AN IMPROVED BOUNDARY-ELEMENT METHOD AND ITS APPLICATION TO TIME-DEPENDENT CONVECTION

Performance of a boundary-element scheme, using stream function-vortic ity formulation, has been improved in solving 2D time-dependent convec tion problems with various time scales and arbitrary geometry. Emphasi s is placed on careful treatment of numerical difficulties. Advanced i ntegration techniques are used for both boundary and domain integrals of different types. Excellent agreement is obtained between our soluti ons and published results on oscillatory natural convection. For the f irst time, this boundary-element scheme is successfully applied in sim ulating detailed physical processes of small-time-scale problems.