Fast Algorithms for Spanwise Periodic Incompressible External Flows: From Simulation to Analysis

Author: Hou, Wei

Year: 2025

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisor: Colonius, Tim

Committee Members: Blanquart, Guillaume; Bae, H. Jane; Sader, John E.; Colonius, Tim

Option: Mechanical Engineering; Applied And Computational Mathematics

DOI: 10.7907/eygj-k325

Abstract

External flows over spanwise-homogeneous geometries are ubiquitous in science and engineering applications. In this thesis, we propose algorithms to simulate and analyze these flows using the lattice Green's function (LGF) approach. The LGF is the analytical inverse of a discrete elliptic operator that automatically incorporates exact far-field boundary conditions and minimizes computational expense by allowing snug computational regions encompassing only vortical flow regions. By combining LGFs with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and immersed boundary (IB) methods, we present two numerical algorithms specially designed for spanwise periodic incompressible external flows: one to directly solve the nonlinear equations of motion and one to compute stability and resolvent analyses.

For these algorithms, the LGFs of the screened Poisson equation must be computed at runtime. To enable efficient flow simulation and analysis algorithms, we propose a fast numerical algorithm to tabulate these LGFs. We derive convergence results for the algorithms and show that they are orders of magnitude faster than existing algorithms. Armed with the LGF for the screened Poisson equation, we further develop algorithms to solve the Navier-Stokes equations and associated linearized eigenvalue problems.

We present two applications of these algorithms. We perform simulations to validate the starting vortex theory proposed by Pullin and Sader (2021), and we perform stability analyses of flow past a rotating cylinder with a control cylinder in its wake.

Files