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Resolving mixing in smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Read, J. I. ; Hayfield, T. and Agertz, O. LU (2010) In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 405(3). p.1513-1530
Abstract

Standard formulations of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) are unable to resolve mixing at fluid boundaries. We use an error and stability analysis of the generalized SPH equations of motion to prove that this is due to two distinct problems. The first is a leading order error in the momentum equation. This should decrease with an increasing neighbour number, but does not because numerical instabilities cause the kernel to be irregularly sampled. We identify two important instabilities: the clumping instability and the banding instability, and we show that both are cured by a suitable choice of kernel. The second problem is the local mixing instability (LMI). This occurs as particles attempt to mix on the kernel scale, but are... (More)

Standard formulations of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) are unable to resolve mixing at fluid boundaries. We use an error and stability analysis of the generalized SPH equations of motion to prove that this is due to two distinct problems. The first is a leading order error in the momentum equation. This should decrease with an increasing neighbour number, but does not because numerical instabilities cause the kernel to be irregularly sampled. We identify two important instabilities: the clumping instability and the banding instability, and we show that both are cured by a suitable choice of kernel. The second problem is the local mixing instability (LMI). This occurs as particles attempt to mix on the kernel scale, but are unable to due to entropy conservation. The result is a pressure discontinuity at boundaries that pushes fluids of different entropies apart. We cure the LMI by using a weighted density estimate that ensures that pressures are single-valued throughout the flow. This also gives a better volume estimate for the particles, reducing errors in the continuity and momentum equations. We demonstrate mixing in our new optimized smoothed particle hydrodynamics (OSPH) scheme using a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) test with a density contrast of 1:2, and the 'blob test'- a 1:10 density ratio gas sphere in a wind tunnel - finding excellent agreement between OSPH and Eulerian codes.

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author
; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Hydrodynamics, Instabilities, Methods: numerical
in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
volume
405
issue
3
pages
18 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:77954941838
ISSN
0035-8711
DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16577.x
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
6ce03763-b742-494b-9406-b8c92128ad86
date added to LUP
2019-02-07 11:22:05
date last changed
2022-04-25 21:21:10
@article{6ce03763-b742-494b-9406-b8c92128ad86,
  abstract     = {{<p>Standard formulations of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) are unable to resolve mixing at fluid boundaries. We use an error and stability analysis of the generalized SPH equations of motion to prove that this is due to two distinct problems. The first is a leading order error in the momentum equation. This should decrease with an increasing neighbour number, but does not because numerical instabilities cause the kernel to be irregularly sampled. We identify two important instabilities: the clumping instability and the banding instability, and we show that both are cured by a suitable choice of kernel. The second problem is the local mixing instability (LMI). This occurs as particles attempt to mix on the kernel scale, but are unable to due to entropy conservation. The result is a pressure discontinuity at boundaries that pushes fluids of different entropies apart. We cure the LMI by using a weighted density estimate that ensures that pressures are single-valued throughout the flow. This also gives a better volume estimate for the particles, reducing errors in the continuity and momentum equations. We demonstrate mixing in our new optimized smoothed particle hydrodynamics (OSPH) scheme using a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) test with a density contrast of 1:2, and the 'blob test'- a 1:10 density ratio gas sphere in a wind tunnel - finding excellent agreement between OSPH and Eulerian codes.</p>}},
  author       = {{Read, J. I. and Hayfield, T. and Agertz, O.}},
  issn         = {{0035-8711}},
  keywords     = {{Hydrodynamics; Instabilities; Methods: numerical}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{1513--1530}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}},
  title        = {{Resolving mixing in smoothed particle hydrodynamics}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16577.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16577.x}},
  volume       = {{405}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}