Analysis of an exact fractional step method

  • Authors:

  • Wang Chang;Francis Giraldo;Blair Perot

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts;Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, California;Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computational Physics
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

An exact fractional step or projection method for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations is analyzed. The method is applied to both structured and unstructured staggered mesh schemes. There are no splitting errors associated with the method; it satisfies the incompressibility condition to machine precision and reduces the number of unknowns. The exact projection technique is demonstrated on a two-dimensional cavity flow and a multiply connected moving domain with a free surface. Its performance is compared directly to classic fractional step methods and shown to be roughly twice as efficient. Boundary conditions and the relationship of the method to streamfunction-vorticity methods are discussed.