American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
1
Development of High-Order Realizable Finite-Volume
Schemes for Quadrature-Based Moment Method
V. Vikas
1
and Z. J. Wang
2
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011
A. Passalacqua
3
and R. O. Fox
4
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011
Kinetic equations containing terms for spatial transport, gravity, fluid drag and particle-
particle collisions can be used to model dilute gas-particle flows. However, the enormity of
independent variables makes direct numerical simulation of these equations almost
impossible for practical problems. A viable alternative is to reformulate the problem in
terms of moments of velocity distribution. Recently, a quadrature-based moment method
was derived by Fox for approximating solutions to kinetic equation for arbitrary Knudsen
number. Fox also described 1
st
- and 2
nd
-order finite-volume schemes for solving the
equations. The success of the new method is based on a moment-inversion algorithm that is
used to calculate non-negative weights and abscissas from moments. The moment-inversion
algorithm does not work if the moments are non-realizable, meaning they do not correspond
to a distribution function. Not all the finite-volume schemes lead to realizable moments.
Desjardins et al. showed that realizability is guaranteed with the 1
st
-order finite-volume
scheme, but at the expense of excess numerical diffusion. In the present work, the non-
realizability of the standard 2
nd
-order finite-volume scheme is demonstrated and a
generalized idea for the development of high-order realizable finite-volume schemes for
quadrature-based moment methods is presented. This marks a significant improvement in
the accuracy of solutions using the quadrature-based moment method as the use of 1
st
-order
scheme to guarantee realizability is no longer a limitation.
I. Introduction
AS-PARTICLE flows are ubiquitous in aerospace, mechanical, chemical and many other engineering
disciplines. One finds such flows in automotive and aircraft engines, snow and sand storms, helicopter
brownout phenomenon, and many other critical situations. The understanding of the flow characteristics is crucial in
improving the performance of gas-turbine engines, or mitigating the harmful effects of helicopter brownout.
The numerical simulation of gas-particle flows is complicated by the wide range of phenomena that can occur in
real applications [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. In the case of helicopter brownout, the number of particles is so large that it
is impossible to track the motion of each one. In addition, these particles may have very different sizes and shapes. It
is well known that the traditional multiphase flow solvers based on the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method [15, 16, 17]
or the level-set method [18, 19, 20 , 21] are hopeless for such applications, and Lagrangian particle tracking methods
[22, 23, 24] are also very inefficient. In many other applications, physical complexities may include particle
breaking, merging (or coalescence), and evaporation [25]. It appears, the only method that can handle these physical
complexities is a kinetic-based method that solves for the moments of the velocity distribution function.
Fox [5, 10, 11, 12, 13] developed a quadrature-based moment method (QMOM) to solve for a set of moments of
the velocity distribution function. The success of this method is based on a moment-inversion algorithm that is used
to calculate non-negative weights and abscissas from moments. The moment-inversion algorithm does not work if
1
Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Aerospace Engineering, 2271 Howe Hall, AIAA Member.
2
Professor of Aerospace Engineering, 2271 Howe Hall, Associate Fellow of AIAA.
3
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, 2114 Sweeney Hall
4
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, 2114 Sweeney Hall.
.
G
48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition
4 - 7 January 2010, Orlando, Florida
AIAA 2010-1080
Copyright © 2010 by V. Vikas, Z. J. Wang, A. Passalacqua, R. O. Fox. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission.