Sādhanā Vol. 41, No. 4, April 2016, pp.

441–450 Ó Indian Academy of Sciences

DOI 10.1007/s12046-016-0484-9

A parallel implementation of the ghost-cell immersed boundary

method with application to stationary and moving boundary problems
S PETER and A K DE*

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam 781039,
India
e-mail: akd@iitg.ernet.in

MS received 1 January 2015; revised 7 August 2015; accepted 12 November 2015

Abstract. A modified version of the previously reported ghost-cell immersed boundary method is imple-
mented in parallel environment based on distributed memory allocation. Reconstruction of the flow variables is
carried out by the inverse distance weighting technique. Implementation of the normal pressure gradient on the
immersed surface is demonstrated. Finite volume method with non-staggered arrangement of variables on a non-
uniform cartesian grid is employed to solve the fluid flow equations. The proposed method shows reasonable
agreement with the reported results for flow past a stationary sphere, rotating and transversely oscillating circular
cylinder.

Keywords. Taylor series; inverse distance weighting; Neumann boundary condition; parallelization; moving
boundary.

1. Introduction approaches required spreading of the forcing around the

The physics of flows involving complex geometries found
in nature and engineering applications is complicated.
Conventionally, complex geometries are handled using
body-fitted structured or unstructured grids. Structured grid
with finite difference discretization requires coordinate
transformation leading to computation of extra geometric
coefficients. The unstructured grid, on the other hand, has
an advantage of more controlled local mesh refinement than
the structured grid. However, the grid generation, data
structure and formulations are highly involved in these
conventional routes. Difficulties of handling spatial terms
in the body-conformal grids and simplicity of the cartesian
grids have motivated to adopt non-body conformal carte-
sian grids for simulating complex flows.
Immersed boundary method (IBM) was first introduced
by Peskin [1], for boundaries that interact with the sur-
rounding fluid. He performed two-dimensional simulations
of flow through the natural mitral heart valve on uniform
cartesian grid. Sensitization of the immersed boundary to a
non-conformal grid was accomplished by a semi-discrete
analog of the Dirac delta function. Numerically this treat-
ment is suitable for flexible elastic boundaries, but its
implementation on rigid bodies leads to stiffness issues.
Goldstein et al [2] proposed a feedback forcing approach
that required two ad-hoc user specified parameters, for
imposing boundary conditions on rigid bodies. Both these
*For correspondence
immersed boundary, hence are hardly justified for high
Reynolds number flows.
Mohd-Yosuf [3] proposed a discrete time forcing
approach that does not require spreading of the forcing.
Moreover, for unsteady flows this approach does not
severely limit the time step as in the previous approaches.
Kim et al [4] accounted for the possible mass source/sink in
the Mohd-Yosuf [3]’s approach. A ghost-cell immersed
boundary method (GCIBM), which imposes the boundary
condition by an interpolation of the variables at the ghost-
cell, was proposed by Majumdar et al [5]. In this approach
the computational cells are identified as fluid (or solid) cells
if they are located outside (or inside) the complex geome-
try, respectively. Solid cells having at least one fluid cell in
their neighborhood are then identified as the ghost-cells.
The incorporation of various boundary conditions
(Dirichlet, Neumann and Robin) in GCIBM was demon-
strated by Tseng and Ferziger [6]. Mittal et al [7] and De [8]
extended this approach to problems involving highly com-
plex three-dimensional and moving boundaries. Lee and You
[9] coupled GCIBM with the mass source/sink algorithm of
Kim et al [4], for controlling the production of spurious force
oscillations, which is a severe issue in simulating moving
boundary problems using IBM in the inertial frame of ref-
erence. Kim and Choi [10] developed an IBM in the non-
inertial frame of reference to solve the flow around an arbi-
trarily moving boundary with complex geometry.
GCIBM involves matrix inversion, thereby strongly
depends upon the distribution of the computing cells. To

441
442 S Peter and A K De

circumvent this issue Iaccarino and Verzicco [11] sug-

gested the use of inverse distance weighting (IDW), while
Gao et al [12] demonstrated the use of Taylor series Fn Fn+1
expansion coupled with IDW for reconstruction of vari-
ables at the ghost-cell. An extensive review on the devel-
opments, usage and implications of IBM can be found in F4
the article of Mittal and Iaccarino [13]. hn R
There are numerous advantages of IBM, such as ease of
Solid boundary
grid generation, incorporating body motions, CPU memory F3 n̂B h4
and time savings, ease of implementing fast and stable itera-
tive linear solvers and amenability to geometric multi-grid h3
methods. However, systematic mesh refinement and
enforcing boundary conditions on non-conformal grids are
two major issues with the method which are yet not fully B(xB , yB , zB )
resolved. Objective of this work is to enhance the capabilities
of the GCIBM which was formulated by Gao et al [12].
F2 h2

Forcing (boundary) point

2. Parallelized GCIBM for moving boundary
problems h1
F1 G(xG, yG, zG)
The normalized (using D, U and D/U as length, velocity
and time scales, respectively) governing equations for y
incompressible flow with constant fluid properties in the Ghost-cell
non-inertial frame of reference [14] are
oui
¼0 ð1Þ x
oxi z O
oui oðui uj Þ op 1 o2 ui Figure 1. Schematic diagram for evaluating flow variables at the
þ ¼ þ  ai ; ð2Þ
ot oxj oxi Re oxj oxj ghost-cell centroid.

where Re ¼ UD=m is the Reynolds number and ai is ith At the boundary points, IDW [12] interpolation can be
component of the acceleration of a body with respect to the used for the flow variables and their partial derivatives
inertial frame of reference.      2 
1X n
o/ 1X
n
o/ o /
/B ¼ wm /m ; ¼ wm ;
q m¼1 oxi B q m¼1 oxi m oxi oxj B
Xn  2 
2.1 Taylor series and IDW reconstruction 1 o/
¼ wm ; ð4Þ
for GCIBM q m¼1 oxi oxj m
Figure 1 shows a typical near boundary stencil which
comprises a ghost-cell (G), immediate neighboring fluid where wmP¼ ð1=hm  1=RÞ2 are the weighting coefficients
cells (F) and boundary point (B). The boundary (or forcing) and q ¼ nm¼1 wm . All the derivatives at the fluid points are
! calculated (see Appendix) on a non-uniform grid with the
point is so chosen that GB points in the surface normal
latest available values of the flow variables; instead of
direction at B. The fluid neighbors F1 ; F2 ; F3 ; F4
previous time step values on a uniform grid [12]. It has
: : : Fn ; Fnþ1 are at distances h1 \h2 \h3 \h4 : : : hn \R
been observed that n ¼ 4  5 (excluding the one with dis-
from B. Instead of fitting a localized polynomial [5–9],
tance R) are enough to enforce the boundary conditions on
Taylor series expansion about B can serve to reconstruct
the immersed surface, which is in agreement with Gao et al
[12] the solution at the ghost point
[12].
   2  Dirichlet boundary condition: A specified value for a
o/ 1 o /
/G ¼ /B þ Dxi þ Dxi Dxj variable /D implies
oxi B 2 oxi oxj B ð3Þ
þ 3rd -order terms ; /B ¼ /D : ð5Þ

where i, j expand for spatial directions with Dxi ¼ xi;G  Thus the ghost point value can be evaluated using Eqs. (3),
xi;B (i ¼ x; y; z). (4) and (5).
 GCIBM for stationary and moving boundary problems 443

Neumann boundary condition: If n^ is the unit normal calculations. Moreover, since the body and thus the associ-
vector ðnx ; ny ; nz Þ at B, a specified normal gradient for a ated ghost-cells move frequently, the above-mentioned issue
 
variable o/ implies of complex communications takes the center stage. Also, the
on N application of IBM to moving boundary problems in the
  inertial frame of reference encounters spurious force oscil-
o/
ðr/ÞB : n^B ¼ : ð6Þ lation. The use of non-inertial frame avoids these difficulties
on N
as the body remains stationary, and only the boundary moves
This condition simplifies to which is accommodated in the boundary conditions.
       
o/ o/ o/ o/
nx þ ny þ nz ¼
ox B oy B oz B on N 2.4 Enhanced capabilities of the modified GCIBM
      ð7Þ
  o/ o/ o/
Use of non-uniform grids near solid walls with paral-
o/ on N  nx ox B  ny oy B
¼) ¼ : lelization is essential for simulating large scale 3D prob-
oz B ðnz ÞB
lems. Moreover, imposing zero-normal pressure gradient
Using the chain rule of partial differentiation, we can write on the surface of an immersed boundary is crucial in
obtaining a physically correct flow field. Both these fea-
    
o2 / o o/ tures are added in the current development which is
¼ : demonstrated by test cases. This renders the modified
oxi oz B oxi oz B
GCIBM even more robust and versatile.
In case of planar object (nz ¼ 0), either o/ o/ o/
ox or oy replaces oz
The use of IDW technique near an immersed surface breaks
in Eq. (7), thereby making it applicable for any geometry the banded structure of the resulting matrix. This issue was
with an implicit analytical description of the surface. handled in Gao et al [12] by taking all the supporting point
values from the previous time step. However, in the modified
GCIBM technique the latest available values are used which
2.2 Challenges in parallelization of GCIBM makes the convergence rate faster; and now the supporting
points which are responsible for enforcing boundary condi-
Implementation of GCIBM in a distributed memory based tions on an immersed boundary are strongly coupled.
parallel environment is a challenging task. If a ghost-cell is The treatment of non-inertial frame is also added in the
near to an interface of a processor then the ghost-cell and modified GCIBM-IDW method to deal with complex moving
the corresponding fluid neighbors (on the basis of sorting) boundary problems in three dimension. It is expected that all
may fall in different processors. In such a situation the the additions implemented in the modified GCIBM-IDW
interpolation may fail because of no information about the method enhance the capabilities of the existing technique.
neighboring fluid cells. To overcome this difficulty there
are two approaches: (1) restrict the search for fluid neighbor
to the host processor, (2) communicate the information of 3. Numerical approximations and solution strategy
the fluid neighbors to the host processor. The second
approach puts an overhead of complex communications, so The normalized governing equations are solved using the
we have adopted the first approach. finite volume method with non-staggered arrangement of
Domain decomposition causes the ghost-cells to distribute variables on a non-uniform cartesian grid. Time integration
non-uniformly among various processors. This non-unifor- of Eq. (2) is carried out by the 2nd -order accurate Adams
mity adversely affects the speed-up and efficiency of the Bashforth Crank-Nicholson (ABCN) scheme. All the spa-
parallel computations. Some processors may have more tial terms are approximated using 2nd -order accurate
computing load because of more number of ghost-cells. The schemes. Using the above-mentioned techniques Eqs. (1)
variation in the distribution of the ghost-cells may also lead to and (2) take the following discrete forms, respectively
stall or blowing up of the computations, especially if the first
X
approach discussed in the previous paragraph is adopted. Ffnþ1 ¼ 0 ð8Þ
f

2.3 Application of GCIBM to moving boundary unþ1 n

i;P  ui;P 1 X n n 
VP þ 3Ff ui;f  Ffn1 un1
i;f
problems Dt 2 f
Flow past an accelerating body can be solved in inertial or 1 X nþ1  1 X nþ1 
¼ pf þ pnf Sf ;i þ n
Fdfui þ Fdfu
non-inertial frames of reference. In the inertial frame of 2 f 2Re f i

reference, as the body moves all geometrical constructions

VP nþ1
need to be recomputed at every time step which slows the  ai þ ai n ; ð9Þ
2
444 S Peter and A K De

where VP is the volume of a typical finite volume with 3.3 Computation of the fluid forces on the moving
centroid as P having faces f through which mass flux is Ff . boundary
The diffusion flux of a scalar / is approximated as
If a control volume (having volume V and surface area S)
Z Z encloses the body, then force in the ith direction using the
o2 /
dV ¼ r : r/ dV momentum balance principle is
V oxj oxj V
Z X X Z Z Z Z
oðqui Þ
¼ r/ : dS  ðr/Þf : Sf  Fdf / : Fi ¼ dV þ qui ðu : n^ dSÞ þ pðn^i : n^ dSÞ þ qai dV
S V ot S S V
f f

3.1 Velocity–pressure coupling n^ and n^i are unit vectors along the surface normal of the
chosen control volume and ith direction, respectively.
A provisional velocity (uP ) excluding the pressure term of All the computations, in the present work, were per-
Eq. (9) is formed using nine processors of an Intel Xeon E5620
cluster loaded with MPI libraries.
ui;P  uni;P 1 X n n 
VP þ 3Ff ui;f  Ffn1 ui;f
n1
Dt 2 f
X   V ð10Þ 4. Uniform flow past a stationary sphere
1  n P
¼ Fdfu þ F dfu  ai nþ1 þ ai n :
2Re f i i
2 The wake behind a sphere is marked by several regimes
at increasing Re. Creeping flow in which the flow
The provisional face velocity ¼ (uf LfuP ; unb g),
where L
divides, swims over the surface and reunites at the rear
represents a linear interpolation between the velocity at a end of the sphere exists for Re ! 0. The laminar
cell centroid (uP ) and neighboring cell centroids (unb ) is boundary layer separates at Re  20 from the sphere
corrected [15] to account for the pressure gradient surface leading to a laminar wake. Four flow regimes of
laminar wake are steady axisymmetric (20\Re\210),
uf ¼ uf  DtðrpÞf : ð11Þ steady planar symmetric (210\Re\270), unsteady pla-
If the corrected face velocity is used to compute the cor- nar symmetric (280\Re\420) and unsteady asymmetric
rected mass flux (Ffnþ1 ¼ uf : Sf ), then Eq. (8) gives a (420\Re\800).
First regime is characterized with an axisymmetric sta-
pressure Poisson equation
tionary vortex-ring attached at the rear end of the sphere. In
Xh i X 1X  the second regime, the axisymmetry is replaced by a planar
uf  DtðrpÞf : Sf ¼ 0 ¼) ðrpÞf : Sf ¼ F ; symmetry. A trail of two parallel counter rotating vortices
f f
Dt f f
is observed, and is known as the double-threaded wake. The
ð12Þ third regime is characterized by the periodic vortex shed-
ding, where vortices are shed as interconnected vortex
where (Ff ¼ uf : Sf ) is the provisional mass flux. Pressure loops; maintaining a planar symmetry about a plane passing
field computed from Eq. (12) is used in Eq. (9) to obtain the through the wake centerline. In the fourth regime, irregular
correct velocity (unþ1 ). and asymmetric shedding of hairpin vortices is observed.

3.2 Linear solvers 4.1 Computational details

Numerical approximations for the flow variables (/) result
in systems of linear equations at the fluid (AF U ¼ bF ) and
ghost (AG U ¼ bG ) cells. These two sets are solved
simultaneously so that the progressive changes in the
ghost point values implicitly force the boundary condi-
tions. The velocity equation being a diagonally dominant
system converges fast, while the pressure Poisson equation
needs to be preconditioned in order to accelerate its
convergence. In the present work, Stone’s strongly
implicit procedure SIP [16] is used to precondition the
BiCGSTAB technique [17].
Figure 2 shows schematic diagram describing the problem,
computational domain and boundary conditions employed.
Three-dimensional numerical simulations were carried out
on a non-uniform cartesian grid 217  181  181 in the
stream-wise (x), lateral (y) and side directions (z), respec-
tively. A cubical domain of edge 3 with grid size 151 
151  151 was used to provide a uniform finer mesh
engulfing the sphere which generated grid resolution Dx ¼
Dy ¼ Dz ¼ 0:02 in and around the sphere. Computations
were performed for Re ¼ 100; 250 and 300 with time
increment Dt ¼ 0:003.
 GCIBM for stationary and moving boundary problems 445

∂u = ∂v = w = 0; ∂p = 0 the flow admits a planar symmetry (x, y)-plane at z ¼ 0,

∂z ∂z ∂z
∂u = ∂w = v = 0; ∂p = 0 which is supported by zero CS . The wake structure (see
∂y ∂y ∂y
figure 3 middle row) demonstrates the trail of two counter-
∂p ∂u = ∂v = ∂w = 0; p = 0
u = U, v = w = 0; =0 rotating vortices, which in literature is called a double-
∂x ∂x ∂x ∂x
y
n̂
x
threaded wake. At this Re the flow acquires three-dimen-
16D
z u = 0,
∂p
=0
sionality, which is evident by the three components of
∂n
D ∂u = ∂w = v = 0; ∂p = 0
16D vorticity (see figure 5) in agreement with the reported
∂y ∂y ∂y
results [19]. Stream-wise vorticity (wx ) contours in (figure 5
5D 25D
∂u = ∂v = w = 0; ∂p = 0
∂z ∂z ∂z top row) reveal an antisymmetric distribution about the
symmetry plane. As the flow has a planar symmetry; the
Figure 2. Schematic diagram for uniform flow past a stationary lateral vorticity (wy ) in (figure 5 middle row) is symmetric,
sphere.
while the side-wise vorticity (wz ) appears to be shifted
towards positive-y in (figure 5 bottom row).
4.2 Steady axisymmetric flow, Re ¼ 100
The coefficient of lateral force (CL ) and coefficient of side- 4.4 Unsteady planar symmetric flow, Re ¼ 300
wise force (CS ) are asymptotically zero. The coefficient of
drag (CD ¼ 1:085) is in good agreement to the reported At Re ¼ 300 the periodic signals of CD and CL indicate
[19] value of 1.080 The wake structure [18] using Q ¼ flapping of the wake, which is seen at a much lower Rey-
0:001 (see figure 3 top row) reveals the axisymmetric nolds number for a circular cylinder wake. However, the
vortex-ring at Re ¼ 100. The z-component of vorticity zero coefficient of side-wise force results from the pre-
shown in figure 4 agrees well with the reported [19] trend, vailing planar symmetry observed at Re ¼ 250. The wake
and is similar to the steady near wake of a circular cylinder structure (see figure 3 bottom row) consists of hairpin like
at subcritical Reynolds numbers. inter-connected vortex loops. Table 1 compares the global
flow parameters: average coefficient of drag ð\CD [ Þ,
average coefficient of lateral force ð\CL [ Þ and Strouhal
4.3 Steady planar symmetric flow, Re ¼ 250 number (St) with the literature. Figure 6 shows the instan-
taneous vorticity contours at three different planes, which
The wake remains steady with CD ¼ 0:702, in agreement to agree well with the reported results [19].
the reported [19] value of 0.700. The non-zero
CL ¼ 0:066, compared to 0:062 reported by Johnson
and Patel [19], signifies the loss of axial symmetry. Instead
5. Forced transverse oscillation of a circular
cylinder

Den Hartog [20] was the first to report synchronization of

the periodic wake behind a transversely oscillating cylin-
der. Within the synchronization, jumps in the phase and
amplitude of the lift and drag forces were reported by
Bishop and Hassan [21]. Vibration of the cylinder at the
upper and lower frequency limits of the synchronized
regime causes vortex street to be compressed and expanded
[22], respectively. The oscillating cylinder imposes timing
and frequency of vortex shedding on the wake in the syn-
chronized regime [23]. Williamson and Roshko [24] sug-
gested that the jumps [21] were associated with the change
of vortex shedding modes namely 2S and 2P.

5.1 Computational details

Figure 3. Comparison of computed wake structures [18] with
reported results for flow past a sphere at Re ¼ 100; 250 and 300.
Figure 7 shows schematic diagram describing the problem,
computational domain and boundary conditions employed.
Two-dimensional numerical simulations were carried out
on a non-uniform cartesian grid 293  226 in the stream-
wise (x) and transverse (y) directions, respectively. A
square domain of side 1.2 with grid size 161  161 was
446 S Peter and A K De

2 2

1 0.05
1 0.1
-1 -0.5

z
0
-0.1

5
y

.0
–1

-0
1 0.5 –2
–1 –1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
x
–2 2
–1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
x 1
1 0.5
0.5
Figure 4. Vorticity contour (z-component) for flow past a sphere

z
0
-0.5
at Re ¼ 100. -1 -0.5
–1

–2
2 –1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
x
1
2
0.2 0.1
-0.5 -1
0
z

-0.2 -0.1 1 -0.5

-1
–1

y
0 0.5
1
–2
–1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 –1
x
–2
2 –1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
x
1
1 0.5
0
Figure 6. Vorticity contours for flow past a sphere at Re ¼ 300.
z

-1 -0.5
–1

–2
–1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ∂u = v = 0; ∂p = 0
∂y ∂y
x y
2
∂p = 0
u = 0, v = Aω cos(ωt); ∂n
1 n̂
-1 -0.5 ∂p = 0
u = U, v = 0; ∂x ∂u = ∂v = 0; p = 0
x 21D ∂x ∂x
0
y

D
1 0.5 ω = 2πfe
–1 ye = A sin(ωt) fe = forcing frequency
–2 A = forcing amplitude
–1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 ∂u = v = 0; ∂p = 0
8D ∂y ∂y 25D
x

Figure 5. Vorticity contours for flow past a sphere at Re ¼ 250. Figure 7. Schematic diagram for forced transverse oscillation of
a circular cylinder.

number associated with the vortex shedding from a sta-

Table 1. Comparison of computed global flow parameters for
flow past a sphere at Re ¼ 300 with reported results.
tionary cylinder, then the forced Strouhal number
(Ste ¼ fe D=U) can be expressed as Ste ¼ fR Sto ; in this study
Work \CD [ \CL [ St Sto was found out to be 0.201. Computations were per-
formed for non-dimensional amplitude (A ¼ 0:2), Re ¼
Present 0.659 -0.069 0.137
185 and 0:5  fR  2:0 with time increment (Dt ¼ 0:0004).
Johnson and Patel [19] 0.656 -0.069 0.137
Kim et al [4] 0.657 0.067 0.134

5.2 Results
used to provide a uniform finer mesh engulfing the cylinder Figure 8 shows that the time evolution of the coefficient of
which generated grid resolution Dx ¼ Dy ¼ 0:007 in and drag (CD , upper signals) and coefficient of lift (CL , lower
around the cylinder. We defined a frequency ratio signals) match well with the reported [25] results. The signals
(fR ¼ fe =fo ), where fo is the vortex shedding frequency from for fR = 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0 are purely sinusoidal, while the
the stationary cylinder. If Sto ¼ fo D=U is the Strouhal signals for fR = 1.1, 1.12 and 1.2 are complex wave-forms.
 GCIBM for stationary and moving boundary problems 447

2 CD (a) CD (d) 1.6

2

1 1 _
C L ,C D

CD

C L ,C D
0 0

–1 –1 1.2
CL CL
–2 –2
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200 _ CLrms

C D , C Lrms , C Drms
t t Present
Guilmineau and Queutey (25)
CD (b) 2 CD (e)
2 Kim and Choi (10)
0.8
1 C L ,C D 1 Zhou and Shu (26)
C L ,C D

0 0

—
–1 –1
CL CL
–2 –2 0.4
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200
t t

CD (c) CD (f) CDrms

2 2

1 1
0
C L ,C D
C L ,C D

0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3

0 0

–1 –1
fR
CL CL
–2 –2
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200 Figure 10. Comparison of computed global flow parameters for
t t forced transverse oscillation of a circular cylinder with reported
results.
Figure 8. Time evolution of the coefficient of drag and lift for
forced transverse oscillation of a circular cylinder, (a) fR ¼ 0:8, (b)
fR ¼ 0:9, (c) fR ¼ 1:0, (d) fR ¼ 1:1, (e) fR ¼ 1:12, (f) fR ¼ 1:2.
state of the wake (0:8  fR  1:0), where the ratio of the
forcing frequency to the vortex shedding frequency is unity.
2.5 Outside the lock-in regime the dominant vortex shedding
frequency (fs ) varies almost linearly with fR (see figure 9).
The global parameters: (i) average coefficient of drag (C D ),
2 (ii) root mean square (rms) value of the coefficient of lift
(CLrms ) and (iii) rms value of the coefficient of drag (CDrms )
shown in figure 10 are in good agreement with the reported
1.5
results of Guilmineau and Queutey [25], Kim and Choi [10],
Lock-in and Zhou and Shu [26].
fe / f s

1
6. Flow past a rotating circular cylinder
in a uniform flow
0.5 The rotation of a circular cylinder in a uniform flow is
expected to reduce the flow-induced oscillations [27]. In
addition to Re ¼ UD=m the other parameter that influences
0 the flow is non-dimensional rotation rate (a ¼ Dx=2U),
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
where x represents the angular velocity of the cylinder
fR about its axis. Kang et al [27] found that the vortex shed-
ding is completely suppressed beyond a critical non-di-
Figure 9. Ratio of the forcing and the vortex shedding frequency mensional rotational speed (aL ), which increases
as a function of fR for forced transverse oscillation of a circular logarithmically with Re. In a narrow range, 4:8\a\5:15 at
cylinder. Re ¼ 100 Stojkovic et al [28] interestingly found again an
unsteady behavior in the flow field with large amplitudes in
The complex wave-forms reflect [21] the existence of two the fluctuation of the drag and lift forces. At Re ¼ 200 and
frequencies: (1) the natural vortex shedding frequency (fo ) of 4:34  a  4:7 a reappearance of unsteady wake was
a stationary circular cylinder and (2) the forcing frequency reported by Mittal and Kumar [29] which was later
(fe ). Purely sinusoidal signals are consequence of the lock-in experimentally confirmed by Kumar et al [30].
448 S Peter and A K De

1.5 0.2 1 0.6

1 0.1 –2

C Drms

C Lrms
CD

CL
I I 0.25

0.5 0
I

–5

I
CD , Present CL , Present
I

I
CD , Mittal and Kumar (29) CL , Mital and Kumar (29)

CDrms , Present CLrms , Present

CDrms , Mittal and Kumar (29) CLrms , Mittal and Kumar (29)

0 –0.1 –8 –0.1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
α α
Figure 11. Comparison of the average and rms values of the drag Figure 12. Comparison of the average and rms values of the lift
coefficient for rotating circular cylinder with reported results. coefficient for rotating circular cylinder with reported results.

6.1 Computational details on flows past transversely oscillating and rotating cylinders.
All the computational features employed were the same as The results thus obtained compare well with the reported
that of the previous section. Two-dimensional simulations trends.
were performed at Re ¼ 200 and (0  a  2:5) in steps of
0.5.
Acknowledgments

6.2 Results The present research was carried out on the funds available
through the institute start-up Grant SG/ME/P/ARKD/1/
Figure 11 shows that C D decreases while CDrms increases 2009-2010 and DST First Track Grant SERC/ET-0166/
up to a  1:5 for which the vortex shedding is observed. 2011.
Figure 12 shows that C L increases while CLrms is nearly
constant for a  1:5. In agreement to Mittal and Kumar [29]
our results show no vortex shedding for a ¼ 2 and 2.5, Appendix
which is supported by zero CDrms and CLrms . Moreover, jCL j
continuously increases with a because of the Magnus Finite difference approximations of the partial derivatives
effect. in non-uniform grids at a point (xi ; yj ; zk )
First derivatives
 
2 2 2 2
7. Conclusions o/i /iþ1 ðDxi1 Þ  /i1 ðDxiþ1 Þ  /i ðDxi1 Þ  ðDxiþ1 Þ
¼
ox Dxiþ1 Dxi1 ðDxiþ1 þ Dxi1 Þ
The present work has extended the previously proposed þ O½ðDxÞ2 
IDW technique for reconstruction on the immersed
ð13aÞ
boundaries to accommodate zero-gradient pressure situa-
tion. The methodology is applied to three-dimensional  
2 2 2 2
flows at moderate Reynolds number by employing MPI- o/j /jþ1 ðDyj1 Þ  /j1 ðDyjþ1 Þ  /j ðDyj1 Þ  ðDyjþ1 Þ
¼
based parallelization. Non-inertial frame of reference is oy Dyjþ1 Dyj1 ðDyjþ1 þ Dyj1 Þ
introduced to deal with moving boundary problems which þ O½ðDyÞ2 
reportedly have produced spurious force oscillations in the ð13bÞ
inertial frame of reference. The developed method is tested
 GCIBM for stationary and moving boundary problems 449
 
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