Staggered Semi-Implicit Hybrid Finite Volume/Finite Element Schemes for Turbulent and Non-Newtonian Flows

This paper presents a new family of semi-implicit hybrid finite volume/finite element schemes on edge-based staggered meshes for the numerical solution of the incompressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations in combination with the k-epsilon turbulence model. The rheology for calculating the laminar viscosity coefficient under consideration in this work is the one of a non-Newtonian Herschel-Bulkley (power-law) fluid with yield stress, which includes the Bingham fluid and classical Newtonian fluids as special cases. For the spatial discretization, we use edge-based staggered unstructured simplex meshes, as well as staggered non-uniform Cartesian grids. In order to get a simple and computationally efficient algorithm, we apply an operator splitting technique, where the hyperbolic convective terms of the RANS equations are discretized explicitly at the aid of a Godunov-type finite volume scheme, while the viscous parabolic terms, the elliptic pressure terms and the stiff algebraic source terms of the k-epsilon model are discretized implicitly. For the discretization of the elliptic pressure Poisson equation, we use classical conforming P1 and Q1 finite elements on triangles and rectangles, respectively. The implicit discretization of the viscous terms is mandatory for non-Newtonian fluids, since the apparent viscosity can tend to infinity for fluids with yield stress and certain power-law fluids. It is carried out with P1 finite elements on triangular simplex meshes and with finite volumes on rectangles. For Cartesian grids and more general orthogonal unstructured meshes, we can prove that our new scheme can preserve the positivity of k and epsilon. This is achieved via a special implicit discretization of the stiff algebraic relaxation source terms, using a suitable combination of the discrete evolution equations for the logarithms of k and epsilon. The method is applied to some classical academic benchmark problems for non-Newtonian and turbulent flows in two space dimensions, comparing the obtained numerical results with available exact or numerical reference solutions. In all cases, an excellent agreement is observed.