PRESSURE-BASED CONTROL-VOLUME FINITE-ELEMENT METHOD FOR FLOW AT ALL SPEEDS

This paper presents a collocated pressure-based method for the solutio n of viscous/inviscid fluid flow problems incorporating compressible a nd incompressible regimes, The solution domain is discretized using a control-volume-based finite element method. The fully implicit method does not experience any stability difficulties due to compressibility effects at low Mach numbers. The pressure/velocity decoupling problem is fully resolved herein for flow regimes from incompressible through compressible flow Transonic and supersonic flows are covered by includ ing the pressure/density coupling, which arises in high-speed flows, i n the continuity equation, This is done in such a manner that the cont inuity equation remains a constraint equation for pressure in all how regimes. Test problems with wide variations in geometry and fluid phys ics have been successfully solved, demonstrating the generality and co mputational capability of the method. The scheme is both efficient and robust. The accuracy of the method has been checked by comparing the results with other numerical results available in the literature and w ith the exact solution.