Published papers

The aerodynamics simulation code based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) using forest-of-octrees-based block-structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) with temporary-fixed refinement was implemented, and its performance was evaluated on GPU-based supercomputers. Although the Space-Filling-Curve-based (SFC) domain partitioning algorithm for the octree-based AMR has been widely used on conventional CPU-based supercomputers, accelerated computation on GPU-based supercomputers revealed a bottleneck due to costly halo data communication. Our new tree cutting approach adopts a hybrid domain partitioning with the coarse structured block decomposition and the SFC partitioning in each block. This hybrid approach improved the locality and the topology of the partitioned sub-domains and reduced the amount of the halo communication to one-third of the original SFC approach. In the strong scaling test, the code achieved maximum ×1.82 speedup at the performance of 2207 MLUPS (mega-lattice update per second) on 128 GPUs (NVIDIA® Tesla® V100). In the weak scaling test, the code achieved 9620 MLUPS at 128 GPUs with 4.473 billion grid points, while keeping the parallel efficiency of 93.4% from 8 to 128 GPUs.

© 2020 American Physical Society. We investigate the thermal counterflow of the superfluid He4 by numerically simulating three-dimensional fully coupled dynamics of the two fluids, namely quantized vortices and a normal fluid. We analyze the velocity fluctuations of the laminar normal fluid arising from the mutual friction with the quantum turbulence of the superfluid component. The streamwise fluctuations exhibit higher intensity and longer-range autocorrelation, as compared to transverse ones. The anomalous fluctuations are consistent with visualization experiments [Mastracci et al., Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 083305 (2019)PLFHBR2469-990X10.1103/PhysRevFluids.4.083305], and our results confirm their analysis with simple models on the anisotropic fluctuations. This success validates the model of the fully coupled dynamics and paves the way for solving some outstanding problems in this two-fluid system.

Theoretical solution is derived for annular laminar flows with MHD interaction driven by a rotating co-axial cylinder. The effects on the flow field and rotational torque are clarified by changing the radius ratio and the strength of MHD interaction. As the radius ratio increases, azimuthal flow velocity increases and approaches the plane Couette flow profile for weak MHD interaction. The azimuthal flow velocity, however, decreases as the MHD interaction increases, and the reverse flow emerges in large radial locations. As the MHD interaction increases, the rotational torque increases. A larger radius ratio leads to the larger sensitivity of the change in rotational torque.

Theoretical solution is derived for annular laminar flows with MHD interaction driven by a rotating co-axial cylinder. The effects on the flow field and rotational torque are clarified by changing the radius ratio and the strength of MHD interaction. As increasing the radius ratio, azimuthal flow velocity increases and approaches the plane Couette flow profile for weak MHD interaction. The azimuthal flow velocity, however, decreases as increasing MHD interaction, and the reverse flow emerges in large radial locations. As increasing the MHD interaction, the rotational torque increases. A larger radius ratio leads to the larger sensitivity of the change in rotational torque.

© 2020 Author(s). We investigate the physical role of various scale-similarity models in the stabilized mixed model [K. Abe, "An improved anisotropy-resolving subgrid-scale model with the aid of a scale-similarity modeling concept,"Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 39, 42 (2013); M. Inagaki and K. Abe, "An improved anisotropy-resolving subgrid-scale model for flows in laminar-turbulent transition region,"Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 64, 137 (2017)] and evaluate their performance in turbulent channel flows. Among various models in the present study, the original model combined with the scale-similarity model for the subgrid-scale (SGS)-Reynolds term yields the best prediction for the anisotropy of the grid-scale (GS) velocity fluctuations and the SGS stress, even in coarse grid resolutions. Moreover, it successfully predicts large intensities of the spectra close to the cut-off scale in accordance with the filtered direct numerical simulation, whereas other models predict a rapid decay of the spectra in the low-wavelength region. To investigate the behavior of the models close to the cut-off scale, we analyze the budget equation for the GS Reynolds stress spectrum. The result shows that the scale-similarity model for the SGS-Reynolds term plays a role in the enhancement of the wall-normal velocity fluctuation close to the cut-off scale. Thereby, it activates turbulence close to the cut-off scale, leading to a reproduction of the proper streak structures observed in wall-bounded turbulent flows. The reproduction of velocity fluctuations close to the cut-off scale and turbulent structures is a key element for further development of SGS models.

© 2019 Elsevier Inc. The fidelity of Large Eddy Simulations (LES) depends strongly on the closures of the sub-grid scale (SGS) stress tensor. Although it is well known that the SGS stresses in LES are not aligned with the strain rate tensor, the most widely used models are still of eddy viscosity type, due to their robust behavior in LES and reasonable performance in a posteriori testing. The unstable behavior of more advanced anisotropic models, that is typically found in LES, has been attributed to either the fact that these models provide backscatter or to the fact that they do not provide a sufficient amount of dissipation. Based on recent advances in the field, an alternative modeling strategy is suggested, which can be used to regularize an arbitrary anisotropic (e.g. scale similarity type) model. The resulting model is easy to implement, can be written in compact form and is free of model parameters. The model has been tested a-posteriori and results are presented for a Taylor-Green-Vortex, a free plane jet and a turbulent channel flow of friction Reynolds numbers 395, 590 and 934. The results are compared to well-known eddy viscosity models and when applicable, to simulations without explicit LES model. The new model exhibits good performance for a variety of mesh resolutions and for all configurations. Furthermore, a-priori analysis results in the context of liquid atomization indicate that the model might be suitable as well in more complex physical scenarios. The a-priori analysis performance of the model is found to be nearly equivalent to the underlying structural anisotropic model in terms of its correlation coefficient, but the model is free of backscatter and provides good stability in LES.

© 2018 American Physical Society. The coupled dynamics of the two-fluid model of superfluid He4 is numerically studied for quantum turbulence of the thermal counterflow in a square channel. We combine the vortex filament model of the superfluid and the Navier-Stokes equations of normal fluid. Simulations of the coupled dynamics show that the velocity profile of the normal fluid is deformed significantly by superfluid turbulence as the vortices become dense. This result is consistent with recently performed visualization experiments. We introduce a dimensionless parameter that characterizes the deformation of the velocity profile.

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. The subgrid-scale (SGS) model is improved by using a scale-similarity model based on the analysis of the SGS force and SGS energy transfer around an elliptic Burgers vortex. Abe (2013) proposed an anisotropy-resolving SGS model in which the Bardina term of a scale-similarity model is mixed with an eddy viscosity model under a new concept wherein the Bardina term does not affect the SGS energy transfer although it affects the SGS force. By using the concept, we propose a scale-similarity model with the Clark term. The SGS energy transfer is determined by the scale-similarity term and not by the eddy viscosity term while the SGS force is improved by using the SGS kinetic energy (Abe, 2013). It is observed that the Clark term yields higher spatial correlation with the true distributions of the SGS force and SGS energy transfer around the elliptic vortex when compared to the Bardina term. The SGS model based on the Clark term exhibits good performance for turbulent channel flows with respect to Reτ=180 and 590 even in extremely coarse grid resolutions. Specifically, the SGS model with the SGS kinetic energy fairly improves the mean streamwise velocity profile.

© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Three-dimensional numerical simulations in a square duct were conducted to investigate entrance lengths of normal fluid and superfluid flows in a thermal counterflow of superfluid 4He. The two fluids were coarse-grained by using the Hall–Vinen–Bekharevich–Khalatnikov (HVBK) model and were coupled through mutual friction. We solved the HVBK equations by parameterizing the coefficient of the mutual friction to consider the vortex line density. A uniform mutual friction parameter was assumed in the streamwise direction. Our simulation showed that the entrance length of the normal fluid from a hot end becomes shorter than that of a single normal fluid due to the mutual friction with the parabolically developed superfluid flow near the hot end. As the mutual friction increases, the entrance length decreases. Same as that, the entrance length of the superfluid from a cold end is affected by the strength of the mutual friction due to the parabolically developed normal fluid flow near the cold end. Aside from the entrance effect, the realized condition of a tail-flattened flow is discussed by parameterizing the superfluid turbulent eddy viscosity and the mutual friction.