This paper discusses three basic issues related to the design of finite difference schemes for unsteadyviscous incompressible flows using vorticity formulations: the boundary condition for vorticity, an efficient time-stepping procedure, and the relation between these schemes and the ones based on velocity-pressure formulation. We show that many of the newly developed global vorticity boundary conditions can actually be written as some local formulas derived earlier. We also show that if we couple a standard centered difference scheme with third- or fourth-order explicit Runge-Kutta methods, the resulting schemes have nocell Reynolds number constraints. For high Reynolds number flows, these schemes are stable under the CFL condition given by the convective terms. Finally, we show that the classical MAC scheme is the same as Thom's formula coupled with second-order centered differences in the interior, in the sense that one can define discrete vorticity in a natural way for the MAC scheme and get the same values as the ones computed from Thom's formula. We use this to derive an efficient fourth-order Runge-Kutta time discretization for the MAC scheme from the one for Thom's formula. We present numerical results for driven cavity flow at high Reynolds number (10 ).

A new fourth-order accurate finite difference scheme for the computation of unsteady viscous incompressible flows is introduced. The scheme is based on the vorticity-stream function formulation. It is essentially compact and has the nice features of a compact scheme with regard to the treatment of boundary conditions. It is also very efficient, at every time step or Runge–Kutta stage, only two Poisson-like equations have to be solved. The Poisson-like equations are amenable to standard fast Poisson solvers usually designed for second order schemes. Detailed comparison with the second-order scheme shows the clear superiority of this new fourth-order scheme in resolving both the boundary layers and the gross features of the flow. This efficient fourth-order scheme also made it possible to compute the driven cavity flow at Reynolds number 106on a 10242grid at a reasonable cost. Fourth-order convergence is proved under mild regularity requirements. This is the first such result to our knowledge

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 study the oscillatory behavior that arises in solutions of a dispersive numerical scheme for the Hopf equation whenever the classical solution of the equation develops a singularity. Modulation equations are derived that describe period-two oscillations so long as the solution of those equations takes values for which the equations are hyperbolic. However, those equations have an elliptic region that may be entered by its solutions in a finite time, after which the corresponding period-two oscillations are seen to break down. This kind of phenomenon has not been observed for integrable schemes. The generation and propagation of period-two oscillations are asymptotically analyzed and a matching formula is found for the transition between oscillatory and nonoscillatory regions. Modulation equations are also presented for period-three oscillations. Numerical experiments are carried out that illustrate our analysis.

In this paper, we investigate the boundary layer behavior of solutions to the one dimensional Broadwell model of the nonlinear Boltzmann equation for small mean free path. We consider the analogue of Maxwell's diffusive and the reflexive boundary conditions. It is found that even for such a simple model, there are boundary layers due to purely kinetic effects which cannot be detected by the corresponding Navier-Stokes system. It is also found numerically that a compressive boundary layer is not always stable in the sense that it may detach from the boundary and move into the interior of the gas as a shock layer.