Numerical Solution of the

Incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations

Ae243 Biofluid Mechanics
Term Project
4 June 2004

Georgios Matheou
2
The Incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations
Why Care?
Life can not exist without fluids.
All biological flows are incompressible, i.e. no bird or fish flies/swims faster
than M=0.3.
Internal flows are mostly laminar (makes things easier).
In spite of their simplicity the Navier-Stokes describe flows at very low
Reynolds numbers (creeping flows) up to complicated turbulent flows at
large Reynolds numbers.
The equations:
Continuity

Momentum
0 u = V
( ) ( )
T
u u u u
u
V + V V + V = V +
c
c
p
t
3
The Role of Pressure
Taking the divergence of the Navier-Stokes we get



The solution with initial and boundary condition
is =0 if, and only if, the right hand side is zero everywhere. Thus the pressure
satisfies the Poisson equation:


The satisfaction of this Poisson equation is a necessary and sufficient condition
for a divergence free velocity field to remain divergence free. The role of
pressure is to enforce continuity, it is more a mathematical variable than a
physical one.
This observation leads to a strategy of solving the Navier-Stokes equations that
imposes continuity by inverting a Poisson equation for a pressure-like variable.
i
j
j
i
x
u
x
u
p
Dt
D
c
c
c
c
V = V
|
.
|

\
|
V
2 2
1

v u
0 u = V = A
i
j
j
i
x
u
x
u
p
c
c
c
c
= V
2
4
The Problem Shear Driven Cavity
Some insects (dragonfly) have wings with well
defined cross-sectional corrugation (Kesel, 2000).
Vortices develop in the valleys of the profile.
The flow in the cavity is driven by shear.
For a square cavity there is only one parameter that
characterizes the flow, the Reynolds number:
v
L U
lid
= Re
Flow visualization at
Re=0.01. (Taneda,
1979)
5
Staggered Grid
Staggered Grid (Harlow and
Welsh, 1965)
Pressure is defined at the cell
centers
Velocities are normal to the cell
faces
Attractive mathematical and
physical properties
Do not display spurious pressure
oscillations
Low memory requirements
Computationally efficient
Conservation properties (mass,
momentum, kinetic energy,
vorticity)
6
Numerical Method Exact Fractional Step Method (Chang, 2002)
Goal: satisfy discrete incompressibility and eliminate the pressure equation
Incompressibility constraint:


Define volume fluxes as Ui=u Si and define the vector q that has the Uis in some
ordering. Then the above equation in matrix form is:




We can construct a matrix C which is the null space of D, that is D C=0


}

= =
CV
faces
i
S u dS 0 n u
(

=
=
0 0 1 1 1
1 1 0 0 1
: where
,
D
0 Dq
(
(
(
(
(
(

=
1 0 0 1
1 1 0 0
0 1 1 0
0 0 1 1
0 1 0 1
C
7
Numerical Method Exact Fractional Step Method (Chang, 2002) (cont.)
C is a discrete curl operator that allows us to define a discrete streamfunction s at
the vertices of the mesh:


A discrete gradient operator G can be defined as the transpose of D:



If we have a scalar quantity (like pressure), the discretized vector of which is ,
then

is the discrete version of
Then:


which reproduces the continuous identity:
Cs q =
T
D G =
| G
p V
0 ) ( = = = | | |
T T T T
DC D C G C
0 = V V p
8
Finite Volume Formulation
x-momentum equation



Evaluate all integrals with the second order accurate
midpoint rule (uniform grid spacing in x and y):



In operator form:


Changing variables from velocity u to volume fluxes U, normalizing in order to
clear the denominator of the pressure gradient, the two momentum equations for the
vector of fluxes q become:

j i y x j i x j i j i
S n
y
u
n
x
u
S pn S u V
t
u
, , , ,
d
Re
1
d d d
} } } }
O O c O c O c
|
|
.
|

\
|
c
c
+
c
c
= + +
c
c
n u
( ) ( ) ( )

|
|
.
|

\
|
c
c

c
c
A +
|
|
.
|

\
|
c
c

c
c
A = A + A + A + A A
+
+
+ + +
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
, ,
, ,
, 1 , , , 1 , ,
2
,
2
,
,
Re
1
j i j i
j i j i
j i j i j i j i j i j i j i j i
j i
y
u
y
u
y
x
u
x
u
y p p y v u v u x u u y
dt
du
y x
j i
u
j i j i i
u
j i
j i
u p
dt
du
,
) (
, ,
) (
,
,
Re
1
2
1
L H = A + +

b r Lq G
q
M + = +
Re
1
d
d
|
t
9
Elimination of Pressure and Time Marching
Substituting q=Cs and premultipling the system by C
T
the pressure is
eliminated and the momentum equations are reduced to a single scalar
equation for s:




Using explicit Adams-Bashforth 2 for the convection terms and implicit
trapezoidal for the viscous we get the discrete system of equations:
) (
d
d
Re
1
b r C LCs C
s
MC C
T T T
+ =
t
|
.
|

\
|
+ A +
|
.
|

\
|
A
+ =
|
.
|

\
|
A

+
b r r C Cs L M C Cs L M C
1 T T 1 T
2
1
2
3
Re 2 Re 2
n n n n
t
t t
10
Verification Re=100
Comparison of steady state solution with data from Ghia
et al (1982).
Simulation at Re=100 with grid resolution of 100100.
Ghia resolution is 128128.
Computed main vortex center at x=0.6188 and y=0.7396
Ghia prediction at x=0.6172 and y=0.7344
Velocity along the midlines. Lines are
the current computation, circles are data
from Ghia.
Streamlines of steady state solution at Re=100
11
Re=1000 Grid: 200 - Velocity Field
12
Vorticity Re=1000
t=1.00
t=14.75
t=2.25
t=7.25
13
References
W. Chang, F. Giraldo, and B. Perot. Analysis of an exact fractional step
method. J. Comput. Phys., 180:183-199, 2002.
J. H. Ferziger and M. Peric. Computational Methods for Fluid Dynamics.
Springer, 2002.
U. Ghia, K. N. Ghia, and C. T. Shin. High-Re solutions for incompressible
flow using the Navier-Stokes equations and a multigrid method. J. Comput.
Phys., 8:387, 1982.
F. H. Harlow and J. E. Welch. Numerical calculations of time dependent
viscous incompressible flow of fluid with a free surface. Phys. Fluids,
8(12):2182, 1965.
A. B. Kesel. Aerodynamic characteristics of dragonfly wing sections
compared with technical aerofoils. J. Exp. Biol., 203:3125, 2000.
S. B. Pope. Turbulent flows. Cambridge, 2000.
S. Taneda. Visualization of separating flows. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn, 46:1935,
1979.