Direct numerical simulation of turbulence at lower costs (Q1392604)

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is the most accurate, but also the most expensive, way of computing turbulent flow. To cut the costs of DNS, we consider a family of second-order explicit one-leg time-integration methods and look for the method with the best linear stability properties. It turns out that this method requires about two times less computational effort than Adams-Bashforth method. Next, we discuss a fourth-order finite volume method that is constructed as the Richardson extrapolate of a classical second-order method. We compare the results of this fourth-order method and the underlying second-order method for a DNS of the flow in a cubical driven cavity at \(Re=10^4\). Experimental results are available for comparison. For this example, the fourth-order results are clearly superior to the second-order results, whereas their computational effort is about twenty times less.