Lattice Boltzmann algorithms without cubic defects in Galilean invariance on standard lattices

• Authors: Paul J. Dellar
• Venue: Journal of Computational Physics
• Year: 2014

The vast majority of lattice Boltzmann algorithms produce a non-Galilean invariant viscous stress. This defect arises from the absence of a term in the third moment, the equilibrium heat flow tensor, proportional to the cube of the fluid velocity. This moment cannot be specified independently of the lower moments on the standard lattices such as D2Q9, D3Q15, D3Q19 or D3Q27. A partial correction has recently been demonstrated that restores some of these missing cubic terms on the D2Q9 and D3Q27 tensor product lattices. This correction restores Galilean invariance for shear flows aligned with the coordinate axes, but flows inclined at arbitrary angles may show larger errors than before. These remaining errors are due to the diagonal terms of the equilibrium heat flow tensor, which cannot be corrected on standard lattices. However, the remaining errors may be largely absorbed by introducing a matrix collision operator with velocity-dependent collision rates for the diagonal components of the momentum flux tensor. This completely restores Galilean invariance for flows with uniform density, and in general reduces the magnitude of the defect in Galilean invariance from Mach number cubed to Mach number to the fifth power. The effectiveness of the resulting algorithm is demonstrated by comparisons with the standard and partially corrected lattice Boltzmann algorithms for two- and three-dimensional flows.