The Vlasov equation describes the evolution of the distribution function of particles in phase space (x,v), where the particles interact with long-range forces, but where shortrange "collisional" forces are neglected. A space plasma consists of low-mass electrically charged particles, and therefore the most important long-range forces acting in the plasma are the Lorentz forces created by electromagnetic fields. What makes the numerical solution of the Vlasov equation a challenging task is that the fully three-dimensional problem leads to a partial differential equation in the six-dimensional phase space, plus time, making it hard even to store a discretised solution in a computer’s memory. Solutions to the Vlasov equation have also a tendency of becoming oscillatory in velocity space, due to free streaming terms (ballistic particles), in which steep gradients are created and problems of calculating the v (velocity) derivative of the function accurately increase with time. In the present thesis, the numerical treatment is limited to one- and two-dimensional systems, leading to solutions in two- and four-dimensional phase space, respectively, plus time. The numerical method developed is based on the technique of Fourier transforming the Vlasov equation in velocity space and then solving the resulting equation, in which the small-scale information in velocity space is removed through outgoing wave boundary conditions in the Fourier transformed velocity space. The Maxwell equations are rewritten in a form which conserves the divergences of the electric and magnetic fields, by means of the Lorentz potentials. The resulting equations are solved numerically by high order methods, reducing the need for numerical over-sampling of the problem. The algorithm has been implemented in Fortran 90, and the code for solving the one-dimensional Vlasov equation has been parallelised by the method of domain decomposition, and has been implemented using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) method. The code has been used to investigate linear and non-linear interaction between electromagnetic fields, plasma waves, and particles.

<div>Incompressible single-phase and two-phase flows are widely encountered in and underlie many engineering applications. In this thesis, we aim to develop efficient methods and algorithms for numerical simulations of these classes of problems. Specically, we present two schemes: (1) a modied consistent splitting scheme for incompressible single-phase flows with open/out flow boundaries; (2) a three-dimensional hybrid spectral element-Fourier spectral method for wall-bounded two-phase flows.</div><div><br></div><div><div>In the first part of this thesis, we present a modied consistent splitting type scheme together with a family of energy stable outflow boundary conditions for incompressible single-phase outflow simulations. The key distinction of this scheme lies</div><div>in the algorithmic reformulation of the viscous term, which enables the simulation of outflow problems on severely-truncated domains at moderate to high Reynolds numbers. In contrast, the standard consistent splitting scheme is observed to exhibit a numerical instability even at relatively low Reynolds numbers, and this numerical instability is in addition to the backflow instability commonly known to be associated with strong vortices or backflows at the outflow boundary. Extensive numerical experiments are presented for a range of Reynolds numbers to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed algorithm for this class of flows.</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>In the second part of this thesis, we present a numerical algorithm within the phase-field framework for simulating three-dimensional (3D) incompressible two-phase flows in flow domains with one homogeneous direction. In this numerical method, we represent the flow variables using Fourier spectral expansions along the homogeneous direction and C0 spectral element expansions in the other directions. This is followed by using fast Fourier transforms so that the solution to the 3D problem is obtained by solving a set of decoupled equations about the Fourier modes for each flow variable. The computations for solving these decoupled equations are performed in parallel to effciently simulate the 3D two-phase</div><div>ows. Extensive numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the performance and the capabilities of the scheme in simulating this class of flows.</div></div>

La simulation d’écoulements incompressibles pose de nombreuses difficultés. Une première est la question de savoir comment traiter la contrainte d’incompressibilité et le couplage vitesse/pression afin d’obtenir une solution précise à moindre coût. Pour cela, nous nous intéressons en particulier à deux méthodes de time splitting : la correction de pression et la correction de vitesse. Une seconde difficulté porte sur des conditions limites de sortie. Nous nous intéressons ici à deux d’entre elles : la condition limite de traction et la condition limite d’Orlanski. Après avoir détaillé les difficultés pouvant apparaître lors de l’implémentation des méthodes de time-splitting, nous proposons une nouvelle implémentation de la condition limite de traction qui permet d’améliorer les ordres de convergence obtenus. Nous nous intéressons ensuite à la condition limite d’Orlanski qui nécessite une certaine vitesse d’advection C dans la direction normale à la limite dont nous proposons ici une nouvelle définition. Nos propositions sont confrontées à de multiples écoulements physiques afin de valider leurs comportements : l’écoulement en aval d’une marche descendante, l’écoulement au niveau d’une bifurcation,l’écoulement autour d’un obstacle et des écoulements de Poiseuille-Rayleigh-Bénard. / One of the understudied difficulties in the simulation of incompressible flows is how to treat the incompressibilityconstraint and the velocity/pressure coupling in order to obtain an accurate solution at low computationnalcost. In this context, we develop two methods: pressure-correction and velocity-correction. An anotherdifficulty is due to the boundary conditions. We study here two of them : the traction boundary condition andthe Orlanski boundary condition. After having developed the difficulties that appears when implementing timesplittingmethods, we propose a new way to enforce the traction boundary condition which improves the orderof convergence. Then we propose a new definition of the advective velocity C which is needed for the Orlanskiboundary condition. Our propositions are validated against multiple physical flows: flow over a backward facingstep, flow around a biffurcation, flow around an obstacle and several Poiseuille-Rayleigh-Bénard flows.

Le modèle numérique que nous avons développé au cours de cette thèse présente deux caractéristiques principales : un modèle dilatable pour l'eau et la prise en compte de domaines ouverts. Les difficultés associées au premier aspect concernent l'adaptation de la loi d'état de l’eau au modèle dilatable sous l’approximation à faibles nombres de Mach, tandis que celles associées au second sont relatives à la mise en œuvre de conditions aux limites numériques de sortie compatibles avec l'algorithme de projection utilisé. Les résultats de simulations d'écoulement de convection mixte en canal horizontal chauffé par le bas ont été confrontés à celles utilisant l'approximation de Boussinesq et aux expériences. / The 3D numerical model which we developed in this thesis presents two main features: a Low-Mach-Number approximation for water along with an open boundary condition formulation. Indeed, the difficulties related to the former point stand in a computationally efficient adaptation of the water equation of state in the framework of Low Mach number approximation, whereas the difficulties related to the latter concern the introduction of Open Boundary Conditions in the projection algorithm used. We have computed a mixed convection flow in a horizontal channel uniformly heated from below and compared the results obtained with both the Boussinesq approximation and experimental results.