With rheology applications in mind, we present a fast solver for the time-dependent effective viscosity of an infinite lattice containing one or more neutrally buoyant smooth rigid particles per unit cell, in a two-dimensional Stokes fluid with given shear rate. At each time, the mobility problem is reformulated as a 2nd-kind boundary integral equation, then discretized to spectral accuracy by the Nyström method and solved iteratively, giving typically 10 digits of accuracy. Its solution controls the evolution of particle locations and angles in a first-order system of ordinary differential equations. The formulation is placed on a rigorous footing by defining a generalized periodic Green’s function for the skew lattice. Numerically, the periodized integral operator is split into a near image sum— applied in linear time via the fast multipole method—plus a correction field solved cheaply via proxy Stokeslets. We use barycentric quadratures to evaluate particle interactions and velocity fields accurately, even at distances much closer than the node spacing. Using first- order time-stepping we simulate, for example, 25 ellipses per unit cell to 3-digit accuracy on a desktop in 1 hour per shear time. Our examples show equilibration at long times, force chains, and two types of blow-ups (jamming) whose power laws match lubrication theory asymptotics.

By performing estimates on the integral of the absolute value of vorticity along a local vortex line segment, we establish a relatively sharp dynamic growth estimate of maximum vorticity under some assumptions on the local geometric regularity of the vorticity vector. Our analysis applies to both the 3D incompressible Euler equations and the surface quasi-geostrophic model (SQG). As an application of our vorticity growth estimate, we apply our result to the 3D Euler equation with the two anti-parallel vortex tubes initial data considered by Hou-Li [12]. Under some additional assumption on the vorticity eld, which seems to be consistent with the computational results of [12], we show that the maximum vorticity can not grow faster than double exponential in time. Our analysis extends the earlier results by Cordoba-Feerman [6, 7] and Deng-Hou-Yu [8, 9].

This is the second of a series of papers on the subject of projection methods for viscous incompressible flow calculations. The purpose of the present paper is to explain why the accuracy of the velocity approximation is not affected by (1) the numerical boundary layers in the approximation of pressure and the intermediate velocity field and (2) the noncommutativity of the projection operator and the laplacian. This is done by using a Godunov–Ryabenki type of analysis in a rigorous fashion. By doing so, we hope to be able to convey the message that normal mode analysis is basically sufficient for understanding the stability and accuracy of a finite-difference method for the Navier–Stokes equation even in the presence of boundaries. As an example, we analyze the second-order projection method based on pressure increment formulations used by van Kan and Bell, Colella, and Glaz. The leading order error term in this case is of $O(\Delta t)$ and behaves as high frequency oscillations over the whole domain, compared with the $O(\Delta t^{{1 / 2}} )$ numerical boundary layers found in the second-order Kim–Momn method.

We propose a simple and efficient finite-difference method for the incompressible MHD equation. The numerical method combines the advantage of the MAC scheme for the Navier–Stokes equation and Yee's scheme for the Maxwell equation. In particular, the semi-discrete version of our scheme introduces no numerical dissipation and preserves the energy identity exactly.

A new formulation, a gauge formulation of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in terms of an auxiliary field $\mathbf{a}$ and a gauge variable $\phi$, $\mathbf{u} =\mathbf{a}+\nabla\phi$, was proposed recently by E and Liu. This paper provides a theoretical analysis of their formulation and verifies the computational advantages. We discuss the implicit gauge method, which uses backward Euler or Crank-Nicolson in time discretization. However, the boundary conditions for the auxiliary field $\mathbf{a}$ are implemented explicitly (vertical extrapolation). The resulting momentum equation is decoupled from the kinematic equation, and the computational cost is reduced to solving a standard heat and Poisson equation. Moreover, such explicit boundary conditions for the auxiliary field $\mathbf{a}$ will be shown to be unconditionally stable for Stokes equations. For the full nonlinear Navier-Stokes equations the time stepping constraint is reduced to the standard CFL constraint ${\triangle t} / {\triangle x} \le C$. We also prove first order convergence of the gauge method when we use MAC grids as our spatial discretization. The optimal error estimate for the velocity field is also obtained.