Particle methods for direct numerical simulations of three-dimensional wakes

In this paper we describe recent advances in the development of particle methods for the direct numerical simulations of three-dimensional wakes. Both body-fitted and immersed boundary techniques are considered. The accuracy and numerical cost of the proposed numerical methods are discussed on the benchmark cases of a flow past a cylinder and of a vortex ring impinging on a cylinder. This article was chosen from Selected Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Vortex Flows and Related Numerical Methods (UC Santa-Barbara, 17-20 March 2002) ed E Meiburg, G H Cottet, A Ghoniem and P Koumoutsakos. Present address: MIP, Complexe Scientifique de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse Cedex 4, France.