Aquesta tesi doctoral proposa formulacions de Galerkin discontinu (DG) d'alt ordre per fluxos viscosos incompressibles. Es desenvolupa un nou mètode de DG amb penalti interior (IPM-DG), que condueix a una forma feble simètrica i coerciva pel terme de difusió, i que permet assolir una aproximació espacial d'alt ordre. Aquest mètode s'aplica per resoldre les equacions de Stokes i Navier-Stokes. L'espai d'aproximació de la velocitat es descompon dins de cada element en una part solenoidal i una altra irrotacional, de manera que es pot dividir la forma dèbil IPM-DG en dos problemes desacoblats. El primer permet el càlcul de les velocitats i de les pressions híbrides, mentre que el segon calcula les pressions en l'interior dels elements. Aquest desacoblament permet una reducció important del número de graus de llibertat tant per velocitat com per pressió. S'introdueix també un paràmetre extra de penalti resultant en una formulació DG alternativa per calcular les velocitats solenoidales, on les pressions no apareixen. Les pressions es poden calcular com un post-procés de la solució de les velocitats. Es contemplen altres formulacions DG, com per exemple el mètode Compact Discontinuous Galerkin, i es comparen al mètode IPM-DG. Es proposen mètodes implícits de Runge-Kutta d'alt ordre per problemes transitoris incompressibles, permetent obtenir esquemes incondicionalment estables i amb alt ordre de precisió temporal. Les equacions de Navier-Stokes incompressibles transitòries s'interpreten com un sistema de Equacions Algebraiques Diferencials, és a dir, un sistema d'equacions diferencials ordinàries corresponent a la equació de conservació del moment, més les restriccions algebraiques corresponent a la condició d'incompressibilitat. Mitjançant exemples numèrics es mostra l'aplicabilitat de les metodologies proposades i es comparen la seva eficiència i precisió. / This PhD thesis proposes divergence-free Discontinuous Galerkin formulations providing high orders of accuracy for incompressible viscous flows. A new Interior Penalty Discontinuous Galerkin (IPM-DG) formulation is developed, leading to a symmetric and coercive bilinear weak form for the diffusion term, and achieving high-order spatial approximations. It is applied to the solution of the Stokes and Navier-Stokes equations. The velocity approximation space is decomposed in every element into a solenoidal part and an irrotational part. This allows to split the IPM weak form in two uncoupled problems. The first one solves for velocity and hybrid pressure, and the second one allows the evaluation of pressures in the interior of the elements. This results in an important reduction of the total number of degrees of freedom for both velocity and pressure. The introduction of an extra penalty parameter leads to an alternative DG formulation for the computation of solenoidal velocities with no presence of pressure terms. Pressure can then be computed as a post-process of the velocity solution. Other DG formulations, such as the Compact Discontinuous Galerkin method, are contemplated and compared to IPM-DG. High-order Implicit Runge-Kutta methods are then proposed to solve transient incompressible problems, allowing to obtain unconditionally stable schemes with high orders of accuracy in time. For this purpose, the unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are interpreted as a system of Differential Algebraic Equations, that is, a system of ordinary differential equations corresponding to the conservation of momentum equation, plus algebraic constraints corresponding to the incompressibility condition. Numerical examples demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodologies and compare their efficiency and accuracy.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo desenvolver uma formulação numérica baseada em Análise Isogeométrica para o estudo de escoamentos incompressíveis isotérmicos de fluidos newtonianos. Com o emprego desta metodologia, os procedimentos de pré-processamento e análise são unificados, melhorando as condições de continuidade das funções de base empregadas tanto na discretização espacial do problema como na aproximação das variáveis do sistema de equações. O sistema de equações fundamentais do escoamento é formado pelas equações de Navier-Stokes e pela equação de conservação de massa, descrita segundo a hipótese de pseudo-compressibilidade, além de uma equação constitutiva para fluidos viscosos de acordo com a hipótese de Stokes. Para problemas com escoamentos turbulentos emprega-se a Simulação de Grandes Escalas - LES (Large Eddy Simulation), na qual o modelo clássico de Smagorinsky é utilizado para a representação das escalas inferiores à resolução da malha. O esquema explícito de dois passos de Taylor-Galerkin é aplicado no contexto da Análise Isogeométrica para a discretização das equações governantes, sendo que a discretização espacial é realizada empregando-se funções NURBS (Non Uniform Rational Basis B-Splines). Essas funções base apresentam vantagens em relação às tradicionais funções utilizadas no MEF (Método dos Elementos Finitos), principalmente no que diz respeito à facilidade de obtenção de continuidade superior a C0 entre os elementos e representação precisa das geometrias. Propõe-se também o desenvolvimento de ferramentas de pré e pós-processamento baseadas na estrutura de dados da Análise Isogeométrica para a geração de malhas e visualização de resultados. Alguns problemas clássicos da Dinâmica dos Fluidos Computacional são analisados para a validação da metodologia apresentada. Os resultados apresentados demonstram boa aproximação da formulação em relação a dados de referência, além de maior versatilidade quanto à discretização espacial dos problemas em comparação com as tradicionais formulações baseadas em elementos finitos. / This work aims to develop a numerical formulation based on Isogeometric Analysis for the study of incompressible flows of Newtonian fluids under isothermal conditions. By using this methodology, pre-processing and analysis procedures are unified, improving the conditions of continuity of the basis functions utilized in the approximations of the equation variables and spatial discretization of the problem. The system of fundamental equations of the fluid flow is constituted by the Navier-Stokes equations and the mass conservation equation, which is described according to the pseudo-compressibility hypothesis. In addition, a constitutive equation for viscous fluids according to Stokes' hypothesis is also provided. Turbulent flows are analyzed using LES (Large Eddy Simulation), where the Smagorinsky’s model is adopted for sub-grid scales. The explicit two-step Taylor-Galerkin method is applied into the context of Isogeometric Analysis for the discretization of the flow equations, where spatial discretization is carried out taking into account Non Uniform Rational Basis B-Splines (NURBS) basis functions. These basis functions have advantages over traditional functions employed in the FEM (Finite Element Method). Particularly, it is easier to obtain continuity order higher than C0 between adjacent elements and geometry representation is more accurate. Pre and post-processing tools for mesh generation and results visualization are also proposed considering the data structure inherent to Isogeometric Analysis. Some classic problems of Computational Fluid Dynamics are analyzed in order to validate the proposed methodology. Results obtained here show that the present formulation has good approximation when compared with predictions obtained by reference authors. Moreover, Isogeometric Analysis is more versatile than traditional finite element formulations when spatial discretization procedures are considered.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo desenvolver uma formulação numérica baseada em Análise Isogeométrica para o estudo de escoamentos incompressíveis isotérmicos de fluidos newtonianos. Com o emprego desta metodologia, os procedimentos de pré-processamento e análise são unificados, melhorando as condições de continuidade das funções de base empregadas tanto na discretização espacial do problema como na aproximação das variáveis do sistema de equações. O sistema de equações fundamentais do escoamento é formado pelas equações de Navier-Stokes e pela equação de conservação de massa, descrita segundo a hipótese de pseudo-compressibilidade, além de uma equação constitutiva para fluidos viscosos de acordo com a hipótese de Stokes. Para problemas com escoamentos turbulentos emprega-se a Simulação de Grandes Escalas - LES (Large Eddy Simulation), na qual o modelo clássico de Smagorinsky é utilizado para a representação das escalas inferiores à resolução da malha. O esquema explícito de dois passos de Taylor-Galerkin é aplicado no contexto da Análise Isogeométrica para a discretização das equações governantes, sendo que a discretização espacial é realizada empregando-se funções NURBS (Non Uniform Rational Basis B-Splines). Essas funções base apresentam vantagens em relação às tradicionais funções utilizadas no MEF (Método dos Elementos Finitos), principalmente no que diz respeito à facilidade de obtenção de continuidade superior a C0 entre os elementos e representação precisa das geometrias. Propõe-se também o desenvolvimento de ferramentas de pré e pós-processamento baseadas na estrutura de dados da Análise Isogeométrica para a geração de malhas e visualização de resultados. Alguns problemas clássicos da Dinâmica dos Fluidos Computacional são analisados para a validação da metodologia apresentada. Os resultados apresentados demonstram boa aproximação da formulação em relação a dados de referência, além de maior versatilidade quanto à discretização espacial dos problemas em comparação com as tradicionais formulações baseadas em elementos finitos. / This work aims to develop a numerical formulation based on Isogeometric Analysis for the study of incompressible flows of Newtonian fluids under isothermal conditions. By using this methodology, pre-processing and analysis procedures are unified, improving the conditions of continuity of the basis functions utilized in the approximations of the equation variables and spatial discretization of the problem. The system of fundamental equations of the fluid flow is constituted by the Navier-Stokes equations and the mass conservation equation, which is described according to the pseudo-compressibility hypothesis. In addition, a constitutive equation for viscous fluids according to Stokes' hypothesis is also provided. Turbulent flows are analyzed using LES (Large Eddy Simulation), where the Smagorinsky’s model is adopted for sub-grid scales. The explicit two-step Taylor-Galerkin method is applied into the context of Isogeometric Analysis for the discretization of the flow equations, where spatial discretization is carried out taking into account Non Uniform Rational Basis B-Splines (NURBS) basis functions. These basis functions have advantages over traditional functions employed in the FEM (Finite Element Method). Particularly, it is easier to obtain continuity order higher than C0 between adjacent elements and geometry representation is more accurate. Pre and post-processing tools for mesh generation and results visualization are also proposed considering the data structure inherent to Isogeometric Analysis. Some classic problems of Computational Fluid Dynamics are analyzed in order to validate the proposed methodology. Results obtained here show that the present formulation has good approximation when compared with predictions obtained by reference authors. Moreover, Isogeometric Analysis is more versatile than traditional finite element formulations when spatial discretization procedures are considered.

In this thesis, evaluation of H(div)-conforming finite elements is implemented in a high-performance setting and used to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equation, obtaining an exactly point-wise divergence-free velocity field. In particular, the anisotropic Raviart-Thomas tensor-product polynomial space is considered, where the finite element operators are evaluated with quadrature in a matrix-free fashion using sum-factorization on tensor-product meshes. The implementation includes evaluation over elements and faces in two- and three-dimensional space, supporting non-conforming meshes with hanging nodes, and using the contravariant Piola transformation to preserve normal components on element boundaries. In terms of throughput, the implementation achieves up to an order of magnitude faster evaluation of finite element operators compared to a matrix-based evaluation. Correctness is demonstrated with optimal convergence rates for various polynomial degrees, as well as exactly divergence-free solutions for the velocity field.

Developments are reported of unstructured-mesh methods for simulating stratified, turbulent and shear flows. The numerical model employs nonoscillatory forward in-time integrators for anelastic and incompressible flow PDEs, built on Multidimensional Positive Definite Advection Transport Algorithm (MPDATA) and a preconditioned conjugate residual elliptic solver. Finite-volume spatial discretisation adopts an edge-based data structure. Tetrahedral-based and hybrid-based median-dual options for unstructured meshes are developed, enabling flexible spatial resolution. Viscous laminar and detached eddy simulation (DES) flow solvers are developed based on the edge-based NFT MPDATA scheme. The built-in implicit large eddy simulation (ILES) capability of the NFT scheme is also employed and extended to fully unstructured tetrahedral and hybrid meshes. Challenging atmospheric and engineering problems are solved numerically to validate the model and to demonstrate its applications. The numerical problems include simulations of stratified, turbulent and shear flows past obstacles involving complex gravity-wave phenomena in the lee, critical-level laminar-turbulence transitioning and various vortex structures in the wake. Qualitative flow patterns and quantitative data analysis are both presented in the current study.

It is well known that most fluid flows observed in nature or encountered in engineering applications are turbulent and involve separation. Fluid flows in turbines, diffusers and channels with sudden expansions are among the widely observed areas where separation substantially alters the flow field and gives rise to complex flow dynamics. Such types of flows are referred to as internal flows since they are confined within solid surfaces and predominantly involve the generation or utilization of mechanical power. However, there is also a vast variety of engineering applications where the fluid flows past solid structures, such as the flow of air around an airplane or that of water around a submarine. These are called external flows and as in the former case the downstream evolution of the flow field is crucially influenced by separation. The present doctoral thesis addresses both internal and external separated flows by means of direct numerical simulations of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. For internal flows, the wall-driven flow in a onesided expansion channel and the pressure-driven flow in a plane channel with a single thin-plate obstruction have been studied in the fully developed turbulent state. Since such geometrical configurations involve spatially developing turbulent flows, proper inflow conditions are to be employed in order to provide a realistic fully turbulent flow at the input. For this purpose, a newly developed technique has been used in order to mimic an infinitely long channel section upstream of the expansion and the obstruction, respectively. With this approach, we are able to gather accurate mean flow and turbulence statistics throughout each flow domain and to explore in detail the instantaneous flow topology in the separated shear layers, recirculation regions as well as the recovery zones. For external flows, on the other hand, the flow past a prolate spheroid has been studied. Here, a wide range of Reynolds numbers is taken into consideration. Based on the characteristics of the vortical structures in the wake, the flow past a prolate spheroid is classified as laminar (steady or unsteady), transitional or turbulent. In each flow regime, the characteristic features of the flow are investigated by means of detailed frequency analysis, instantaneous vortex topology and three-dimensional flow visualizations.

A method to solve the Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible viscous flows is proposed. This method is SIMPLE (Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equations) algorithm to iteratively solve the two-dimensional laminar steady momentum equations and based upon finite volume method on staggered grids. Numerical tests are performed on several cases of the flow in the lid-driven cavity, as well as of the flow after a backward-facing step with SIMPLE and SIMPLER (SIMPLE Revised) methods. Finally, results are compared qualitatively and quantitatively with numerical and experimental results available in the literature for different Reynolds numbers to validate the methods.

A new hybrid approach to model high Reynolds number wall-bounded turbulent flows is developed based on coupling the two-level simulation (TLS) approach in the inner region with conventional large eddy simulation (LES) away from the wall. This new approach is significantly different from previous near-wall approaches for LES. In this hybrid TLS-LES approach, a very fine small-scale (SS) mesh is embedded inside the coarse LES mesh in the near-wall region. The SS equations capture fine-scale temporal and spatial variations in all three cartesian directions for all three velocity components near the wall. The TLS-LES equations are derived based on defining a new scale separation operator. The TLS-LES equations in the transition region are obtained by blending the TLS large-scale and LES equations. A new incompressible parallel flow solver is developed that accurately and reliably predicts turbulent flows using TLS-LES. The solver uses a primitive variable formulation based on an artificial compressibility approach and a dual time stepping method. The advective terms are discretized using fourth-order energy conservative finite differences. The SS equations are also integrated in parallel, which reduces the overall cost of the TLS-LES approach. The TLS-LES approach is validated and investigated for canonical channel flows, channel flow with adverse pressure gradient and asymmetric plane diffuser flow. The results suggest that the TLS-LES approach yields very reasonable predictions of most of the crucial flow features in spite of using relatively coarse grids.

Recent technological advances are based on effectively using complex multiphysics concepts. Therefore, there is an ever increasing need for accurate numerical al-gorithms of reduced complexity for solving multiphysics problems. Traditional mesh-based simulation methods depend on a neighbor connectivity information for formulation of operators like derivatives. In large deformation problems, de-pendence on a mesh could prove a limitation in terms of accuracy and cost of preprocessing. Meshless methods obviate the need to construct meshes thus al-lowing simulations involving severe geometric deformations such as breakup of a contiguous domain into multiple fragments. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a meshless particle based Lagrangian numerical method that has the longest continuous history of development ever since it was introduced in 1977. Commensurate with the significant growth in computational power, SPH has been increasingly applied to solve problems of greater complexity in fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, interfacial flows and astrophysics to name a few. The SPH approximation of the continuity and momentum equations govern-ing fluid flow traditionally involves a stiff equation of state relating pressure and density, when applied to incompressible flow problems. Incompressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (ISPH) is a variant of SPH that replaces this weak com-pressibility approach with a pressure equation that gives a hydrostatic pressure field which ensures a divergence-free (or density invariant) velocity field. The present study explains the development of an ISPH algorithm and its implementa-tion with focus on application to free surface flows, interaction of fluid with rigid bodies and coupling of incompressible fluids with a compressible second phase. Several improvements to the exiting ISPH algorithm are proposed in this study. A semi-analytic free surface model which is more accurate and robust compared to existing algorithms used in ISPH methods is introduced, validated against experi-ments and grid based CFD results. A surface tension model with specific applica-bility to free surfaces is presented and tested using 2D and 3D simulations. Using theoretical arguments, a volume conservation error in existing particle methods in general is demonstrated. A deformation gradient based approach is used to derive a new pressure equation which reduces these errors. The method is ap-plied to both free surface and internal flow problems and is shown to have better volume conservation and therefore reduced density fluctuations. Also, comments on instabilities arising from particle distributions are made and the role of the smoothing functions in such instabilities is discussed. The challenges in imple-menting the ISPH algorithm in a computer code are discussed and the experience of developing an in-house ISPH code is described. A parametric study on water entry of cylinders of different shapes, angular velocity and density is performed and aspects such as surface profiles, impact pressures and penetration velocities are compared. An analysis on the energy transfer between the solid and the fluid is also performed. Low Froude number water entry of a sphere is studied and the impact pressure is compared with the theoretical estimates. The Incompressible SPH formulation, employing the proposed improvements from the study is then coupled with a compressible SPH formulation to perform two phase flow simulations interacting compressible and incompressible fluids. To gain confidence in its applicability, the simulations are compared against the theoretical predication given by the Rayleigh-Plesset equation for the problem of compressible drop in an incompressible fluid.

Le sujet de la thèse est le développement d'un outil numérique qui permet de modéliser l'écoulement autour des pales d'éoliennes. Nous nous sommes intéressés à la résolution des équations de Navier-Stokes en incompressible sur des maillages de type octree où les échelles plus petites en proche parois ont été modélisées par la méthode dite des wall functions. Un procédé d'adaptation automatique du maillage (AMR) a été développé pour affiner le maillage dans les zones où la vorticité est plus importante. Le modèle de structure d'une pale d'éolienne a été également implémenté et couplé avec le modèle fluide car une application de l'outil numérique est l'étude des effets des rafales de vent sur les pales d'éolienne. Un travail expérimental a été mené sur une éolienne avec une mesure de vent en amont. Ces données permettent ainsi de calibrer et valider les modèles numériques développés dans la thèse. / The subject of the thesis is the development of a numerical tool that allows to model the flow around wind blades. We are interested in the solving of incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on octree grids, where the smallest scales close to the wall have been modelled by the use of the so-called Wall Functions. An automatic Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) process has been developed in order to refine the mesh in the areas where the vorticity is higher. The structural model of a real wind blade has also been implemented and coupled with the fluid model. Indeed, an application of the numerical tool is the study of the effects of wind gusts on blades. An experimental work has been conducted with an in-service wind turbine with the measurement of wind speed upstream. This data will allow to calibrate and validate the numerical models developed in the thesis.