Abstract:
Many computational problems of theoretical and practical
interest are not naturally bounded by physical boundaries.
Aerodynamic examples include flow calculations past aerofoils or past
wing-body configurations, semi-bounded channel flows etc. Other
examples include simulations of Turbomachinery flows, problems in
Underwater Acoustics etc. To obtain a numerical solution, the problem
has first to be converted to a finite region, by introducing an
artificial boundary at some finite distance. Boundary conditions must
be specified at the artificial boundary for well-posedness of the
truncated problem. They should simulate an open boundary across which
the fluid flows and should ideally allow outgoing waves to pass
through without generating reflections. Indeed, reflections at the
boundary not only degrade the accuracy of transient solutions but also
inhibit convergence to steady-state. In many problems of practical
interest, perfect absorption cannot be achieved. Instead one aims at
minimizing the amount of reflected energy using asymptotic expansions
based on various asymptotic arguments. The more accurate the boundary
statements, the closer the artificial boundaries can be located to the
regions of aerodynamic interest, thereby reducing the computational
domain and costs.
We present a thorough numerical study of the efficiency of
several widely used boundary conditions in absorbing outgoing waves.
We identify the key parameters upon which the level of absorption at
the boundaries depends and expose the limitations of some of the
existing recipes. We show that substantial reflections may occur even
under conditions which are considerably milder than those encountered
in practical calculations. We then introduce an unconventional
approach to the treatment of artificial boundaries. It is proposed
that in the far field the governing equations are modified in a
boundary-layer like manner. Two closely related far field
modifications are derived and analysed: (a) Slowing down the outgoing
waves and (b) Attenuating the outgoing waves. Under the first
modification the outgoing waves are prevented from reaching the
boundary hence from reflecting. Under the second, the outgoing waves
are attenuated to practically zero strength before reaching the
boundary. Both modifications do not alter the propagation of the
incoming waves to allow the launching of correct information from the
boundary into the interior. Analytic conditions are derived to ensure
that no reflections are generated due to the change of coefficients in
the governing equations. Reflection analysis is also performed on the
discrete level. Well-posedness of the modified systems is established
as well as stability of the resulting interface problem. The
modifications are extended to two space dimensions and are applied to
a variety of one and multidimensional test problems. Results indicate
that the proposed far field modifications are attractive in genuinely
time-dependent calculations. Preliminary steady state calculations
with the unsteady 2D Euler equations show significantly improved
convergence properties.