A second-order projection method for variable-density flows (Q1201050)

The paper has the character of a numerical analysis, applied to some nonlinear boundary problems from the fluid dynamics. The numerical tool, called by the authors ``the second order projection method'', has a long filiation, exposed by them in the introductory part and suggested in the large bibliography concluding the paper, where they have a remarcable contribution; the named method is a straight-forward extension of the second order projection method, developed by the first author, \textit{P. Colella} and \textit{H. M. Glaz} [J. Comput. Phys. 85, No. 2, 257-283 (1989; Zbl 0681.76030)] whose roots amount to the Helmholtz decomposition of a vector field: \(V=\text{grad }\varphi+\text{rot }V^ d\). The method is applied to the resolution of the variable density Navier-Stokes equations in two dimensions (Cartesian and axisymmetric cases), but the authors assert that it can be easily extended to the three-dimensional problems. There are analysed: axisymmetric thermal, two-dimensional Poiseuille flow past a heated strip, the Rayleigh-Taylor instability and the interaction of a vortex ring with a density interface.