Methods for 3D computation of fluid–object interactions in spatially periodic flows Original Research Article

We present computational methods for 3D simulation of fluid–object interactions in spatially periodic flows. These methods include a stabilized space-time finite element formulation for incompressible flows with spatial periodicity, automatic mesh generation and update techniques for fluid–object mixtures with spatial periodicity, and parallel implementations. The methods can be applied to uni-periodic (i.e., periodic in one direction), bi-periodic, or tri-periodic flows. The methods are described here in the context of tri-periodic flows with fluid–object interactions, and are applied to the simulation of sedimentation of particles in a fluid. We present several case studies where the results obtained provide notable insight into the behavior of fluid–particle mixtures during sedimentation.