A comparative study of immersed-boundary interpolation methods for a flow around a stationary cylinder at low Reynolds number

Abstract

The accuracy and computational efficiency of various interpolation methods for the implementation of non grid-confirming boundaries is assessed. The aim of the research is to select an interpolation method that is both efficient and sufficiently accurate to be used in the simulation of vortex induced vibration of the flow around a deformable cylinder. Results are presented of an immersed boundary implementation in which the velocities near nonconfirming boundaries were interpolated in the normal direction to the walls. The flow field is solved on a Cartesian grid using a finite volume method with a staggered variable arrangement. The Strouhal number and Drag coefficient for various cases are reported. The results show a good agreement with the literature. Also, the drag coefficient and Strouhal number results for five different interpolation methods were compared it was shown that for a stationary cylinder at low Reynolds number, the interpolation method could affect the drag coefficient by a maximum 2% and the Strouhal number by maximum of 3%. In addition, the bi-liner interpolation method took about 2% more computational time per vortex shedding cycle in companion to the other methods.