High order shock capturing scheme for unsteady compressible flow simulations.

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High order shock capturing scheme for unsteady

compressible flow simulations.
V. Daru, Y. Fraigneau and C. Tenaud

Object
Being an intermediary step between direct simulation and statistical description (RANS) for the
calculation of turbulent flows, Large Eddy Simulation is a powerful method for the analysis of the
dynamics of flows. In the compressible case, LES necessitates the use of numerical schemes
capable to represent both the small structures of the flow with very low numerical dissipation, in order
to minimize possible interactions with the subgrid model, and to capture discontinuities (shocks) with
the robustness common to the Godunov type schemes. In [3] we have developed a scheme, named
OSMP7, which is designed to satisfy these two requirements. Preliminary numerical results on
classical test cases have shown that the scheme could be a good candidate for LES simulations in
the compressible case. We present here the results we obtained using OSMP7 for the computation of
two viscous flow cases which necessitate high accuracy and robustness : the interaction of a shock
wave with a boundary layer in the laminar case, and a supersonic turbulent infinite channel flow.

Description

A brief overview of the OSMP7 scheme [3]

The OSMP7 scheme is an upwind, seventh order accurate in time and space (at least in the scalar
case) explicit scheme. It is based on a coupled time-space Lax-Wendroff type approach, and a Strang
splitting is used in the multidimensional case. For solving the Navier-Stokes equations, the scheme is
formally only second order accurate due notably to the splitting. Nevertheless, the level of error of the
scheme is very low, and it has been shown to give very accurate results for several test cases, using
coarse meshes ([3],[4]). A monotonicity-preserving constraint is incorporated to the scheme, which is
active only in the vicinity of steep gradients regions where it acts similarly to a TVD limiter. In such a
way, no numerical oscillations are generated in calculating discontinuities (shock waves for instance).
In smooth regions and in the vicinity of extrema of the solution, the monotonicity-preserving constraint
is naturally satisfied implying that the limiting process is not activated, and the order of accuracy of
the scheme is preserved. This is a very important difference with classical TVD schemes, for which
accuracy degrades to first order near extrema with the effect of clipping extrema.

Results

Two-dimensional shock wave/laminar boundary layer interaction

(SWBLI) [10]
We compute the interaction of an oblique shock wave with a laminar boundary layer developing on a
flat plate (Fig. 1). The Mach number of the incoming flow is and the Reynolds number
per meter is . A steady incident oblique shock wave, making an angle with the plate, hits the
boundary layer at abcissa , called the interaction length. The space coordinates are non-

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dimensionalized by . In nondimensionalized coordinates, the two dimensional domain extends

from to and from to .

Figure 1: Scheme of the shock wave boundary layer interaction.

Degrez et al. [6] have shown that for the flow remains stationary and two-dimensional.
Furthermore it remains laminar at least until the end of the measurement zone. The evolution of the
SWBLI when the incident shock angle increases is a very complex problem.
We compare here the results obtained using two different numerical schemes, namely the OSMP7
scheme and the AUSM+ scheme developed by Liou and Edwards [8]. We solve the Navier-Stokes
equations for a perfect gas. Two different grids are used: a uniform grid involving points

(thereafter called "UG") and a second grid involving points (thereafter called "NUG"),

uniform in the direction and using a geometrical progression in the direction (the first mesh

spacing is equal to with a reason equal to ).

In [1], it is shown that three-dimensionality and unsteadiness is likely to appear when is greater
than . Here we only consider the two-dimensional case, having for objective to test different
high resolution numerical methods, rather than describing the physics of a SWBLI.
In the two-dimensional case, a weak unsteadiness appears when the angle of the incident shock is
greater than . Previous studies have shown that for an angle lower than , the different
numerical schemes and the two grids used give similar results. For , our numerical
simulations reveal that the flow is unsteady when we use a third order AUSM+ scheme with the NUG
grid to compute the Euler fluxes. For a two-dimensional flow, the physical mechanism responsible for
unsteadiness comes from the development of secondary vortices embedded in the main recirculating
zone.
The question is to know if this flow configuration is robust with respect to variations of the scheme and
the mesh used. The conclusion is as follows : the scheme OSMP7 gives the same topology and the
same dynamics for all grids (see figures 2 and 3). This is not the case when considering the AUSM+
scheme ( or ). Indeed, the AUSM+(3) and AUSM+(5) results show a similar topology in
the non-uniform grid (NUG), but the dynamics is different (see figure 2 top). In the UG grid, the
AUSM+(5) scheme show the same topology and dynamics that those obtained with OSMP7 scheme
(see figure 2 bottom). These results show that the AUSM+ scheme, for this kind of flow and this angle
of incidence, depends crucially on the mesh used, which is not the case using the OSMP7 scheme.
The dynamics and the topology of the separated zone are strongly related to those of the secondary
recirculation zones. These characteristics must be accurately computed because their evolution,
especially in the transient stage of growth of the bulb, condition the final global dynamics of the

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separated zone.
The main conclusion of this study is that the OSMP7 scheme gives highly accurate results in
calculating an unsteady SWBLI, where low speed zones are close to high speed zones. The accuracy
properties of the scheme are not degraded when a non uniform mesh is used, which is not the case
using a high order implicit AUSM+ scheme, usually considered to be very effective for this type of
flow.
This work was done in collaboration with J.C. Robinet, Lab. Sinumef, ENSAM.

Figure 2: Horizontal velocity in the recirculating zone. Top : NUG mesh,

scheme AUSM+ order on Euler fluxes (left) and AUSM+ (right).

Bottom : UG mesh, AUSM+ scheme (left), OSMP7 scheme.

Figure 3: Horizontal velocity in the recirculating zone. NUG

mesh, OSMP7 scheme.

Supersonic turbulent infinite channel flow [5]

We here present a study that analyzes the behavior of the OSMP7 scheme in the LES approach and
estimates the potential interactions occurring between the shock-capturing feature and the subgrid-
scale model. In this preliminary work, we have considered a flow without discontinuity : a supersonic,
turbulent infinite channel flow. The results are compared to the DNS results presented in [2], and to
LES results obtained using a fourth order centered space discretization, written in a semi-
conservative form in order to suppress the aliasing errors, and a third order TVD Runge-Kutta time

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discretization as used in [9].

The case under study concerns a supersonic channel flow. The Mach number is , the
Reynolds number based on half the height of the channel is . The channel is supposed
periodic in the direction parallel to the walls The characteristics of the computational domain are given
in Table 1. The mesh in the inhomogeneous direction is defined by a hyperbolic tangent function.
Near the wall the size of the first cell is about . The initial condition is a Poiseuille flow with
uniform density. To force the transition to turbulence, a random perturbation of finite amplitude is
superimposed to the initial field. The periodicity condition in the flow direction necessitates the
addition of an external force for ensuring conservation of mass flow rate and equilibrating the losses
due to viscous friction.
The LES computations use the compressible version of the mixed scales model derived in [7]. The
model gives null subgrid contributions in the areas where all turbulent structures are well resolved.
In Table 2 are reported the LES results comparing values at the center of the channel (" " index) or
at the wall (" " or " " index), using the unlimited OS7 scheme. One can remark that the OS7
scheme gives very good results compared to the reference (error level around 1%), and that it is
much more accurate than the classical centered scheme C4-RK3, although the latter is non
dissipative. The values representing the wall effects are very well represented by the OS7 scheme.
In order to evaluate the influence of the limiting process, we then report in Table 3 the results
obtained using the OSMP7 scheme, with (LES) and without (MILES) subgrid scale modelling. It
appears that the MP flux limiter has a non negligible influence on the results, especially on the vertical
gradient of the tangential velocity component, which plays an important role on the turbulence
production at the wall. Nevertheless, the OSMP7-LES results are very close to the C4-RK3-LES ones.
The OSMP7-MILES results reveal that the limiting function is more often activated than in the LES
case, where the subgrid scale model add some diffusion. This shows that it is necessary to use a
more selective subgrid scale model in the LES approach, for instance a dynamical mixed model.
The next step of this research will be to do LES simulations of compressible turbulent flows with
shockwaves, using the OSMP7 scheme.
Table 1: Domain and grid characteristics : ;

2 41 61 119 33.5 15 1.18

Table 2: Comparison of several characteristic values for the supersonic channel

turbulent flow : and . Unlimited schemes.

DNS [2] C4-RK3+LES Error / DNS OS7+LES Error / DNS

1,3780 1,3700 - 0,581 % 1,3783 0,022 %

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0,9800 0,9760 - 0,408 % 0,9787 - 0,133 %

1,3550 1,3400 - 1,107 % 1,3549 - 0,007 %

222,00 212,40 - 4,324 % 219,66 - 1,054 %

1,1740 1,1800 0,511 % 1,1540 - 1,704 %

12,1100 11,2280 - 7,283 % 11,8700 - 1,982 %

0,05460 0,05280 - 3,297 % 0,05404 - 1,026 %

- 4,9000 -4,6800 - 4,490 % - 4,9510 1,041 %

Table 3: Comparison of several characteristic values for the supersonic channel turbulent
flow : and . Limited OSMP7 scheme.

DNS [2] OSMP7+LES Erreur / DNS OSMP7-MILES Erreur / DNS

1,3780 1,3809 0,210 % 1,3890 0,798 %

0,9800 0,9779 - 0,214 % 0,9790 - 0,102 %

1,3550 1,3553 0,022 % 1,3640 0,664 %

222,00 211,68 - 4,649 % 212,30 - 4,369 %

1,1740 1,1602 - 1,175 % 1,1550 - 1,618 %

12,1100 11,0200 - 9,001 % 11,0090 - 9,092 %

0,05460 0,05206 - 4,652 % 0,05186 - 5,018 %

- 4,9000 -4,7817 - 2,414 % - 4,7590 -2,878 %

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