The method of fundamental solutions for solving incompressible Navier-Stokes problems

Abstract

A novel meshless numerical procedure based on the method of fundamental solutions (MFS) is proposed to solve the primitive variables formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations. The MFS is a meshless method since it is free from the mesh generation and numerical integration. We will transform the Navier–Stokes equations into simple advection–diffusion and Poisson differential operators via the operator-splitting scheme or the so-called projection method, instead of directly using the more complicated fundamental solutions (Stokeslets) of the unsteady Stokes equations. The resultant velocity advection–diffusion equations and the pressure Poisson equation are then calculated by using the MFS together with the Eulerian–Lagrangian method (ELM) and the method of particular solutions (MPS). The proposed meshless numerical scheme is a first attempt to apply the MFS for solving the Navier–Stokes equations in the moderate-Reynolds-number flow regimes. The lid-driven cavity flows at the Reynolds numbers up to 3200 for two-dimensional (2D) and 1000 for three-dimensional (3D) are chosen to validate the present algorithm. Through further simulating the flows in the 2D circular cavity with an eccentric rotating cylinder and in the 3D cube with a fixed sphere inside, we are able to demonstrate the advantages and flexibility of the proposed meshless method in the irregular geometry and multi-dimensional flows, even though very coarse node points are used in this study as compared with other mesh-dependent numerical schemes.