Finite element solution of incompressible flows using an explicit segregated approach

An explicit finite element method for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for laminar and turbulent, newtonian, nonisothermal flow is presented. This method is based on the segregated velocity pressure formulation which has seen considerable development in the last decade. An endeavour has been made to include beneficial features from much of the relevant published work in the developed code. Some of the main features include, the use of the velocity correction method (segregation at the differential equation level), equal order interpolation of velocity and pressure, splitting of advection and diffusion terms, Taylor-Galerkin method for discretizing the advection terms, lumped-explicit solution of diffusion, and iterative-explicit solution of advection. In addition to these a consistent treatment of the natural boundary conditions for the pressure Poisson equation has been presented. Full details of the formulation are given with examples demonstrating the method. © 1995 CIMNE.