A coupled finite volume solver for the solution of incompressible flows on unstructured grids

This paper reports on a newly developed fully coupled pressure-based algorithm for the solution of laminar incompressible flow problems on collocated unstructured grids. The implicit pressure-velocity coupling is accomplished by deriving a pressure equation in a procedure similar to a segregated SIMPLE algorithm using the Rhie-Chow interpolation technique and assembling the coefficients of the momentum and continuity equations into one diagonally dominant matrix. The extended systems of continuity and momentum equations are solved simultaneously and their convergence is accelerated by using an algebraic multigrid solver. The performance of the coupled approach as compared to the segregated approach, exemplified by SIMPLE, is tested by solving five laminar flow problems using both methodologies and comparing their computational costs. Results indicate that the number of iterations needed by the coupled solver for the solution to converge to a desired level on both structured and unstructured meshes is grid independent. For relatively coarse meshes, the CPU time required by the coupled solver on structured grid is lower than the CPU time required on unstructured grid. On dense meshes however, this is no longer true. For low and moderate values of the grid aspect ratio, the number of iterations required by the coupled solver remains unchanged, while the computational cost slightly increases. For structured and unstructured grid systems, the required number of iterations is almost independent of the grid size at any value of the grid expansion ratio. Recorded CPU time values show that the coupled approach substantially reduces the computational cost as compared to the segregated approach with the reduction rate increasing as the grid size increases.