Using the vorticity and stream function variables is an effective way to compute 2-D incompressible flow due to the facts that the incompressibility constraint for the velocity is automatically satisfied, the pressure variable is eliminated, and high order schemes can be efficiently implemented. However, a difficulty arises in a multi-connected computational domain in determining the constants for the stream function on the boundary of the “holes”. This is an especially challenging task for the calculation of unsteady flows, since these constants vary with time to reflect the total fluxes of the flow in each sub-channel. In this paper, we propose an efficient method in a finite difference setting to solve this problem and present some numerical experiments, including an accuracy check of a Taylor vortex-type flow, flow past a non-symmetric square, and flow in a heat exchanger.

We propose a class of simple and efficient numerical scheme for incompressible fluid equations with coordinate symmetry. By introducing a generalized vorticity-stream formulation, the divergence free constraints are automatically satisfied. In addition, with explicit treatment of the nonlinear terms and local vorticity boundary condition, the Navier–Stokes (MHD, respectively) equation essentially decouples into 2 (4, respectively) scalar equation and thus the scheme is very efficient. Moreover, with proper discretization of the nonlinear terms, the scheme preserves both energy and helicity identities numerically. This is achieved by recasting the nonlinear terms (convection, vorticity stretching, geometric source, Lorentz force and electro-motive force) in terms of Jacobians. This conservative property is valid even in the presence of the pole singularity for axisymmetric flows. The exact conservation of energy and helicity has effectively eliminated excessive numerical viscosity. Numerical examples have demonstrated both accuracy and efficiency of the scheme. Finally, local mesh refinement near the boundary can also be easily incorporated into the scheme without extra cost.

We present numerical schemes for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations based on a primitive variable formulation in which the incompressibility constraint has been replaced by a pressure Poisson equation. The pressure is treated explicitly in time, completely decoupling the computation of the momentum and kinematic equations. The result is a class of extremely efficient Navier–Stokes solvers. Full time accuracy is achieved for all flow variables. The key to the schemes is a Neumann boundary condition for the pressure Poisson equation which enforces the incompressibility condition for the velocity field. Irrespective of explicit or implicit time discretization of the viscous term in the momentum equation the explicit time discretization of the pressure term does not affect the time step constraint. Indeed, we prove unconditional stability of the new formulation for the Stokes equation with explicit treatment of the pressure term and first or second order implicit treatment of the viscous term. Systematic numerical experiments for the full Navier–Stokes equations indicate that a second order implicit time discretization of the viscous term, with the pressure and convective terms treated explicitly, is stable under the standard CFL condition. Additionally, various numerical examples are presented, including both implicit and explicit time discretizations, using spectral and finite difference spatial discretizations, demonstrating the accuracy, flexibility and efficiency of this class of schemes. In particular, a Galerkin formulation is presented requiring only C0 elements to implement.

We give an error estimate for the energy and helicity preserving scheme (EHPS) in second order finite difference setting on axisymmetric incompressible flows with swirling velocity. This is accomplished by a weighted energy estimate, along with careful and nonstandard local truncation error analysis near the geometric singularity and a far field decay estimate for the stream function. A key ingredient in our a priori estimate is the permutation identities associated with the Jacobians, which are also a unique feature that distinguishes EHPS from standard finite difference schemes.

We present novel algorithms for compressible flows that\n\nare efficient for all Mach numbers. The approach is based on several\n\ningredients: semi-implicit schemes, the gauge decomposition\n\nof the velocity field and a second order formulation of the density\n\nequation (in the isentropic case) and of the energy equation (in\n\nthe full Navier-Stokes case). Additionally, we show that our approach\n\ncorresponds to a micro-macro decomposition of the model,\n\nwhere the macro field corresponds to the incompressible component\n\nsatisfying a perturbed low Mach number limit equation and\n\nthe micro field is the potential component of the velocity. Finally,\n\nwe also use the conservative variables in order to obtain a proper\n\nconservative formulation of the equations when the Mach number\n\nis order unity. We successively consider the isentropic case, the\n\nfull Navier-Stokes case, and the isentropic Navier-Stokes-Poisson\n\ncase. In this work, we only concentrate on the question of the\n\ntime discretization and show that the proposed method leads to\n\nAsymptotic Preserving schemes for compressible flows in the low\n\nMach number limit.