A low—storage Runge—Kutta OpenFOAM solver for compressible low—Mach number flows: aeroacoustic and thermo—fluid dynamic applications

Abstract

A solver for compressible Navier–Stokes equations is presented in this paper. Low-storage RungeKutta schemes were adopted for time integration; on the other hand the finite volume approach available within OpenFOAM library has been adopted for space discretization. Kurganov-Noelle-Petrova approach was used for convective terms, while central schemes for diffusive ones. The aforementioned techniques were selected and tested in order to allow the possibility of solving a broad range of physical phenomena with particular emphasis to aeroacoustic and thermo-fluid dynamic problems. Indeed, that standard OpenFOAM solution techniques produce an unacceptable dissipation for acoustic phenomena computations. Non–reflective boundary treatment was also considered to avoid spurious numerical reflections. The reliability and the robustness of the solver is proved by computing several benchmarks. Lastly, the impact of the thermal boundary conditions on the sound propagation was analyzed.