event
Tuesday 25 Jan 2022: EPIC: the Elliptical Parcel-In-Cell Method
Dr Matthias Frey - University of St Andrews
Zoom 13:30-15:30
We present a novel approach to simulating general two-dimensional flows, which could also be applied to other areas of continuum mechanics. The approach generalises the Particle-In-Cell (PIC) method, originally used to model two-dimensional hydrodynamics, by representing fluid elements by elliptical parcels. The rotation and deformation of these parcels are calculated, and parcels split beyond a critical aspect ratio. Conversely, small parcels are eliminated by merging them with larger ones. The elliptical parcels well represent the flow deformation and have excellent conservation properties. Moreover, the small-scale mixing associated with parcel splitting and merging is shown to be strongly convergent with grid resolution. The robustness, versatility, accuracy and efficiency of the new Elliptical Parcel-In-Cell (EPIC) method is demonstrated for a variety of standard test cases. The results indicate that EPIC is a promising, Lagrangian-based alternative to grid-based methods.
