A monotone streamline upwind method for quadratic finite elements

Abstract

Abstract A direct streamline upwind method has been developed for convection‐dominated flow problems utilizing quadratic elements. The approach presented retains the curve‐sidedness feature offered by these elements. This facilitates the use of boundary conforming elements in domains that possess extreme curvature such as turbomachinery bladed components, for which the method is particularly suited. Three test cases are solved to evaluate the stability and diffusive characteristics of the numerical solution. The results presented clearly demonstrate that the proposed method does not exhibit any non‐physical spatial oscillations, nor does it suffer from the traditional problem of excessive numerical diffusion.