The inviscid limit for the incompressible stationary magnetohydrodynamics equations in three dimensions

This paper is concerned with the zero-viscosity limit of the three-dimensional (3D) incompressible stationary magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations in the 3D unbounded domain [Formula: see text]. The main result of this paper establishes that the solution of 3D incompressible stationary MHD equations converges to the solution of the 3D incompressible stationary Euler equations as the viscosity coefficient goes to zero.

Efficient supersonic flow simulations using lattice Boltzmann methods based on numerical equilibria

A double-distribution-function based lattice Boltzmann method (DDF-LBM) is proposed for the simulation of polyatomic gases in the supersonic regime. The model relies on a numerical equilibrium that has been extensively used by discrete velocity methods since the late 1990s. Here, it is extended to reproduce an arbitrary number of moments of the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution. These extensions to the standard 5-constraint (mass, momentum and energy) approach lead to the correct simulation of thermal, compressible flows with only 39 discrete velocities in 3D. The stability of this BGK-LBM is reinforced by relying on Knudsen-number-dependent relaxation times that are computed analytically. Hence, high Reynolds-number, supersonic flows can be simulated in an efficient and elegant manner. While the 1D Riemann problem shows the ability of the proposed approach to handle discontinuities in the zero-viscosity limit, the simulation of the supersonic flow past a NACA0012 aerofoil confirms the excellent behaviour of this model in a low-viscosity and supersonic regime. The flow past a sphere is further simulated to investigate the 3D behaviour of our model in the low-viscosity supersonic regime. The proposed model is shown to be substantially more efficient than the previous 5-moment D3Q343 DDF-LBM for both CPU and GPU architectures. It then opens up a whole new world of compressible flow applications that can be realistically tackled with a purely LB approach. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Fluid dynamics, soft matter and complex systems: recent results and new methods’.

Impact of collision models on the physical properties and the stability of lattice Boltzmann methods

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is known to suffer from stability issues when the collision model relies on the BGK approximation, especially in the zero viscosity limit and for non-vanishing Mach numbers. To tackle this problem, two kinds of solutions were proposed in the literature. They consist in changing either the numerical discretization (finite-volume, finite-difference, spectral-element, etc.) of the discrete velocity Boltzmann equation (DVBE), or the collision model. In this work, the latter solution is investigated in detail. More precisely, we propose a comprehensive comparison of (static relaxation time based) collision models, in terms of stability, and with preliminary results on their accuracy, for the simulation of isothermal high-Reynolds number flows in the (weakly) compressible regime. It starts by investigating the possible impact of collision models on the macroscopic behaviour of stream-and-collide based D2Q9-LBMs, which clarifies the exact physical properties of collision models on LBMs. It is followed by extensive linear and numerical stability analyses, supplemented with an accuracy study based on the transport of vortical structures over long distances. In order to draw conclusions as generally as possible, the most common moment spaces (raw, central, Hermite, central Hermite and cumulant), as well as regularized approaches, are considered for the comparative studies. LBMs based on dynamic collision mechanisms (entropic collision, subgrid-scale models, explicit filtering, etc.) are also briefly discussed. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Fluid dynamics, soft matter and complex systems: recent results and new methods’.

Uniform regularity for free-boundary Navier–Stokes equations with surface tension

We study the zero-viscosity limit of free boundary Navier–Stokes equations with surface tension in unbounded domain thus extending the work of Masmoudi and Rousset [Uniform regularity and vanishing viscosity limit for the free surface Navier–Stokes equations, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. (2016), doi:10.1007/s00205-016-1036-5] to take surface tension into account. Due to the presence of boundary layers, we are unable to pass to the zero-viscosity limit in the usual Sobolev spaces. Indeed, as viscosity tends to zero, normal derivatives at the boundary should blow-up. To deal with this problem, we solve the free boundary problem in the so-called Sobolev co-normal spaces (after fixing the boundary via a coordinate transformation). We prove estimates which are uniform in the viscosity. And after inviscid limit process, we get the local existence of free-boundary Euler equation with surface tension. Our main idea is to use Dirichlet–Neumann operator and time-derivatives.