An Unstructured Finite Volume Method for Incompressible Flows With Complex Immersed Boundaries

A numerical method is developed for solving the 3D, unsteady, incompressible flows with immersed moving solids of arbitrary geometrical complexity. A co-located (non-staggered) finite volume method is employed to solve the Navier-Stokes governing equations for flow region using arbitrary convex polyhedral meshes. The solid region is represented by a set of material points with known position and velocity. Faces in the flow region located in the immediate vicinity of the solid body are marked as immersed boundary (IB) faces. At every instant in time, the influence of the body on the flow is accounted for by reconstructing implicitly the velocity the IB faces from a stencil of fluid cells and solid material points. Specific numerical issues related to the non-staggered formulation are addressed, including the specification of face mass fluxes, and corrections to the continuity equation to ensure overall mass balance. Incorporation of this immersed boundary technique within the framework of the SIMPLE algorithm is described. Canonical test cases of laminar flow around stationary and moving spheres and cylinders are used to verify the implementation. Mesh convergence tests are carried out. The simulation results are shown to agree well with experiments for the case of micro-cantilevers vibrating in a viscous fluid.Copyright © 2009 by ASME