Pre-conditioning strategies to accelerate the convergence of iterative methods in multiphase flow simulations

Lauren Elizabeth Clarke and Gautham Krishnamoorthy

Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), 2019, vol. 165, issue C, 200-222

Abstract: A computational bottleneck during the solution to multiphase formulations of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is often during the implicit solution of the pressure-correction equation that results from operator-splitting methods. Since density is a coefficient in the pressure-correction equation, large variations or discontinuities among the phase densities greatly increase the condition number of the pressure-correction matrix and retard the convergence of iterative methods employed in its solution. To alleviate this shortcoming, the open-source multiphase code MFiX is interfaced with the linear solver library PETSc. Through an appropriate mapping of matrix and vector data structures between the two software packages, an access to a suite of robust, scalable, solver options in PETSc is obtained. Verification of the implementation is demonstrated through predictions that are identical to those obtained from MFiX’s native solvers for a class of single-phase and multiphase flow problems. For a low Reynolds number, flow over a cylinder case, applying Right Side Block Jacobi Preconditioning to the BiCGSTAB iterative solver in PETSc was faster than MFiX’s native solver. This speed-up increased with higher mesh resolution and for higher-order spatial discretizations. In a fluidized bed simulation, this solver–preconditioner combination resulted in a 25% decrease in solve time compared to MFiX’s native solver.

Keywords: CFD; PETSc; MFiX; BiCGSTAB; Multiphase flow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:matcom:v:165:y:2019:i:c:p:200-222

DOI: 10.1016/j.matcom.2019.03.009

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