A Chebyshev-Legendre spectral method for the transient solutions of flow past a solid sphere (Q1209852)

A full spectral model for the stream-function-vorticity formulation is developed for the solution of unsteady flow past a rigid sphere. To convert to governing partial differential equations to discrete form, Chebyshev and Legendre polynomials are employed to expand the vorticity and stream function in the radial and angular directions, respectively, together with a first-order, fully implicit, iterative scheme for time advancement. The solution to the system of discrete nonlinear equations is accomplished by LU decomposition in conjunction with the influence matrix to resolve the lack of vorticity boundary conditions.