Finite element based formulation of the lattice Boltzmann equation

Abstract

The finite element based lattice Boltzmann method (FELBM) has been developed to model complex fluid domain shapes, which is essential for studying fluid-structure interaction problems in commercial nuclear power systems, for example. The present study addresses a new finite element formulation of the lattice Boltzmann equation using a general weighted residual technique. Among the weighted residual formulations, the collocation method, Galerkin method, and method of moments are used for finite element based Lattice Boltzmann solutions. Different finite element geometries, such as triangular, quadrilateral, and general six-sided solids, were used in this work. Some examples using the FELBM are studied. The results were compared with both analytical and computational fluid dynamics solutions.