SALE-3D, 3-D Fluid Flow, Navier Stokes Equation Using Lagrangian or Eulerian Method

1 - Description of problem or function: SALE-3D calculates three- dimensional fluid flows at all speeds, from the incompressible limit to highly supersonic. An implicit treatment of the pressure calculation similar to that in the Implicit Continuous-fluid Eulerian (ICE) technique provides this flow speed flexibility. In addition, the computing mesh may move with the fluid in a typical Lagrangian fashion, be held fixed in an Eulerian manner, or move in some arbitrarily specified way to provide a continuous rezoning capability. This latitude results from use of an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) treatment of the mesh. The partial differential equations solved are the Navier-Stokes equations and the mass and internal energy equations. The fluid pressure is determined from an equation of state and supplemented with an artificial viscous pressure for the computation of shock waves. The computing mesh consists of a three-dimensional network of arbitrarily shaped, six-sided deformable cells, and a variety of user-selectable boundary conditions are provided in the program. 2 - Method of solution: SALE3D uses an ICED-ALE technique, which combines the ICE method of treating flow speeds and the ALE mesh treatment to calculate three-dimensional fluid flow. The finite- difference approximations to the conservation of mass, momentum, and specific internal energy differential equations are solved in a sequence of time steps on a network of deformable computational cells. The basic hydrodynamic part of each cycle is divided into three phases: (1) an explicit solution of the Lagrangian equations of motion updating the velocity field by the effects of all forces, (2) an implicit calculation using Newton-Raphson iterative scheme that provides time-advanced pressures and velocities, and (3) the addition of advective contributions for runs that are Eulerian or contain some relative motion of grid and fluid. A powerful feature of this three-phases approach is the ease with which different phases can be combined to suit the requirements of individual problems