Adaptive low Mach number simulations of nuclear flame microphysics

Journal Article · Thu Mar 20 04:00:00 EST 2003 · Journal of Computational Physics

OSTI ID:834931

Bell, J B ^[1]; Day, M S; Rendleman, C A; Woosley, S E; Zingale, M A

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1. LBNL Library

We introduce a numerical model for the simulation of nuclear flames in Type Ia supernovae. This model is based on a low Mach number formulation that analytically removes acoustic wave propagation while retaining the compressibility effects resulting from nuclear burning. The formulation presented here generalizes low Mach number models used in combustion that are based on an ideal gas approximation to the arbitrary equations of state such as those describing the degenerate matter found in stellar material. The low Mach number formulation permits time steps that are controlled by the advective time scales resulting in a substantial improvement in computational efficiency compared to a compressible formulation. We briefly discuss the basic discretization methodology for the low Mach number equations and their implementation in an adaptive projection framework. We present validation computations in which the computational results from the low Mach number model are compared to a compressible code and present an application of the methodology to the Landau-Darrieus instability of a carbon flame.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Director. Office of Science. Office of Computational and Technology Research. Mathematical Information and Computational Sciences Division. Applied Mathematics Programs, Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing Program Grant DE-FC02-01ER41176 (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 834931
• Report Number(s): LBNL--52395
• Journal Information: Journal of Computational Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Computational Physics Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 195
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACOUSTICS
CARBON
COMBUSTION
COMPRESSIBILITY
EFFICIENCY
EQUATIONS OF STATE
FLAMES
IMPLEMENTATION
INSTABILITY
MACH NUMBER
SIMULATION
SUPERNOVAE
VALIDATION
WAVE PROPAGATION