Abstract

We present a 3-noded triangle and a 4-noded tetrahedra with a continuous linear velocity and a discontinuous linear pressure field formed by the sum of an unknown ''constant pressure field'' and ''a prescribed linear field'' that satisfies the steady state momentum equations for a constant body force. The elements are termed P1/P0+ as the “effective” pressure field is linear, although the unknown pressure field is piecewise constant within each element. The elements have an excellent behaviour for incompressible viscous flow problems with discontinuous material properties formulated in either Eulerian or Lagrangian descriptions. The necessary numerical stabilization for dealing with the inf-sup condition imposed by the incompressibility constraint and high convective effects (in Eulerian flows) is introduced via the Finite Calculus (FIC) approach. For the sake of clarity, the element derivation is presented first for the simpler Stokes equations written in the standard Eulerian frame. The extension of the formulation to the Navier-Stokes equations written in the Eulerian and Lagrangian frameworks is straightforward and is presented in the second part of the paper. The efficiency and accuracy of the new P1/P0+ triangle is verified by solving a set of incompressible multifluid flow problems using a Lagrangian approach and a classical Eulerian description. The excellent performance of the new triangular element in terms of mass conservation and general accuracy for analysis of fluids with discontinuous material properties is highlighted.

Abstract

Multifluids are those fluids in which their physical properties (viscosity or density) vary internally and abruptly forming internal interfaces that introduce a large nonlinearity in the Navier–Stokes equations. For this reason, standard numerical methods require very small time steps in order to solve accurately the internal interface position. In a previous paper, the authors developed a particle‐based method (named particle finite element method (PFEM)) based on a Lagrangian formulation and FEM for solving the fluid mechanics equations for multifluids. PFEM was capable of achieving accurate results, but the limitation of small time steps was still present. In this work, a new strategy concerning the time integration for the analysis of multifluids is developed allowing time steps one order of magnitude larger than the previous method. The advantage of using a Lagrangian solution with PFEM is shown in several examples. All kind of heterogeneous fluids (with different densities or viscosities), multiphase flows with internal interfaces, breaking waves, and fluid separation may be easily solved with this methodology without the need of small time steps.

Abstract

In a previous paper, the authors presented an elemental enriched space to be used in a finite‐element framework (EFEM) capable of reproducing kinks and jumps in an unknown function using a fixed mesh in which the jumps and kinks do not coincide with the interelement boundaries. In this previous publication, only scalar transport problems were solved (thermal problems). In the present work, these ideas are generalized to vectorial unknowns, in particular, the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations for multifluid flows presenting internal moving interfaces. The advantage of the EFEM compared with global enrichment is the significant reduction in computing time when the internal interface is moving. In the EFEM, the matrix to be solved at each time step has not only the same amount of degrees of freedom (DOFs) but also the same connectivity between the DOFs. This frozen matrix graph enormously improves the efficiency of the solver. Another characteristic of the elemental enriched space presented here is that it allows a linear variation of the jump, thus improving the convergence rate, compared with other enriched spaces that have a constant variation of the jump. Furthermore, the implementation in any existing finite‐element code is extremely easy with the version presented here because the new shape functions are based on the usual finite‐element method shape functions for triangles or tetrahedrals, and once the internal DOFs are statically condensed, the resulting elements have exactly the same number of unknowns as the nonenriched finite elements.