Direct numerical simulations of the transition process from steady laminar to chaotic flow are considered in this study with the relatively new incompressible lattice Boltzmann equation. Numerically, a multiple relaxation time fully incompressible lattice Boltzmann equation is implemented in a 2D driven cavity. Spatial discretization is 2nd-order accurate, and the Kolmogorov length scale estimation based on Reynolds number (Re) dictates grid resolution. Initial simulations show the method to be accurate for steady laminar flows, while higher Re simulations reveal periodic flow behavior consistent with an initial Hopf bifurcation at Re 7,988. Non-repeating flow behavior is observed in the phase space trajectories above Re 13,063, and is evidence of the transition to a chaotic flow regime. Finally, flows at Reynolds numbers above the chaotic transition point are simulated and found with statistical properties in good agreement with literature.

This paper presents a fast surface voxelization technique for the mapping of tessellated triangular surface meshes to uniform and structured grids that provide a basis for CFD simulations with the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The core algorithm is optimized for massively parallel execution on graphics processing units (GPUs) and is based on a unique dissection of the inner body shell. This unique definition necessitates a topology based neighbor search as a preprocessing step, but also enables parallel implementation. More specifically, normal vectors of adjacent triangular tessellations are used to construct half-angles that clearly separate the per-triangle regions. For each triangle, the grid nodes inside the axis-aligned bounding box (AABB) are tested for their distance to the triangle in question and for certain well-defined relative angles. The performance of the presented grid generation procedure is superior to the performance of the GPU-accelerated flow field computations per time step which allows efficient fluid-structure interaction simulations, without noticeable performance loss due to the dynamic grid update.

The stability of the lattice Boltzmann model (LBM) is a challenging problem in the simulation of compressible flows with different types of embedded discontinuities. This study, proposes a complementary scheme for simulation of inviscid compressible flows by the lattice Boltzmann models using the numerical filters to improve the stability. The advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of numerical filters on the primitive and conservative variables, in addition to, mesoscopic and macroscopic variables are investigated. Moreover, a shock-detecting sensor, which activates a second-order linear filter near the discontinuities and a higher-order linear filter in smooth regions, is described and assessed. This study demonstrates that the proposed complementary scheme is practical. Also the accuracy and robustness of the utilized LB models are improved for inviscid compressible flows by implementation of the numerical filters on primitive variables. The validity of the procedure to capture shocks and to resolve contact discontinuity and rarefaction waves in well-known benchmarks is investigated and good agreements are obtained for all test cases.

In this paper, we study a lattice Boltzmann method for the advection-diffusion equation with Neumann boundary conditions on general boundaries. A novel mass conservative scheme is introduced for implementing such boundary conditions, and is analyzed both theoretically and numerically.

Second order convergence is predicted by the theoretical analysis, and numerical investigations show that the convergence is at or close to the predicted rate. The numerical investigations include time-dependent problems and a steady-state diffusion problem for computation of effective diffusion coefficients.

A 3D lattice Boltzmann (LB) model with twenty-seven discrete velocities is presented and used for the simulation of three-dimensional porous media flows. Its accuracy in combination with the half-way bounce back boundary condition is assessed. Characteristic properties of the gas diffusion layers that are used in polymer electrolyte fuel cells can be determined with this model. Simulation in samples that have been obtained via X-ray tomographic microscopy, allows to estimate the values of permeability and relative effective diffusivity. Furthermore, the computational LB results are compared with the results of other numerical tools, as well as with experimental values.

A lattice Boltzmann model for the study of advection-diffusion-reaction (ADR) problems is proposed. Via multiscale expansion analysis, we derive from the LB model the resulting macroscopic equations. It is shown that a linear equilibrium distribution is sufficient to produce ADR equations within error terms of the order of the Mach number squared. Furthermore, we study spatially varying structures arising from the interaction of advective transport with a cubic autocatalytic reaction-diffusion process under an imposed uniform flow. While advecting all the present species leads to trivial translation of the Turing patterns, differential advection leads to flow induced instability characterized with traveling stripes with a velocity dependent wave vector parallel to the flow direction. Predictions from a linear stability analysis of the model equations are found to be in line with these observations.

Stent placement is considered as a promising and minimally invasive technique to prevent rupture of aneurysm and favor coagulation mechanism inside the aneurysm. Many scholars study the effect of the stent on blood flow in cerebral aneurysm by numerical simulations, and usually regard blood as the Newtonian fluid, blood, however, is a kind of non-Newtonian fluid in practice. The main purpose of the present paper is to investigate the effect of non-Newtonian behavior on the hemodynamic characteristics of blood flow in stented cerebral aneurysm with lattice Boltzmann method. The Casson model is used to describe the blood non-Newtonian character, which is one of the most popular models in depicting blood fluid. In particular, hemodynamic characteristics derived with Newtonian and non-Newtonian models are studied, and compared in detail. The results show that the non-Newtonian effect gives a great influence on hemodynamic characteristics of blood flow in stented cerebral aneurysm, especially in small necked ones.

A surface based lattice Boltzmann impedance boundary condition (BC) using Ozyoruk’s model [J. Comput. Phys., 146 (1998), pp. 29-57] is proposed and implemented in PowerFLOW. In Ozyoruk’s model, pressure fluctuation is directly linked to normal velocity on an impedance surface. In the present study, the relation between pressure and normal velocity is realized precisely by imposing a mass flux on the surface. This impedance BC is generalized and can handle complex geometry. Combined with the turbulence model in the lattice Boltzmann solver PowerFLOW, this BC can be used to model the effect of a liner in presence of a complex 3D turbulent flow. Preliminary simulations of the NASA Langley grazing flow tube and Kundt tube show satisfying agreement with experimental results.

A general analysis of the hydrodynamic limit of multi-relaxation time lattice Boltzmann models is presented. We examine multi-relaxation time BGK collision operators that are constructed similarly to those for the MRT case, however, without explicitly moving into a moment space representation. The corresponding ‘moments’ are derived as left eigenvectors of said collision operator in velocity space. Consequently we can, in a representation independent of the chosen base velocity set, generate the conservation equations. We find a significant degree of freedom in the choice of the collision matrix and the associated basis which leaves the collision operator invariant. We explain why MRT implementations in the literature reproduce identical hydrodynamics despite being based on different orthogonalization relations. More importantly, however, we outline a minimal set of requirements on the moment base necessary to maintain the validity of the hydrodynamic equations. This is particularly useful in the context of position and time-dependent moments such as those used in the context of peculiar velocities and some implementations of fluctuations in a lattice-Boltzmann simulation.

The onset of cavitating conditions inside the nozzle of liquid injectors is known to play a major role on spray characteristics, especially on jet penetration and break-up. In this work, we present a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) based on the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) to study the fluid dynamic field inside the nozzle of a cavitating injector. The formation of the cavitating region is determined via a multi-phase approach based on the Shan-Chen equation of state. The results obtained by the LBM simulation show satisfactory agreement with both numerical and experimental data. In addition, numerical evidence of bubble break-up, following upon flow-induced cavitation, is also reported.

We couple different flow models, i.e. a finite element solver for the Navier-Stokes equations and a Lattice Boltzmann automaton, using the framework Peano as a common base. The new coupling strategy between the meso- and macroscopic solver is presented and validated in a 2D channel flow scenario. The results are in good agreement with theory and results obtained in similar works by Latt et al. In addition, the test scenarios show an improved stability of the coupled method compared to pure Lattice Boltzmann simulations.

A two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann model has been employed to simulate the impingement of a liquid drop on a dry surface. For a range of Weber number, Reynolds number and low density ratios, multiple phases leading to breakup have been obtained. An analytical solution for breakup as function of Reynolds and Weber number based on the conservation of energy is shown to match well with the simulations. At the moment breakup occurs, the spread diameter is maximum; it increases with Weber number and reaches an asymptotic value at a density ratio of 10. Droplet breakup is found to be more viable for the case when the wall is non-wetting or neutral as compared to a wetting surface. Upon breakup, the distance between the daughter droplets is much higher for the case with a non-wetting wall, which illustrates the role of the surface interactions in the outcome of the impact.

We show that an enslaved phase-separation front moving with diffusive speeds can leave alternating domains of increasing size in their wake. We find the size and spacing of these domains is identical to Liesegang patterns. For equal composition of the components we are able to predict the exact form of the pattern analytically. To our knowledge this is the first fully analytical derivation of the Liesegang laws. We also show that there is a critical value for C below which only two domains are formed. Our analytical predictions are verified by numerical simulations using a lattice Boltzmann method.

We analyze the Lattice Boltzmann method for the simulation of fluctuating hydrodynamics by Adhikari et al. [Europhys. Lett., 71 (2005), 473-479] and find that it shows excellent agreement with theory even for small wavelengths as long as a stationary system is considered. This is in contrast to other finite difference and older lattice Boltzmann implementations that show convergence only in the limit of large wavelengths. In particular cross correlators vanish to less than 0.5%. For larger mean velocities, however, Galilean invariance violations manifest themselves.

In order to model the dispersal of volcanic particles in the atmosphere and their deposition on the ground, one has to simulate an advection-diffusion-sedimentation process on a large spatial area. Here we compare a Lattice Boltzmann and a Cellular Automata approach. Our results show that for high Peclet regimes, the cellular automata model produce results that are as accurate as the lattice Boltzmann model and is computationally more effective.

Multi-component flow with chemical reactions is a common problem in different industrial applications: the mixing chamber of a reaction injection molding (RIM) machine; the dynamics of diesel soot particles interacting with a porous-ceramic particulate filter; reactive transport in porous media; bio-chemical processes involving enzyme-catalyzed kinetics. In all these cases, mass diffusion/convection and wall or volume chemical interactions among components play an important role. In the present paper we underline the importance of diffusion/convection/reaction mechanisms in bio-chemical processes using the Lattice Boltzmann (LB) technique. The bio-application where we studied diffusion/convection/reaction mechanisms is the quorum-sensing pathway for the bio-synthesis of the AI-2, a molecule that allows the bacteria to launch a coordinated attack on a host immune system (see [9,10] for more details of the bio-application). The overall goal is to create a micro-device to screen potential drugs that inhibit AI-2 bio-synthesis. The Michaelis-Menten saturation kinetic model is implemented at the reactive surface and the results are shown in terms of two dimensionless numbers: Damkohler (Da) and Peclet (Pe) number. For high Pe number a small conversion of reactants into products is obtained at the reactive surface, but the overall flux of products is high; moreover, a fast saturation of the conversion of reactants to products is obtained for high Da numbers. The trade-off for setting the Pe and Da numbers depends on the specific application and the technologies used in the micro-device (e.g., sensitivity of the detector, cost of reactants).

The simulation of multiphase flows is an outstanding challenge, due to the inherent complexity of the underlying physical phenomena and to the fact that multiphase flows are very diverse in nature, and so are the laws governing their dynamics. In the last two decades, a new class of mesoscopic methods, based on minimal lattice formulation of Boltzmann kinetic equation, has gained significant interest as an efficient alternative to continuum methods based on the discretisation of the NS equations for non ideal fluids. In this paper, three different multiphase models based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) are discussed, in order to assess the capability of the method to deal with multiphase flows on a wide spectrum of operating conditions and multiphase phenomena. In particular, the range of application of each method is highlighted and its effectiveness is qualitatively assessed through comparison with numerical and experimental literature data.