Fourier continuation method for incompressible fluids with boundaries

Abstract

We present a Fourier Continuation-based parallel pseudospectral method for incompressible fluids in cuboid non-periodic domains. The method produces dispersionless and dissipationless derivatives with fast spectral convergence inside the domain, and with very high order convergence at the boundaries. Incompressibility is imposed by solving a Poisson equation for the pressure. Being Fourier-based, the method allows for fast computation of spectral transforms. It is compatible with uniform grids (although refined or nested meshes can also be implemented), which in turn allows for explicit time integration at sufficiently high Reynolds numbers. Using a new parallel code named SPECTER we illustrate the method with two problems: channel flow, and plane Rayleigh–Bénard convection under the Boussinesq approximation. In both cases the method yields results compatible with previous studies using other high-order numerical methods, with mild requirements on the time step for stability.