• Abstract

The study of vesicles, capsules and red blood cells (RBCs) under flow is a field of active research, belonging to the general  problematic of fluid/structure interactions. Here, we are interested in  modeling vesicles, capsules and RBCs using a boundary integral formulation, and focus on exact singularity subtractions of the kernel of the integral equations in 3D. In order to increase the precision of singular and near-singular integration, we propose here a refinement procedure in the vicinity of the pole of the Green-Oseen kernel. The refinement is performed homogeneously everywhere on the source surface in order to reuse the additional quadrature nodes when calculating boundary integrals in multiple target points. We also introduce a multi-level look-up algorithm in order to select the additional quadrature nodes in vicinity of the pole of the Green-Oseen kernel. The expected convergence rate of the proposed algorithm is of order $\mathcal{O}(1/N^2)$ while the computational complexity is of order $\mathcal{O}$($N^2$ln$N$), where $N$ is the number of degrees of freedom used for surface discretization. Several numerical tests are presented to demonstrate the convergence and the efficiency of the method.

• Abstract

A new numerical method based on locally modified Cartesian meshes is proposed for solving a coupled system of a fluid flow and a porous media flow. The fluid flow is modeled by the Stokes equations while the porous media flow is modeled by Darcy's law. The method is based on a Robin-Robin domain decomposition method with a Cartesian mesh with local modifications near the interface. Some computational examples are presented and discussed.

• Abstract

We develop the immersed interface method (IIM) to simulate a two-fluid flow of two immiscible fluids with different density and viscosity. Due to the surface tension and the discontinuous fluid properties, the two-fluid flow has nonsmooth velocity and discontinuous pressure across the moving sharp interface separating the two fluids. The IIM computes the flow on a fixed Cartesian grid by incorporating into numerical schemes the necessary jump conditions induced by the interface. We present how to compute these necessary jump conditions from the analytical principal jump conditions derived in [Xu, DCDS, Supplement 2009, pp. 838-845]. We test our method on some canonical two-fluid flows. The results demonstrate that the method can handle large density and viscosity ratios, is second-order accurate in the infinity norm, and conserves mass inside a closed interface.

• Abstract

This paper presents a method for solving the linear semi-implicit immersed boundary equations which avoids the severe time step restriction presented by explicit-time methods. The Lagrangian variables are eliminated via a Schur complement to form a purely Eulerian saddle point system, which is preconditioned by a projection operator and then solved by a Krylov subspace method. From the viewpoint of projection methods, we derive an ideal preconditioner for the saddle point problem and compare the efficiency of a number of simpler preconditioners that approximate this perfect one. For low Reynolds number and high stiffness, one particular projection preconditioner yields an efficiency improvement of the explicit IB method by a factor around thirty. Substantial speed-ups over explicit-time method are achieved for Reynolds number below 100. This speedup increases as the Eulerian grid size and/or the Reynolds number are further reduced.

• Abstract

Computational modeling and simulation are presented on the motion of red blood cells behind a moving interface in a capillary. The methodology is based on an immersed boundary method and the skeleton structure of the red blood cell (RBC) membrane is modeled as a spring network.  As by the nature of the problem, the computational domain is moving with either a designated RBC or an interface in an infinitely long two-dimensional channel with an undisturbed flow field in front of the computational domain. The tanking-treading and the inclination angle of a cell in a simple shear flow are briefly discussed for the validation purpose. We then present and discuss the results of the motion of red blood cells behind a moving interface in a capillary, which show that the RBCs with higher velocity than the interface speed form a concentrated slug behind the moving interface.

• Abstract

Experimental observations show that a strong magnetic field has a dramatic influence on the sedimentation of RBCs, which motivates us to model the sedimentation of red blood cell (RBC) under strong external magnetic body force. To model the sedimentation of a RBC in a square duct and a circular pipe, a recently developed technique derived from the lattice Boltzmann and the distributed Lagrange multiplier/fictitious domain methods (LBM-DLM/FD) is extended to employ the mesoscopic network model for simulations of the sedimentation of a RBC in flow. The flow is simulated by the LBM with a strong magnetic body force, while the network model is used for modeling RBC deformation. The fluid-RBC interactions are enforced by the Lagrange multiplier. The sedimentation of RBC in a square duct and a circular pipe is simulated, which demonstrates the developed method's capability to model the sedimentation of RBCs in various flows. Numerical results illustrate that the terminal settling velocity increases incrementally with the exerted body force. The deformation of RBC has a significant effect on the terminal settling velocity due to the change in the frontal area. The larger the exerted force, the smaller the frontal area and the larger the RBC deformation become. Additionally, the wall effect on the motion and deformation of RBC is also investigated.

• Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics solver based on homogeneous cavitation model is employed to compute the two-phase cavitating flow. The model treats the two-phase regime as the homogeneous mixture of liquid and vapour which are locally assumed to be under both kinetic and thermodynamic equilibrium. As our focus is on pressure wave formation, propagation and its impact on cavitation bubble, the compressibility effects of liquid water have to be accounted for and hence the flow is considered to be compressible. The cavitating flow disturbed by the introduced pressure wave is simulated to investigate the unsteady features of cavitation due to the external perturbations. It is observed that the cavity becomes unstable, locally experiencing deformation or collapse, which depends on the shock wave intensity and freestream flow speed.

• Abstract

We consider in this paper numerical approximation of the linear Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI). We construct a new class of pressure-correction schemes for the linear FSI problem with a fixed interface, and prove rigorously that they are unconditionally stable. These schemes are computationally very efficient, as they lead to, at each time step, a coupled linear elliptic system for the velocity and displacement in the whole region and a discrete Poisson equation in the fluid region.

• Abstract

We have developed a numerical method for simulating viscous flow through a compliant closed tube, driven by a pair of fluid source and sink. As is natural for tubular flow simulations, the problem is formulated in axisymmetric cylindrical coordinates, with fluid flow described by the Navier-Stokes equations. Because the tubular walls are assumed to be elastic, when stretched or compressed they exert forces on the fluid. Since these forces are singularly supported along the boundaries, the fluid velocity and pressure fields become unsmooth. To accurately compute the solution, we use the velocity decomposition approach, according to which pressure and velocity are decomposed into a singular part and a remainder part. The singular part satisfies the Stokes equations with singular boundary forces. Because the Stokes solution is unsmooth, it is computed to second-order accuracy using the immersed interface method, which incorporates known jump discontinuities in the solution and derivatives into the finite difference stencils. The remainder part, which satisfies the Navier-Stokes equations with a continuous body force, is regular. The equations describing the remainder part are discretized in time using the semi-Lagrangian approach, and then solved using a pressure-free projection method. Numerical results indicate that the computed overall solution is second-order accurate in space, and the velocity is second-order accurate in time.

• Abstract