Low mach number modeling of stratified flows

Abstract

Low Mach number equation sets approximate the equations of motion of a compressible fluid by filtering out the sound waves, which allows the system to evolve on the advective rather than the acoustic time scale. Depending on the degree of approximation, low Mach number models retain some subset of possible compressible effects. In this paper we give an overviewof lowMach number methods for modeling stratified flows arising in astrophysics and atmospheric science as well as lowMach number reacting flows.We discuss howelements from the different fields are combined to form MAESTRO, a code for modeling low Mach number stratified flows with general equations of state, reactions and time-varying stratification.