A numerical study of projection algorithms in the finite element simulation of three-dimensional viscous incompressible flow

In this work a comparative study of two versions of the projection algorithm used either for time integration or as an iterative method to solve the three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations is presented. It is also shown that these projection algorithms combined with the finite element method are particularly suited for the treatment of outflow boundary conditions in the context of external flows. This assertion is illustrated by means of some numerical examples in which five types of boundary conditions are compared. The scheme is applied to simulate the flow past a cylinder clamped on two fixed parallel solid walls. Comparison with experimental data available for this problem shows good agreement of the velocity and pressure fields, both computed with continuous piecewise linear elements. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.