Scaled Boundary FEM Solution of 2D Steady Incompressible Viscous Flows

In this paper, the scaled boundary finite-element method (SBFEM) proposed for wave-structure interaction [Tao et al, 2007] is extended to solve two-dimensional (2D) steady incompressible viscous flows governed by the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations. The present SBFEM scheme is validated against existing analytical solutions of the 2D viscous flow with a constant vorticity. Comparisons clearly demonstrate the excellent accuracy and computational efficiency associated with the present SBFEM. Such superiority in significantly outperforming its counterparts in currently available CFD software ensures a great potential of direct application of the present method to many engineering problems. As a crucial step in expanding the application of the SBFEM, further extension of the SBFEM to to solve viscous flow of variable vorticity or even more complex viscous fluid-structure interactions will be a welcome development.