Pressure Velocity Couplings in Steady Flows
Pressure Velocity Couplings in Steady Flows
In the previous chapter we assumed that the velocity field was
some how known. But in general it is not known
The solution of equations presents us with two new problems:
It is observed that all the discretised gradients are zero at all the nodal points even
though the pressure field exhibits spatial oscillations in both directions.
As a result, this pressure field would give the same (zero) momentum source in the
discretised equations as a uniform pressure field.
• A remedy for this problem is to use a staggered grid for the velocity components
• The idea is to evaluate scalar variables, such as pressure, density, temperature etc., at ordinary
nodal points but to calculate velocity components on staggered grids centred around the cell
faces.
The pressure gradient source term in F.8) has been discretised by means of a linear
interpolation between the pressure nodes located at the w-control volume boundaries.
Similarly v momentum equation
The SIMPLE algorithm
• The acronym SIMPLE stands for Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equations.
• The algorithm was originally put forward by Patankar and Spalding and is essentially a guess-
and-correct procedure for the calculation of pressure on the staggered grid arrangement
introduced above.
• To initiate the SIMPLE calculation process a pressure field p* is guessed.
• Discretised momentum equations are solved using the guessed pressure field to yield velocity
components u* and v* as follows:
The SIMPLE algorithm
The SIMPLE algorithm
The SIMPLE algorithm
Fig. 6.5 The scalar control volume used for the discretisation of the continuity equation
Equation represents the discretised continuity equation as an equation for pressure
correction p'.
The source term b' in the equation is the continuity imbalance arising from the incorrect
velocity field u*, v*
By solving equation 6.32, the pressure correction field p' can be obtained at all points.
Once the pressure correction field is known, the correct pressure field may be obtained
using formula 6.14 and velocity components through correction formulae 6.24-6.27).
The omission of terms such as Σanbu`nb, in the derivation does not affect the final solution
because the pressure correction and velocity corrections will all be zero in a converged
solution giving p*= p, u*= u and v*= v.
• The pressure correction equation is susceptible to divergence unless some under-
relaxation is used during the iterative process and new, improved, pressures p new
are obtained with
• However, the corrections p', in particular when the guessed field p* is far away from
the final solution, is often too large for stable computations.
Predictor step
Discretised momentum equations 6.12-6.13 are solved with a guessed or intermediate
pressure field p* to give velocity components u* and v* using the same method as the
SIMPLE algorithm.
Corrector step 1
The fields u* and v* will not satisfy continuity unless the pressure field p* is correct.
The first corrector step of SIMPLE is introduced to give a velocity field (u**, v**)
which satisfies the discretised continuity equation.
The resulting equations are the same as the velocity correction equations 6.21-6.22 of SIMPLE
but, since there is a further correction step in the PISO algorithm,
we use a slightly different notation:
As in the SIMPLE algorithm equations 6.50-6.51 are substituted into the discretised
continuity equation F.29) to yield the pressure correction equation 6.32 with its
coefficients and source term.
In the context of the PISO method equation 6.32 is called the first pressure correction
equation.
It is solved to yield the first pressure correction field p'.
Once the pressure corrections are known, the velocity components w** and v** can be
obtained through equations 6.50-6.51).
PISO algorithm