We report an interesting and important observation of the velocity fields from immersed boundary lattice Boltzmann methods (IB-LBM). The computed velocity profiles can deviate from theoretical predictions greatly even for very simple flow situations, both in the immersed boundary layer and the bulk region. A rigorous analysis of the IB-LBM simulated velocity for a symmetric shear flow is carried out, and the analytical solutions indicate a strong dependence of velocity on the relaxation parameter (kinetic viscosity). Also our simulations demonstrate that simply increasing the immersed boundary layer thickness is not an efficient approach to reduce such velocity discrepancy. We hope this work will bring the awareness of this essential issue to people using IB-LBM for various flow situations.
In this paper a conjugate interface method is developed by performing extrapolations along the normal direction. Compared to other existing conjugate models, our method has several technical advantages, including the simple and straightforward algorithm, accurate representation of the interface geometry, applicability to any interface-lattice relative orientation, and availability of the normal gradient. The model is validated by simulating the steady and unsteady convection-diffusion system with a flat interface and the steady diffusion system with a circular interface, and good agreement is observed when comparing the lattice Boltzmann results with respective analytical solutions. A more general system with unsteady convection-diffusion process and a curved interface, i.e., the cooling process of a hot cylinder in a cold flow, is also simulated as an example to illustrate the practical usefulness of our model, and the effects of the cylinder heat capacity and thermal diffusivity on the cooling process are examined. Results show that the cylinder with a larger heat capacity can release more heat energy into the fluid and the cylinder temperature cools down slower, while the enhanced heat conduction inside the cylinder can facilitate the cooling process of the system. Although these findings appear obvious from physical principles, the confirming results demonstrates the application potential of our method in more complex systems. In addition, the basic idea and algorithm of the counter-extrapolation procedure presented here can be readily extended to other lattice Boltzmann models and even other computational technologies for heat and mass transfer systems.
Mass conservation and momentum transfer across solid-fluid boundaries have been active topics through the development of the lattice-Boltzmann method. In this paper, we review typical treatments to prevent net mass transfer across solid-fluid boundaries in the lattice-Boltzmann method, and argue that such efforts are in general not necessary and could lead to incorrect results. Carefully designed simulations are conducted to examine the effects of normal boundary movement, tangential density gradient, and lattice grid resolution. Our simulation results show that the global mass conservation can be well satisfied even with local unbalanced mass transfer at boundary nodes, while a local mass conservation constraint can produce incorrect flow and pressure fields. These simulations suggest that local mass conservation, at either a fluid or solid boundary node, is not only an unnecessary consequence to maintain the global mass conservation, but also harmful for meaningful simulation results. In addition, the concern on the momentum addition and reduction associated with status-changing nodes is also not technically necessary. Although including this momentum addition or reduction has no direct influence on flow and pressure fields, the incorrect fluid-particle interaction may affect simulation results of particulate suspensions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.