Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Fundamental differences between SPH and grid methods

Agertz, Oscar LU ; Moore, Ben ; Stadel, Joachim ; Potter, Doug ; Miniati, Francesco ; Read, Justin ; Mayer, Lucio ; Gawryszczak, Artur ; Kravtsov, Andrey and Nordlund, Åke , et al. (2007) In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 380(3). p.963-978
Abstract

We have carried out a comparison study of hydrodynamical codes by investigating their performance in modelling interacting multiphase fluids. The two commonly used techniques of grid and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) show striking differences in their ability to model processes that are fundamentally important across many areas of astrophysics. Whilst Eulerian grid based methods are able to resolve and treat important dynamical instabilities, such as Kelvin-Helmholtz or Rayleigh-Taylor, these processes are poorly or not at all resolved by existing SPH techniques. We show that the reason for this is that SPH, at least in its standard implementation, introduces spurious pressure forces on particles in regions where there are steep... (More)

We have carried out a comparison study of hydrodynamical codes by investigating their performance in modelling interacting multiphase fluids. The two commonly used techniques of grid and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) show striking differences in their ability to model processes that are fundamentally important across many areas of astrophysics. Whilst Eulerian grid based methods are able to resolve and treat important dynamical instabilities, such as Kelvin-Helmholtz or Rayleigh-Taylor, these processes are poorly or not at all resolved by existing SPH techniques. We show that the reason for this is that SPH, at least in its standard implementation, introduces spurious pressure forces on particles in regions where there are steep density gradients. This results in a boundary gap of the size of an SPH smoothing kernel radius over which interactions are severely damped.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and , et al. (More)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and (Less)
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: formation, Galaxies: general, Hydrodynamics, Instabilities, ISM: clouds, Methods: numerical, Turbulence
in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
volume
380
issue
3
pages
16 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:34548640111
ISSN
0035-8711
DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12183.x
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
fc204cf1-2e89-4b85-91c2-1fc1646d5f81
date added to LUP
2019-02-07 11:25:30
date last changed
2022-04-25 21:26:26
@article{fc204cf1-2e89-4b85-91c2-1fc1646d5f81,
  abstract     = {{<p>We have carried out a comparison study of hydrodynamical codes by investigating their performance in modelling interacting multiphase fluids. The two commonly used techniques of grid and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) show striking differences in their ability to model processes that are fundamentally important across many areas of astrophysics. Whilst Eulerian grid based methods are able to resolve and treat important dynamical instabilities, such as Kelvin-Helmholtz or Rayleigh-Taylor, these processes are poorly or not at all resolved by existing SPH techniques. We show that the reason for this is that SPH, at least in its standard implementation, introduces spurious pressure forces on particles in regions where there are steep density gradients. This results in a boundary gap of the size of an SPH smoothing kernel radius over which interactions are severely damped.</p>}},
  author       = {{Agertz, Oscar and Moore, Ben and Stadel, Joachim and Potter, Doug and Miniati, Francesco and Read, Justin and Mayer, Lucio and Gawryszczak, Artur and Kravtsov, Andrey and Nordlund, Åke and Pearce, Frazer and Quilis, Vicent and Rudd, Douglas and Springel, Volker and Stone, James and Tasker, Elizabeth and Teyssier, Romain and Wadsley, James and Walder, Rolf}},
  issn         = {{0035-8711}},
  keywords     = {{Galaxies: evolution; Galaxies: formation; Galaxies: general; Hydrodynamics; Instabilities; ISM: clouds; Methods: numerical; Turbulence}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{963--978}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}},
  title        = {{Fundamental differences between SPH and grid methods}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12183.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12183.x}},
  volume       = {{380}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}