This article is devoted to analyze some ambiguities coming from a class of sediment transport models. The models under consideration are governed by the coupling between the shallow-water and the Exner equations. Since the PDE system turns out to be an hyperbolic system in non conservative form, ambiguities may occur as soon as the solution contains shock waves. To enforce a unique definition of the discontinuous solutions, we adopt the path-theory introduced by Dal Maso, LeFLoch and Murat [18]. According to the path choices, we exhibit several shock definitions and we prove that a shock with a constant propagation speed and a given left state may connect an arbitrary right state. As a consequence, additional assumptions (coming from physical considerations or other arguments) must be chosen to enforce a unique definition. Moreover, we show that numerical ambiguities may still exist even when a path is chosen to select the system's solution.

Several recently developed AUSM-family numerical flux functions (SLAU, SLAU2, AUSMM+-up2, and AUSMPW+) have been successfully extended to compute compressible multiphase flows, based on the stratified flow model concept, by following two previous works: one by M.-S. Liou, C.-H. Chang, L. Nguyen, and T.G. Theofanous [AIAA J. 46:2345-2356, 2008], in which AUSM+-up was used entirely, and the other by C.-H. Chang, and M.-S. Liou [J. Comput. Phys. 225:840-873, 2007], in which the exact Riemann solver was combined into AUSM+-up at the phase interface. Through an extensive survey by comparing flux functions, the following are found: (1) AUSM+-up with dissipation parameters of Kp and Ku equal to 0.5 or greater, AUSMPW+, SLAU2, AUSM+-up2, and SLAU can be used to solve benchmark problems, including a shock/water-droplet interaction; (2) SLAU shows oscillatory behaviors [though not as catastrophic as those of AUSM+ (a special case of AUSM+-up with Kp = Ku = 0)] due to insufficient dissipation arising from its ideal-gas-based dissipation term; and (3) when combined with the exact Riemann solver, AUSM+-up (Kp = Ku = 1), SLAU2, and AUSMPW+ are applicable to more challenging problems with high pressure ratios.

In this article we detail the methodology developed to construct an efficient interface description technique — the robust conservative level set (RCLS) — to simulate multiphase flows on mixed-element unstructured meshes while conserving mass to machine accuracy. The approach is tailored specifically for industry as the three-dimensional unstructured approach allows for the treatment of very complex geometries. In addition, special care has been taken to optimise the trade-off between accuracy and computational cost while maintaining the robustness of the numerical method. This was achieved by solving the transport equations for the liquid volume fraction using a WENO scheme for polyhedral meshes and by adding a flux-limiter algorithm. The performance of the resulting method has been compared against established multiphase numerical methods and its ability to capture the physics of multiphase flows is demonstrated on a range of relevant test cases. Finally, the RCLS method has been applied to the simulation of the primary breakup of a flat liquid sheet of kerosene in co-flowing high-pressure gas. This quasi-DNS/LES computation was performed at relevant aero-engine conditions on a three-dimensional mixed-element unstructured mesh. The numerical results have been validated qualitatively against theoretical predictions and experimental data. In particular, the expected breakup regime was observed in the simulation results. Finally, the computation reproduced faithfully the breakup length predicted by a correlation based on experimental data. This constitutes a first step towards a quantitative validation.

The computation of compressible flows becomes more challenging when the Mach number has different orders of magnitude. When the Mach number is of order one, modern shock capturing methods are able to capture shocks and other complex structures with high numerical resolutions. However, if the Mach number is small, the acoustic waves lead to stiffness in time and excessively large numerical viscosity, thus demanding much smaller time step and mesh size than normally needed for incompressible flow simulation. In this paper, we develop an all-speed asymptotic preserving (AP) numerical scheme for the compressible isentropic Euler and Navier-Stokes equations that is uniformly stable and accurate for all Mach numbers. Our idea is to split the system into two parts: one involves a slow, nonlinear and conservative hyperbolic system adequate for the use of modern shock capturing methods and the other a linear hyperbolic system which contains the stiff acoustic dynamics, to be solved implicitly. This implicit part is reformulated into a standard pressure Poisson projection system and thus possesses sufficient structure for efficient fast Fourier transform solution techniques. In the zero Mach number limit, the scheme automatically becomes a projection method-like incompressible solver. We present numerical results in one and two dimensions in both compressible and incompressible regimes.

In this article, we detail the methodology developed to construct arbitrarily high order schemes — linear and WENO — on 3D mixed-element unstructured meshes made up of general convex polyhedral elements. The approach is tailored specifically for the solution of scalar level set equations for application to incompressible two-phase flow problems. The construction of WENO schemes on 3D unstructured meshes is notoriously difficult, as it involves a much higher level of complexity than 2D approaches. This due to the multiplicity of geometrical considerations introduced by the extra dimension, especially on mixed-element meshes. Therefore, we have specifically developed a number of algorithms to handle mixed-element meshes composed of convex polyhedra with convex polygonal faces. The contribution of this work concerns several areas of interest: the formulation of an improved methodology in 3D, the minimisation of computational runtime in the implementation through the maximum use of pre-processing operations, the generation of novel methods to handle complex 3D mixed-element meshes and finally the application of the method to the transport of a scalar level set.

In low speed flow computations, compressible finite-volume solvers are known to a) fail to converge in acceptable time and b) reach unphysical solutions. These problems are known to be cured by A) preconditioning on the time-derivative term, and B) control of numerical dissipation, respectively. There have been several methods of A) and B) proposed separately. However, it is unclear which combination is the most accurate, robust, and efficient for low speed flows. We carried out a comparative study of several well-known or recently-developed low-dissipation Euler fluxes coupled with a preconditioned LU-SGS (Lower-Upper Symmetric Gauss-Seidel) implicit time integration scheme to compute steady flows. Through a series of numerical experiments, accurate, efficient, and robust methods are suggested for low speed flow computations.

An all speed scheme for the Isentropic Euler equations is presented in this paper. When the Mach number tends to zero, the compressible Euler equations converge to their incompressible counterpart, in which the density becomes a constant. Increasing approximation errors and severe stability constraints are the main difficulty in the low Mach regime. The key idea of our all speed scheme is the special semi-implicit time discretization, in which the low Mach number stiff term is divided into two parts, one being treated explicitly and the other one implicitly. Moreover, the flux of the density equation is also treated implicitly and an elliptic type equation is derived to obtain the density. In this way, the correct limit can be captured without requesting the mesh size and time step to be smaller than the Mach number. Compared with previous semi-implicit methods, firstly, nonphysical oscillations can be suppressed by choosing proper parameter, besides, only a linear elliptic equation needs to be solved implicitly which reduces much computational cost. We develop this semi-implicit time discretization in the framework of a first order Local Lax-Friedrichs (or Rusanov) scheme and numerical tests are displayed to demonstrate its performances.