Artificial Compressibility Method and Preconditioning Method for Solving Two Dimensional Incompressibile Flow

In this study, two commonly used numerical methods for the analysis of incompressible flows (or low Mach number flows), Chorins’ artificial compressibility method and Wiess and Smith’s preconditioning method are compared. Also, the convergence characteristics of two methods are numerically investigated for two-dimensional laminar and turbulent flows. Although the two methods have similar governing equations, the eigensystems and other details are very different. The eigensystems of the artificial compressibility method and the preconditioning method are analytically examined. An artificial compressibility code that solves the incompressible RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) equations is newly developed for the study. An artificial compressibility code and a well-verified existing low Mach number code uses Roe’s approximate Riemann solver in conjunction with a cell centered finite volume method. Using MUSCL extrapolation with nonlinear limiters, 2^nd order spatial accuracy is achieved while maintaining TVD (total variation diminishing) property. AF-ADI (approximate factorization-alternate direction implicit) method is used to get the steady solution for both codes. Menter’s k–ω SST turbulence model is used for the analysis of turbulent flows. Navier-Stokes equations and the turbulence model equations are solved in a loosely coupled manner.