Numerical solutions of coupling hydraulic transient and axial structural vibration in liquid-filled pipelines by flux vector splitting scheme (Q1637484)

Summary: Method of characteristics is used widely to solve classical hydraulic transient problems. However, when it is applied to solve coupling hydraulic transient problems, excessive interpolation errors may be introduced into results because of unavoidable multi-wave interpolated calculations. To overcome the disadvantage, a novel finite difference scheme based on Steger-Warming flux vector splitting is proposed. Firstly, flux vector splitting scheme for coupling hydraulic transient model of liquid-filled pipelines is established. Then flux subvectors are discretised by Lax-Wendroff central difference scheme and Warming-Beam upwind difference scheme possessing second order precision in time and space. Finally, according to Rankine-Hugoniot conditions and corresponding boundary conditions, an effective method is developed to solve those points located at the boundaries, which can avoid the problem beyond calculation region induced by using second order discrete technology directly. The numerical simulation shows that the proposed computation scheme has several desirable advantages, such as high precision, excellent capability of capturing the shock waves, without false numerical oscillation, low sensitivity to Courant number and good stability.