Dynamic vorticity condition : theoretical analysis and numerical implementation

The dynamic boundary conditions for vorticity, derived from the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, are examined from both theoretical and computational points of view. It is found that these conditions can be either local (Neumann type) or global (Dirichlet type), both containing coupling with the boundary pressure, which is the main difficulty in applying vorticity-based methods. An integral formulation is presented to analyse the structure of vorticity and pressure solutions, especially the strength of the coupling. We find that for high-Reynolds-number flows the coupling is weak and, if necessary, can be effectively bypassed by simple iteration. In fact, even a fully decoupled approximation is well applicable for most Reynolds numbers of practical interest. The fractional step method turns out to be especially appropriate for implementing the decoupled approximation. Both integral and finite difference methods are tested for some simple cases with known exact solutions. In the integral approach smoothed heat kernels are used to increase the accuracy of numerical quadrature. For the more complicated problem of impulsively started flow over a circular cylinder at Re = 9500 the finite difference method is used. The results are compared against numerical solutions and fine experiments with good agreement. These numerical experiments confirm our thoeretical analysis and show the advantages of the dynamic condition in computing high-Reynolds-number flows.