow in a transonic turbine cascade) and hypersonic flow (M = 6.0 shock-on-shock phenoena on a cylindrical leading edge) are presented. When applied to the transonic cascade case, the new solver is 4.4 times faster in terms of number of iterations and 3.1 times faster in terms of CPU time than the Relaxation solver. For the hypersonic shock case, the new solver is 3.0 times faster in terms of number of iterations and 2.2 times faster in terms of CPU time than the Relaxation solver.

Ajmani, Kumud↗

Two Solvers for Tractable Temporal Constraints with Preferences

A number of reasoning problems involving the manipulation of temporal information can naturally be viewed as implicitly inducing an ordering of potential local decisions involving time on the basis of preferences. Soft temporal constraints problems allow to describe in a natural way scenarios where events happen over time and preferences are associated to event distances and durations. In general, solving soft temporal problems require exponential time in the worst case, but there are interesting subclasses of problems which are polynomially solvable. We describe two solvers based on two different approaches for solving the same tractable subclass. For each solver we present the theoretical results it stands on, a description of the algorithm and some experimental results. The random generator used to build the problems on which tests are performed is also described. Finally, we compare the two solvers highlighting the tradeoff between performance and representational power.

Rossi, F.↗

ARKODE: A Flexible IVP Solver Infrastructure for One-step Methods

We describe the ARKODE library of one-step time integration methods for ordinary differential equation (ODE) initial-value problems (IVPs). In addition to providing standard explicit and diagonally implicit Runge–Kutta methods, ARKODE supports one-step methods designed to treat additive splittings of the IVP, including implicit-explicit (ImEx) additive Runge–Kutta methods and multirate infinitesimal (MRI) methods. We present the role of ARKODE within the SUNDIALS suite of time integration and nonlinear solver libraries, the core ARKODE infrastructure for utilities common to large classes of one-step methods, as well as its use of “time stepper” modules enabling easy incorporation of novel algorithms into the library. Numerical results show example problems of increasing complexity, highlighting the algorithmic flexibility afforded through this infrastructure, and include a larger multiphysics application leveraging multiple algorithmic features from ARKODE and SUNDIALS.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Explicit and implicit solution of the Navier-Stokes equations on a massively parallel computer

The design, implementation, and performance of a two-dimensional time-accurate Navier-Stokes solver for the CM2 supercomputer are described. The program uses a single processor for each grid point. Two different time-stepping methods have so far been implemented: an explicit third-order Runge-Kutta method and an implicit approximation-factorization method. The CM2 results are checked against those of a mature well-vectorized Cray 2 program, both for correctness and performance. The code is found to be correct, and the performance in some cases is up to several times that of the Cray 2.

Levit, Creon↗

Multigrid Method for Modeling Multi-Dimensional Combustion with Detailed Chemistry

A highly accurate and efficient numerical method is developed for modeling 3-D reacting flows with detailed chemistry. A contravariant velocity-based governing system is developed for general curvilinear coordinates to maintain simplicity of the continuity equation and compactness of the discretization stencil. A fully-implicit backward Euler technique and a third-order monotone upwind-biased scheme on a staggered grid are used for the respective temporal and spatial terms. An efficient semi-coarsening multigrid method based on line-distributive relaxation is used as the flow solver. The species equations are solved in a fully coupled way and the chemical reaction source terms are treated implicitly. Example results are shown for a 3-D gas turbine combustor with strong swirling inflows.

Zheng, Xiaoqing↗

Numerical solution of 3D Navier-Stokes equations with upwind implicit schemes

An upwind MUSCL type implicit scheme for the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations is presented. Comparison between different approximate Riemann solvers (Roe and Osher) are performed and the influence of the reconstructions schemes on the accuracy of the solution as well as on the convergence of the method is studied. A new limiter is introduced in order to remove the problems usually associated with non-linear upwind schemes. The implementation of a diagonal upwind implicit operator for the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations is also discussed. Finally the turbulence modeling is assessed. Good prediction of separated flows are demonstrated if a non-equilibrium turbulence model is used.

Marx, Yves P.↗

Axisymmetric gyrokinetic simulation of ASDEX-Upgrade scrape-off layer using a conservative implicit BGK collision operator

Collisions play an important role in turbulence and transport of fusion plasmas. For kinetic simulations, as the collisionality increases in the domain of interest, the size of the time step to resolve the collisional physics can become overly restrictive in an explicit time integration scheme, leading to high computational cost. With the aim of overcoming such restriction, we have implemented an implicit Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) collision operator for use in the discontinuous Galerkin full-f gyrokinetic solver within the Gkeyll framework, which, when combined with Gkeyll's traditional explicit time integrator for collisionless advection, can significantly increase the time step in gyrokinetic simulations of highly collisional regimes. To ensure conservation of density, momentum, and energy, we utilize an iterative scheme to correct the discretized approximation to the equilibrium Maxwellian distribution to which the BGK collision operator relaxes. We have further generalized the BGK infrastructure, both the implicit scheme and the correction routine, to handle cross-species collisions. This improved implicit and conservative BGK operator is benchmarked against the more accurate but more computationally expensive Lenard–Bernstein–Dougherty (LBD) operator, which has been utilized in prior studies with Gkeyll. The implicit BGK operator enables 2D axisymmetric simulations of the ASDEX-Upgrade scrape-off layer to run 56 times faster to completion than the simulations with the LBD operator, because the BGK operator is more robust and converges at a lower resolution than is required by the LBD operator. Additionally, in this more collisional limit, we demonstrate that the results of our simulations utilizing the implicit BGK operator agreed well with simulations utilizing the more computationally expensive LBD operator.

Gyrokinetic simulations↗