Large-eddy simulation with complex 2-D geometries using a parallel finite-element/spectral algorithm

A parallel stabilized finite-element/spectral formulation is presented for incompressible large-eddy simulation with complex 2D geometries. A unique discretization scheme is developed consisting of a streamline-upwind Petrov-Galerkin/PressureStabilized Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG/PSPG) finite-element discretization in the 2-D plane with a collocated spectral/pseudospectral discretization in the out-of-plane direction. This formulation provides an efficient approach for solving 3-D flows over arbitrary 2-D geometries. Utilizing this discretization and through explicit temporal treatment of the non-linear terms, the system of equations for each Fourier mode is decoupled within each time step. A novel parallelization approach is then taken, where the computational work is partitioned in Fourier space. A validation of the algorithm is presented via comparison of results for flow past a circular cylinder with published values for Re=195, 300, and 3900.