Finite element numerical simulation of 2.5D direct current method based on mesh refinement and recoarsement

To deal with the problem of low computational precision at the nodes near the source and satisfy the requirements for computational efficiency in inversion imaging and finite-element numerical simulations of the direct current method, we propose a new mesh refinement and recoarsement method for a two-dimensional point source. We introduce the mesh refinement and mesh recoarsement into the traditional structured mesh subdivision. By refining the horizontal grids, the singularity owing to the point source is minimized and the topography is simulated. By recoarsening the horizontal grids, the number of grid cells is reduced significantly and computational efficiency is improved. Model tests show that the proposed method solves the singularity problem and reduces the number of grid cells by 80% compared to the uniform grid refinement.

A three-dimensional robust volume-of-fluid solver based on the adaptive mesh refinement

The present study provides a three-dimensional volume-of-fluid method based on the adaptive mesh refinement technique.The projection method on the adaptive mesh is introduced for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations.The octree structure mesh is employed to solve the flow velocities and the pressure.The developed solver is applied to simulate the deformation of the cubic droplet driven by the surface tension without the effect of the gravity.The numerical results well predict the shape evolution of the droplet.

Electrical impedance tomography using adaptive mesh refinement

In electrical impedance tomography （EIT）, distribution of the internal resistivity or conductivity of an unknown object is esti- mated using measured boundary voltage data induced by different current patterns with various reconstruction algorithms. The reconstruction algorithms usually employ the Newton-Raphson iteration scheme to visualize the resistivity distribution inside the object. Accuracy of the imaging process depends not only on the algorithm used, but also on the scheme of finite element discretization. In this paper an adaptive mesh refinement is used in a modified reconstruction algorithm for the regularized Err. The method has a major impact on efficient solution of the forward problem as well as on achieving improved image resolution. Computer simulations indicate that the Newton-Raphson reconstruction algorithm for Err using adaptive mesh refinement performs better than the classical Newton-Raphson algorithm in terms of reconstructed image resolution.

A Numerical Model for Simulating Two-Phase Flow with Adaptive Mesh Refinement

In this study,a numerical model for simulating two-phase flow is developed.The Cartesian grid with Adaptive Mesh Refinement(AMR)is adopted to reduce the computational cost.An explicit projection method is used for the time integration and the Finite Difference Method(FDM)is applied on a staggered grid for the discretization of spatial derivatives.The Volume of Fluid(VOF)method with Piecewise-Linear Interface Calculation(PLIC)is extended to the AMR grid to capture the gas-water interface accurately.A coarse-fine interface treatment method is developed to preserve the flux conservation at the interfaces.Several two-dimensional(2D)and three-dimensional(3D)benchmark cases are carried out for the validation of the model.2D and 3D shear flow tests are conducted to validate the extension of the VOF method to the AMR grid.A 2D linear sloshing case is considered in which the model is proved to have 2nd-order accuracy in space.The efficiency of applying the AMR grid is discussed with a nonlinear sloshing problem.Finally,2D solitary wave past stage and 2D/3D dam break are simulated to demonstrate that the model is able to simulate violent interface problems.

High-order compact finite volume methods on unstructured grids with adaptive mesh refinement for solving inviscid and viscous flows

In the present paper, high-order finite volume schemes on unstructured grids developed in our previous papers are extended to solve three-dimensional inviscid and viscous flows. The highorder variational reconstruction technique in terms of compact stencil is improved to reduce local condition numbers. To further improve the efficiency of computation, the adaptive mesh refinement technique is implemented in the framework of high-order finite volume methods. Mesh refinement and coarsening criteria are chosen to be the indicators for certain flow structures. One important challenge of the adaptive mesh refinement technique on unstructured grids is the dynamic load balancing in parallel computation. To solve this problem, the open-source library p4 est based on the forest of octrees is adopted. Several two-and three-dimensional test cases are computed to verify the accuracy and robustness of the proposed numerical schemes.

Large eddy simulation of cavitating flows with dynamic adaptive mesh refinement using OpenFOAM

Cavitating flows are dominated by large gradients of physical properties and quantities containing complicated interfacial structures and lots of multi-scale eddies that need to be accurately characterized using a high-resolution mesh.The present work,within OpenFOAM,proposes an effective modeling framework using the large eddy simulation(LES)approach along with the volume of fluid(VOF)method to simulate the two-phase flow system and applies the Schnerr-Sauer model to calculate the mass-transfer rate between water and vapor.The adaptive mesh refinement(AMR)which is a powerful tool for allocating high-resolution grids only to the region of the greatest concern is adopted for improving the solution of interfacial structures.The effect of grid size is firstly investigated and the time-averaged quantities are verified against the experimental data,and then simulations of cavitating flows are successfully achieved to precisely characterize the features of cavitation with automatically and dynamically refining the mesh.As the refinement only takes place in the interfacial region,high-precision simulations can be achieved with limited computational resources,and the method shows promising prospects for modeling of the multi-scale,time-critical and computationally intensive cavitating flows.

Adaptive mesh refinement immersed boundary method for simulations of laminar flows past a moving thin elastic structure

One of the critical issues in numerical simulation of fluid-structure interaction problems is inaccuracy of the solutions,especially for flows past a stationary thin elastic structure where large deformations occur.High resolution is required to capture the flow characteristics near the fluid-structure interface to enhance accuracy of the solutions within proximity of the thin deformable body.Hence,in this work,an algorithm is developed to simulate fluid-structure interactions of moving deformable structures with very thin thicknesses.In this algorithm,adaptive mesh refinement(AMR)is integrated with immersed boundary finite element method(IBFEM)with two-stage pressure-velocity corrections.Despite successive interpolation of the flow field by IBM,the governing equations were solved using a fixed structured mesh,which significantly reduces the computational time associated with mesh reconstruction.The cut-cell IBM is used to predict the body forces while FEM is used to predict deformation of the thin elastic structure in order to integrate the motions of the fluid and solid at the interface.AMR is used to discretize the governing equations and obtain solutions that efficiently capture the thin boundary layer at the fluid-solid interface.The AMR-IBFEM algorithm is first verified by comparing the drag coefficient,lift coefficient,and Strouhal number for a benchmark case(laminar flow past a circular cylinder at Re=100)and the results showed good agreement with those of other researchers.The algorithm is then used to simulate 2-D laminar flows past stationary and moving thin structures positioned perpendicular to the freestream direction.The results also showed good agreement with those obtained from the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian(ALE)algorithm for elastic thin boundaries.It is concluded that the AMR-IBFEM algorithm is capable of predicting the characteristics of laminar flow past an elastic structure with acceptable accuracy(error of-0.02%)with only-1%of the computational time for simulations with full mesh refinement.

An ultralight geometry processing library for parallel mesh refinement

In applications such as parallel mesh refinement,it remains a challenging issue to ensure the refined surface respects the original Computer-Aided Design(CAD)model accurately.In this paper,an ultralight geometry processing library is developed to resolve this issue effectively and efficiently.Here,we say the kernel is ultralight because it has a very small set of data-structures and algorithms by comparison with industrial-level geometry kernels.Within the library,a simplified surface boundary representation(B-rep)and a radial edge structure are developed respectively to depict the geometry model and the surface mesh,plus hash tables that record the connections between the geometry model and the surface mesh.Based on these data structures,a set of efficient algorithms are developed,which initializes the connection tables,projects a point back to the original geometry,etc.With these data-structure and algorithmic infrastructures set up,the callings of eight well-designed Application Programming Interfaces(APIs)are powerful enough to enable the parallel mesh refinement algorithm outputs a mesh respecting the input CAD model accurately.Numerical experiments will be finally presented to evaluate the performance of the overall parallel mesh refinement algorithm and the algorithms in relation with the developed library.

An Adaptive Mesh Refinement Strategy for Immersed Boundary/Interface Methods

An adaptive mesh refinement strategy is proposed in this paper for the Immersed Boundary and Immersed Interface methods for two-dimensional elliptic interface problems involving singular sources.The interface is represented by the zero level set of a Lipschitz functionϕ(x,y).Our adaptive mesh refinement is done within a small tube of|ϕ(x,y)|δwith finer Cartesian meshes.The discrete linear system of equations is solved by a multigrid solver.The AMR methods could obtain solutions with accuracy that is similar to those on a uniform fine grid by distributing the mesh more economically,therefore,reduce the size of the linear system of the equations.Numerical examples presented show the efficiency of the grid refinement strategy.

An Edge-Based Anisotropic Mesh Refinement Algorithm and its Application to Interface Problems

Based on an error estimate in terms of element edge vectors on arbitrary unstructured simplex meshes,we propose a new edge-based anisotropic mesh refinement algorithm.As the mesh adaptation indicator,the error estimate involves only the gradient of error rather than higher order derivatives.The preferred refinement edge is chosen to reduce the maximal term in the error estimate.The algorithm is implemented in both two-and three-dimensional cases,and applied to the singular function interpolation and the elliptic interface problem.The numerical results demonstrate that the convergence order obtained by using the proposed anisotropic mesh refinement algorithm can be higher than that given by the isotropic one.

Cavitation Evolution Around a Twist Hydrofoil by Large Eddy Simulation(LES)with Mesh Adaption

The cavitating flow around a Delft Twist-11 hydrofoil is simulated using the large eddy simulation approach.The volume-of-fluid method incorporated with the Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model is utilized to track the water-vapor interface.Adaptive mesh refinement(AMR)is also applied to improve the simulation accuracy automatically.Two refinement levels are conducted to verify the dominance of AMR in predicting cavitating flows.Results show that cavitation features,including the U-type structure of shedding clouds,are consistent with experimental observations.Even a coarse mesh can precisely capture the phase field without increasing the total cell number significantly using mesh adaption.The predicted shedding frequency agrees fairly well with the experimental data under refinement level 2.This study illustrates that AMR is a promising approach to achieve accurate simulations for multiscale cavitating flows within limited computational costs.Finally,the force element method is currently adopted to investigate the lift and drag fluctuations during the evolution of cavitation structure.The mechanisms of lift and drag fluctuations due to cavitation and the interaction between vorticity forces and cavitation are explicitly revealed.

A Computational Framework for Parachute Inflation Based on Immersed Boundary/Finite Element Approach

A computational framework for parachute inflation is developed based on the immersed boundary/finite element approach within the open-source IBAMR library.The fluid motion is solved by Peskin's diffuse-interface immersed boundary(IB)method,which is attractive for simulating moving-boundary flows with large deformations.The adaptive mesh refinement technique is employed to reduce the computational cost while retain the desired resolution.The dynamic response of the parachute is solved with the finite element approach.The canopy and cables of the parachute system are modeled with the hyperelastic material.A tether force is introduced to impose rigidity constraints for the parachute system.The accuracy and reliability of the present framework is validated by simulating inflation of a constrained square plate.Application of the present framework on several canonical cases further demonstrates its versatility for simulation of parachute inflation.

Three-dimensional magnetotellurics modeling using edgebased finite-element unstructured meshes

Three-dimensional forward modeling magnetotellurics （MT） problems. We present a is a challenge for geometrically complex new edge-based finite-element algorithm using an unstructured mesh for accurately and efficiently simulating 3D MT responses. The electric field curl-curl equation in the frequency domain was used to deduce the H （curl） variation weak form of the MT forward problem, the Galerkin rule was used to derive a linear finite-element equation on the linear-edge tetrahedroid space, and, finally, a BI-CGSTAB solver was used to estimate the unknown electric fields. A local mesh refinement technique in the neighbor of the measuring MT stations was used to greatly improve the accuracies of the numerical solutions. Four synthetic models validated the powerful performance of our algorithms. We believe that our method will effectively contribute to processing more complex MT studies.

HEXAHEDRAL ELEMENT REFINEMENT FOR THE PREDICTION- CORRECTION ALE FEM SIMULATION OF 3D BULKINGFORMING PROCESS

Based on the characteristics of 3D bulk forming process, the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation-based FEM is studied, and a prediction-correction ALE-based FEM is proposed which integrates the advantages of precisely predicting the boundary configuration of the deformed material, and of efficiently avoiding hexahedron remeshing processes. The key idea of the prediction-correction ALE FEM is elaborated in detail. Accordingly, the strategy of mesh quality control, one of the key enabling techniques for the 3D bulk forming process numerical simulation by the prediction-correction ALE FEM is carefully investigated, and the algorithm for hexahedral element refinement is formulated based on the mesh distortion energy.

Two-Dimensional Euler Adaptive Mesh Method on Detonation

The adaptive mesh refinement （AMR） method is applied in the 2-D Euler multi-component elasticplastic hydrodynamics code （MEPH2Y）. It is applied on detonation. Firstly, the AMR method is described, including a conservative spatial interpolation, the time integration methodology with the adapitve time increment and an adaptive computational region method. The advantage of AMR technique is exhibited by numerical examples, including the 1-D C-J detonation and the 2-D implosion ignited from a single point. Results show that AMR can promote the computational efficiency, keeping the accuracy in interesting regions.

Study on Mesh-Control Device for the Mesh Generator Based on Tree Structures

In this paper, a process of the quadtree mesh generation is described, then a mesh control device of the tree based mesh generators is analyzed in detail. Some examples are given to demonstrate that the mesh control device allows for efficient a priori and a posteriori mesh refinements.

Continuous FEM simulation of multi-pass plate hot rolling suitable for plate shape analysis

In order to continuously simulate multi-pass plate rolling process,a 3-D elastic hollow-roll model was proposed and an auto mesh-refining module with data passing was developed and integrated with FE software,Marc.The hollow-roll model has equivalent stiffness of bending resistance and deformation to the real solid and much less meshes,so the computational time is greatly reduced.Based on these,the factors influencing plate profile,such as the roll-bending force,initial crown,thermal crown and heat transfer during rolling and inter-pass cooling can be taken into account in the simulation.The auto mesh-refining module with data passing can automatically refine and re-number elements and transfer the nodal and elemental results to the new meshes.Furthermore,the 3-D modeling routine is parametrically developed and can be run independently of Marc pre-processing program.A seven-pass industrial hot rolling process was continuously simulated to validate the accuracy of model.By comparison of the calculated results with the industrial measured data,the rolling force,temperature and plate profile are in good accordance with the measured ones.

Finite element analyses of slope stability problems using non-associated plasticity

In recent years, finite element analyses have increasingly been utilized for slope stability problems. In comparison to limit equilibrium methods, numerical analyses do not require any definition of the failure mechanism a priori and enable the determination of the safety level more accurately. The paper compares the performances of strength reduction finite element analysis(SRFEA) with finite element limit analysis(FELA), whereby the focus is related to non-associated plasticity. Displacement-based finite element analyses using a strength reduction technique suffer from numerical instabilities when using non-associated plasticity, especially when dealing with high friction angles but moderate dilatancy angles. The FELA on the other hand provides rigorous upper and lower bounds of the factor of safety(FoS) but is restricted to associated flow rules. Suggestions to overcome this problem, proposed by Davis(1968), lead to conservative FoSs; therefore, an enhanced procedure has been investigated. When using the modified approach, both the SRFEA and the FELA provide very similar results. Further studies highlight the advantages of using an adaptive mesh refinement to determine FoSs. Additionally, it is shown that the initial stress field does not affect the FoS when using a Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion.

A large eddy simulation of flows around an underwater vehicle model using an immersed boundary method

A large eddy simulation （LES） of the flows around an underwater vehicle model at intermediate Reynolds numbers is performed. The underwater vehicle model is taken as the DARPA SUBOFF with full appendages, where the Reynolds number based on the hull length is 1.0x 105, An immersed boundary method based on the moving-least-squares reconstruction is used to handle the complex geometric boundaries. The adaptive mesh refinement is utilized to resolve the flows near the hull, The parallel scalabilities of the flow solver are tested on meshes with the number of cells varying from 50 million to 3.2 billion, The parallel solver reaches nearly linear scalability for the flows around the underwater vehicle model, The present simulation captures the essential features of the vortex structures near the hull and in the wake, Both of the time-averaged pressure coefficients and srreamwise velocity profiles obtained from the LES are consistent with the characteristics of the flows pass an appended axisymmetric body. The code efficiency and its correct predictions on flow features allow us to perform the full-scale simulations on tens of thousands of cores with billions of grid points for higher-Reynolds-number flows around the underwater vehicles.

Solution of Chemical Dynamic Optimization Using the Simultaneous Strategies

An approach of simultaneous strategies with two novel techniques is proposed to improve the solution accuracy of chemical dynamic optimization problems. The first technique is to handle constraints on control vari- ables based on the finite-element collocation so as to control the approximation error for discrete optimal problems, where a set of control constraints at dement knots are integrated with the procedure for optimization leading to a significant gain in the accuracy of the simultaneous strategies. The second technique is to make the mesh refine- ment more feasible and reliable by introducing length constraints and guideline in designing appropriate element length boundaries, so that the proposed approach becomes more efficient in adjusting dements to track optimal control profile breakpoints and ensure accurate state and centrol profiles. Four classic benchmarks of dynamic op- timization problems are used as illustrations, and the proposed approach is compared with literature reports. The research results reveal that the proposed approach is preferz,ble in improving the solution accuracy of chemical dy- namic optimization problem.