Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2010
Publication Title
Communications in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science
Volume
5
Issue Number
2
First Page
149
Last Page
197
DOI
10.2140/camcos.2010.5.149
Keywords
finite-volume scheme, hydrodynamics
Disciplines
Applied Mathematics | Other Physics
Abstract
This paper describes the development and analysis of finite-volume methods for the Landau–Lifshitz Navier–Stokes (LLNS) equations and related stochastic partial differential equations in fluid dynamics. The LLNS equations incorporate thermal fluctuations into macroscopic hydrodynamics by the addition of white noise fluxes whose magnitudes are set by a fluctuation-dissipation relation. Originally derived for equilibrium fluctuations, the LLNS equations have also been shown to be accurate for nonequilibrium systems. Previous studies of numerical methods for the LLNS equations focused primarily on measuring variances and correlations computed at equilibrium and for selected nonequilibrium flows. In this paper, we introduce a more systematic approach based on studying discrete equilibrium structure factors for a broad class of explicit linear finite-volume schemes. This new approach provides a better characterization of the accuracy of a spatiotemporal discretization as a function of wavenumber and frequency, allowing us to distinguish between behavior at long wavelengths, where accuracy is a prime concern, and short wavelengths, where stability concerns are of greater importance. We use this analysis to develop a specialized third-order Runge–Kutta scheme that minimizes the temporal integration error in the discrete structure factor at long wavelengths for the one-dimensional linearized LLNS equations.Together with a novel method for discretizing the stochastic stress tensor in dimension larger than one, our improved temporal integrator yields a scheme for the three-dimensional equations that satisfies a discrete fluctuation-dissipation balance for small time steps and is also sufficiently accurate even for time steps close to the stability limit.
Recommended Citation
Aleksandar Donev, Eric Vanden-Eijnden, Alejandro Garcia, and John B. Bell. "On the Accuracy of Explicit Finite-Volume Schemes for Fluctuating Hydrodynamics" Communications in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science (2010): 149-197. https://doi.org/10.2140/camcos.2010.5.149
Comments
First published in Communications in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science in Vol. 5, No. 2, 2010, published by Mathematical Sciences Publishers.