Thesis (DEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The Finite Element Method (FEM) as applied to Computational Electromagnetics (CEM), can beused to solve a large class of Electromagnetics problems with high accuracy and good computational efficiency. For solving wide-band problems time domain solutions are often preferred; while time domain FEM methods are feasible, the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method is more commonly applied. The FDTD is popular both for its efficiency and its simplicity. The efficiency of the FDTD stems from the fact that it is both explicit (i.e. no matrices need to be solved) and second order accurate in both time and space. The FDTD has limitations when dealing with certain geometrical shapes and when electrically large structures are analysed. The former limitation is caused by stair-casing in the geometrical modelling, the latter by accumulated dispersion error throughout the mesh. The FEM can be seen as a general mathematical framework describing families of concrete numerical method implementations; in fact the FDTD can be described as a particular FETD (Finite Element Time Domain) method. To date the most commonly described FETD CEM methods make use of unstructured, conforming meshes and implicit time stepping schemes. Such meshes deal well with complex geometries while implicit time stepping is required for practical numerical stability. Compared to the FDTD, these methods have the advantages of computational efficiency when dealing with complex geometries and the conceptually straight forward extension to higher orders of accuracy. On the downside, they are much more complicated to implement and less computationally efficient when dealing with regular geometries. The FDTD and implicit FETD have been combined in an implicit/explicit hybrid. By using the implicit FETD in regions of complex geometry and the FDTD elsewhere the advantages of both are combined. However, previous work only addressed mixed first order (i.e. second order accurate) methods. For electrically large problems or when very accurate solutions are required, higher order methods are attractive. In this thesis a novel higher order implicit/explicit FETD method of arbitrary order in space is presented. A higher order explicit FETD method is implemented using Gauss-Lobatto lumping on regular Cartesian hexahedra with central differencing in time applied to a coupled Maxwell’s equation FEM formulation. This can be seen as a spatially higher order generalisation of the FDTD. A convolution-free perfectly matched layer (PML) method is adapted from the FDTD literature to provide mesh termination. A curl conforming hybrid mesh allowing the interconnection of arbitrary order tetrahedra and hexahedra without using intermediate pyramidal or prismatic elements is presented. An unconditionally stable implicit FETD method is implemented using Newmark-Beta time integration and the standard curl-curl FEM formulation. The implicit/explicit hybrid is constructed on the hybrid hexahedral/tetrahedral mesh using the equivalence between the coupled Maxwell’s formulation with central differences and the Newmark-Beta method with Beta = 0 and the element-wise implicitness method. The accuracy and efficiency of this hybrid is numerically demonstrated using several test-problems.

Ce travail est consacré à la modélisation mathématique et numérique des écoulements eau-air en conduite qui interviennent notamment dans les centrales de production d’électricité ou les réseaux d’eaux usées. On s’intéresse particulièrement aux écoulements mixtes caractérisés par la présence de régimes stratifiés pilotés par des ondes gravitaires lentes, de régimes en charge ou secs (conduite remplie d’eau ou d’air) pilotés par des ondes acoustiques rapides, et de poches d’air piégées. Une modélisation précise de ces écoulements est nécessaire afin de garantir le bon fonctionnement du circuit hydraulique sous-jacent. Alors que la plupart des modèles disponibles dans la littérature se concentrent sur la phase eau en négligeant la présence de l’air, un modèle bicouche compressible prenant en compte les interactions eau-air est proposé dans cette thèse. Sa construction réside dans l’intégration des équations d’Euler barotropes sur la hauteur de chaque phase et dans l’application de la contrainte hydrostatique sur le gradient de pression de l’eau. Le modèle obtenu est hyperbolique et satisfait une inégalité d’entropie en plus d’autres propriétés mathématiques notables, telles que l’unicité des relations de saut ou la positivité des hauteurs et densités de chaque phase. Au niveau discret, la simulation d’écoulements mixtes avec le modèle bicouche compressible soulève plusieurs défis en raison de la disparité des vitesses d’ondes caractérisant chaque régime, des processus de relaxation rapide sous-jacents, et de la disparition de l’une des phases dans les régimes en charge ou sec. Une méthode à pas fractionnaires implicite-explicite est alors développée en s’appuyant sur la relaxation rapide en pression et sur le mimétisme avec les équations de Saint-Venant pour la dynamique lente de la phase eau. En particulier, une approche par relaxation permet d’obtenir une stabilisation du schéma en fonction du régime d’écoulement. Plusieurs cas tests sont traités et démontrent la capacité du modèle proposé à gérer des écoulements mixtes incluant la présence de poches d’air piégées. / The present work is dedicated to the mathematical and numerical modelling of transient air-water flows in pipes which occur in piping systems of several industrial areas such as nuclear or hydroelectric power plants or sewage pipelines. It deals more specifically with the so-called mixed flows which involve stratified regimes driven by slow gravity waves, pressurized or dry regimes (pipe full of water or air) driven by fast acoustic waves and entrapped air pockets. An accurate modelling of these flows is necessary to guarantee the operability of the related hydraulic system. While most of available models in the literature focus on the water phase neglecting the air phase, a compressible two-layer model which accounts for air-water interactions is proposed herein. The derivation process relies on a depth averaging of the isentropic Euler set of equations for both phases where the hydrostatic constraint is applied on the water pressure gradient. The resulting system is hyperbolic and satisfies an entropy inequality in addition to other significant mathematical properties, including the uniqueness of jump conditions and the positivity of heights and densities for each layer. Regarding the discrete level, the simulation of mixed flows with the compressible two-layer model raises key challenges due to the discrepancy of wave speeds characterizing each regime combined with the fast underlying relaxation processes and with phase vanishing when the flow becomes pressurized or dry. Thus, an implicit-explicit fractional step method is derived. It relies on the fast pressure relaxation in addition to a mimetic approach with the shallow water equations for the slow dynamics of the water phase. In particular, a relaxation method provides stabilization terms activated according to the flow regime. Several test cases are performed and attest the ability of the compressible two-layer model to deal with mixed flows in pipes involving air pocket entrapment.