Spectral multi-domain for large-scale fluid dynamic simulations

Abstract

A number of successful applications of a spectral collocation method extended by a multi-domain patching technique are shown. The multi-domain technique can be used to improve resolution for problems with widely disparate scales, and to reduce the ill-conditioning of the spectral operators for problems in which a large number of points are required for distributed resolution. A new nonreflecting outflow boundary treatment for unsteady transition-to-turbulence simulations is also presented, which relies on the multi-domain technique. The role of multi-domain in improving the efficiency of such calculations is discussed.