arXiv subjects

Gregor Kosec

Publications and source records attributed to Gregor Kosec.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Meshless $h$-adaptive Solution for non-Newtonian Natural Convection in a Differentially Heated Cavity

One of the main challenges in numerically solving partial differential equations is finding a discretisation for the computational domain that balances the accurate representation of the underlying field with computational efficiency. Meshless methods approximate differential operators based on the values of the field in computational nodes, offering a natural approach to adaptivity. The density of computational nodes can either be increased to enhance accuracy or decreased to reduce the number of numerical operations, depending on the properties of the intermediate solution. In this paper, we utilise an adaptive discretisation approach for the numerical simulation of natural convection in non-Newtonian fluid flow. The shear-thinning behaviour is interesting both due to its numerous occurrences in nature, blood being a prime example, and due to its properties, as the decreasing viscosity with increasing shear rate results in sharper flow structures. We focus on the de Vahl Davis test case, a natural convection driven flow in a differentially heated rectangular cavity. The thin boundary layer flow along the vertical boundaries makes this an ideal test case for refinement. We demonstrate that adaptively refining the node density enhances computational efficiency and examine how the parameters for adaptive refinement affect the solution.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2026

Load Balanced Parallel Node Generation for Meshless Numerical Methods

Meshless methods are used to solve partial differential equations by approximating differential operators at a node as a weighted sum of values at its neighbours. One of the algorithms for generating nodes suitable for meshless numerical analysis is an n-dimensional Poisson disc sampling based method. It can handle complex geometries and supports variable node density, a crucial feature for adaptive analysis. We modify this method for parallel execution using coupled spatial indexing and work distribution hypertrees. The latter is prebuilt according to the node density function, ensuring that each leaf represents a balanced work unit. Threads advance separate fronts and claim work hypertree leaves as needed while avoiding leaves neighbouring those claimed by other threads. Node placement constraints and the partially prebuilt spatial hypertree are combined to eliminate the need to lock the tree while it is being modified. Thread collision handling is managed by the work hypertree at the leaf level, drastically reducing the number of required mutex acquisitions for point insertion collision checks. We explore the behaviour of the proposed algorithm and compare the performance with existing attempts at parallelisation and consider the requirements for adapting the developed algorithm to distributed systems.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2025

Wind Variability and Its Effect on Transmission Line Capacity Estimation

This study investigates the impact of wind velocity averaging on Dynamic Thermal Rating (DTR) calculations. It is based on a high-temporal-resolution (1 second) wind measurements obtained from a transmission line in Slovenia, Europe. Wind speed and direction variability are analysed, and two averaging methods, namely vector averaging, where velocity is averaged as vector, and hybrid averaging, where speed is averaged as scalar, are employed. DTR calculations are performed on both high-resolution data and averaged data (5 minute averaging window). It is demonstrated that averaging has a significant effect on both Nusselt number and ampacity, and the effect exhibits a strong angular dependency on the relative angle of the wind to the line. Therefore, two limit cases are studied: in the case of parallel wind, averaged data underestimates the ampacity, and there is a significant amount of cases where the underestimation is larger than 10 %. In the case of perpendicular wind, the two averaging methods affect the results in different ways, but both result in a substantial amount of cases where ampacity is overestimated, potentially leading to unsafe operation. The main takeaway of the study is that averaging wind velocity has a significant impact on DTR results, and special emphasis should be given to the averaging method, as different methods affect the results in different ways.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Adaptive hyperviscosity stabilisation for the RBF-FD method in solving advection-dominated transport equations

This paper presents an adaptive hyperviscosity stabilisation procedure for the Radial Basis Function-generated Finite Difference (RBF-FD) method, aimed at solving linear and non-linear advection-dominated transport equations on domains without a boundary. The approach employs a PDE-independent algorithm that adaptively determines the hyperviscosity constant based on the spectral radius of the RBF-FD evolution matrix. The proposed procedure supports general node layouts and is not tailored for specific equations, avoiding the limitations of empirical tuning and von Neumann-based estimates. To reduce computational cost, it is shown that lower monomial augmentation in the approximation of the hyperviscosity operator can still ensure consistent stabilisation, enabling the use of smaller stencils and improving overall efficiency. A hybrid strategy employing different spline orders for the advection and hyperviscosity operators is also implemented to enhance stability. The method is evaluated on pure linear advection and non-linear Burgers' equation, demonstrating stable performance with limited numerical dissipation. The two main contributions are: (1) a general hyperviscosity RBF-FD solution procedure demonstrated on both linear and non-linear advection-dominated problems, and (2) an in-depth analysis of the behaviour of hyperviscosity within the RBF-FD framework, addressing the interplay between key free parameters and their influence on numerical results.

math.NA↗

arXiv2025

An RBF-based method for computational electromagnetics with reduced numerical dispersion

The finite difference time domain method is one of the simplest and most popular methods in computational electromagnetics. This work considers two possible ways of generalising it to a meshless setting by employing local radial basis function interpolation. The resulting methods remain fully explicit and are convergent if properly chosen hyperviscosity terms are added to the update equations. We demonstrate that increasing the stencil size of the approximation has a desirable effect on numerical dispersion. Furthermore, our proposed methods can exhibit a decreased dispersion anisotropy compared to the finite difference time domain method.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2025

A Numerical Study of Combining RBF Interpolation and Finite Differences to Approximate Differential Operators

This paper focuses on RBF-based meshless methods for approximating differential operators, one of the most popular being RBF-FD. Recently, a hybrid approach was introduced that combines RBF interpolation and traditional finite difference stencils. We compare the accuracy of this method and RBF-FD on a two-dimensional Poisson problem for standard five-point and nine-point stencils and different method parameters.

math.NA↗

arXiv2025

The role of porosity in the transition to inertial regime in porous media flows

In this work, we investigate the fundamental physical mechanism of the transition from Darcy to inertial (Darcy-Forchheimer) regime in steady-state flows through porous media, with the focus on vortex formation. We investigate their influence on the tortuosity--Reynolds number relation during this transition for systems of various porosities. We do so by numerically solving the Navier-Stokes equations within the pore-scale of simple cubic systems and relating the observations made therein to stochastic systems of more complex geometry. We observe that the tortuosity defined by integrals over the whole fluid volume behaves similarly in both types of systems. At the same time, in simple cubic systems, the tortuosity based on averaging of the length of the streamlines diverges from the volume-integrated one when the inertia onset takes place. We show that the discrepancy between those two tortuosities at increasing Reynolds number carries information about the dynamics of the vortex growth in the system. We stipulate that those dynamics are directly governed by the porosity. Our results highlight the utility of various definitions of tortuosity as measures of inertia in porous media flows and explain the reasons for the differences between those definitions. This can lead to a more sensible choice of inertia indicators in more application-oriented problems.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Performance Trade-offs of High Order Meshless Approximation on Distributed Memory Systems

Meshless methods approximate operators in a specific node as a weighted sum of values in its neighbours. Higher order approximations of derivatives provide more accurate solutions with better convergence characteristics, but they come at the cost of including more neighbours. On the accuracy-per-compute time basis we know that increasing the approximation order is beneficial for a shared memory computer, but there is additional communication overhead when problems become too large and we have to resort to distributed memory systems. Meshless nodes are divided between systems in spatially coherent subdomains with approximations at their edges requiring neighbouring value exchange. Performance optimization is then a balancing act between minimizing the required number of communicated neighbours by lowering the approximation order or increasing it to enable faster convergence. We use the radial basis function-generated finite difference method (RBF-FD) to approximate the derivatives that we use to solve the Poisson equation with an explicit iterative scheme. Inter-system communication is provided by Open MPI, while OpenMP is used for intra-system parallelisation. We perform the analysis on a homogenous CPU-based cluster where we examine the behaviour and attempt to determine the optimal parameterisation with the goal of minimizing the computational time to reach a desired accuracy.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2024

Numerical analysis of small-strain elasto-plastic deformation using local Radial Basis Function approximation with Picard iteration

This paper deals with a numerical analysis of plastic deformation under various conditions, utilizing Radial Basis Function (RBF) approximation. The focus is on the elasto-plastic von Mises problem under plane-strain assumption. Elastic deformation is modelled using the Navier-Cauchy equation. In regions where the von Mises stress surpasses the yield stress, corrections are applied locally through a return mapping algorithm. The non-linear deformation problem in the plastic domain is solved using the Picard iteration. The solutions for the Navier-Cauchy equation are computed using the Radial Basis Function-Generated Finite Differences (RBF-FD) meshless method using only scattered nodes in a strong form. Verification of the method is performed through the analysis of an internally pressurized thick-walled cylinder subjected to varying loading conditions. These conditions induce states of elastic expansion, perfectly-plastic yielding, and plastic yielding with linear hardening. The results are benchmarked against analytical solutions and traditional Finite Element Method (FEM) solutions. The paper also showcases the robustness of this approach by solving case of thick-walled cylinder with cut-outs. The results affirm that the RBF-FD method produces results comparable to those obtained through FEM, while offering substantial benefits in managing complex geometries without the necessity for conventional meshing, along with other benefits of meshless methods.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Cross-validation of meshless Navier-Stokes solvers in porous media flows

In this paper, two mesh-free CFD solvers for pore-scale fluid flow through porous media are considered, namely the Lattice Boltzmann Method with the two relaxation time collision term and the direct Navier-Stokes solver under the artificial compressibility limit. The porous media is built with a regular arrangement of spherical grains with variable radii, which allows control of the porosity. Both solvers use the same $h$-refined meshless spatial discretization to adequately capture the underlying geometry and the same Radial Basis Function (RBF) method to approximate the involved fields and partial differential operators. First, the results are compared with the data from the literature in terms of drag coefficient and permeability at different porosities achieving excellent agreement with the reported results. Next, the simulations are extended beyond the porosity range reported in the literature using proposed $h$-refined CFD solvers. The results are supported by convergence and timing analyses and discussions on meshless parameters such as stencil size and refinement settings.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Spatially dependent node regularity in meshless approximation of partial differential equations

In this paper, we address a way to reduce the total computational cost of meshless approximation by reducing the required stencil size through spatially varying computational node regularity. Rather than covering the entire domain with scattered nodes, only regions with geometric details are covered with scattered nodes, while the rest of the domain is discretized with regular nodes. A simpler approximation can be used in regions covered by regular nodes, effectively reducing the required stencil size and computational cost compared to the approximation on scattered nodes where a set of polyharmonic splines is added to ensure convergent behaviour. This paper is an extended version of conference paper entitled "Spatially-varying meshless approximation method for enhanced computational efficiency" [arXiv:2303.01760] presented at "International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS) 2023". The paper is extended with discussion on development and implementation of a hybrid regular-scattered node positioning algorithm (HyNP). The performance of the proposed HyNP algorithm is analysed in terms of separation distance and maximal empty sphere radius. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that HyNP nodes can be used for solving problems from fluid flow and linear elasticity, both in 2D and 3D, using meshless methods. The extension also provides additional analyses of computational efficiency and accuracy of the numerical solution obtained on the spatially-variable regularity of discretization nodes. In particular, different levels of refinement aggressiveness and scattered layer widths are considered to exploit the computational efficiency gains offered by such solution procedure.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Some observations regarding the RBF-FD approximation accuracy dependence on stencil size

When solving partial differential equations on scattered nodes using the Radial Basis Function-generated Finite Difference (RBF-FD) method, one of the parameters that must be chosen is the stencil size. Focusing on Polyharmonic Spline RBFs with monomial augmentation, we observe that it affects the approximation accuracy in a particularly interesting way - the solution error oscillates under increasing stencil size. We find that we can connect this behaviour with the spatial dependence of the signed approximation error. Based on this observation we are able to introduce a numerical quantity that could indicate whether a given stencil size is locally optimal. This work is an extension of our ICCS 2023 conference paper.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

A superconvergence result in the RBF-FD method

Radial Basis Function-generated Finite Differences (RBF-FD) is a meshless method that can be used to numerically solve partial differential equations. The solution procedure consists of two steps. First, the differential operator is discretised on given scattered nodes and afterwards, a global sparse matrix is assembled and inverted to obtain an approximate solution. Focusing on Polyharmonic Splines as our Radial Basis Functions (RBFs) of choice, appropriately augmented with monomials, it is well known that the truncation error of the differential operator approximation is determined by the degree of monomial augmentation. Naively, one might think that the solution error will have the same order of convergence. We present a superconvergence result that shows otherwise - for some augmentation degrees, order of convergence is higher than expected.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Hyperviscosity stabilisation of the RBF-FD solution to natural convection

The numerical stability of fluid flow is an important topic in computational fluid dynamics as fluid flow simulations usually become numerically unstable in the turbulent regime. Many mesh-based methods have already established numerical dissipation procedures that dampen the effects of the unstable advection term. When it comes to meshless methods, the prominent stabilisation scheme is hyperviscosity. It introduces numerical dissipation in the form of a higher-order Laplacian operator. Many papers have already discussed the general effects of hyperviscosity and its parameters. However, hyperviscosity in flow problems has not yet been analyzed in depth. In this paper, we discuss the effects of hyperviscosity on natural convection flow problems as we approach the turbulent regime.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2023

Meshless interface tracking for the simulation of dendrite envelope growth

The growth of dendritic grains during solidification is often modelled using the Grain Envelope Model (GEM), in which the envelope of the dendrite is an interface tracked by the Phase Field Interface Capturing (PFIC) method. In the PFIC method, an phase-field equation is solved on a fixed mesh to track the position of the envelope. While being versatile and robust, PFIC introduces certain numerical artefacts. In this work, we present an alternative approach for the solution of the GEM that employs a Meshless (sharp) Interface Tracking (MIT) formulation, which uses direct, artefact-free interface tracking. In the MIT, the envelope (interface) is defined as a moving domain boundary and the interface-tracking nodes are boundary nodes for the diffusion problem solved in the domain. To increase the accuracy of the method for the diffusion-controlled moving-boundary problem, an \h-adaptive spatial discretization is used, thus, the node spacing is refined in the vicinity of the envelope. MIT combines a parametric surface reconstruction, a mesh-free discretization of the parametric surfaces and the space enclosed by them, and a high-order approximation of the partial differential operators and of the solute concentration field using radial basis functions augmented with monomials. The proposed method is demonstrated on a two-dimensional \h-adaptive solution of the diffusive growth of dendrite and evaluated by comparing the results to the PFIC approach. It is shown that MIT can reproduce the results calculated with PFIC, that it is convergent and that it can capture more details in the envelope shape than PFIC with a similar spatial discretization.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

Computational Electromagnetics with the RBF-FD Method

One of the most popular methods employed in computational electromagnetics is the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. We generalise it to a meshless setting using the Radial Basis Function generated Finite Difference (RBF-FD) method and investigate its properties on a simple test problem.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2023

Discretization of non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) models for meshless isogeometric analysis

We present an algorithm for fast generation of quasi-uniform and variable-spacing nodes on domains whose boundaries are represented as computer-aided design (CAD) models, more specifically non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS). This new algorithm enables the solution of partial differential equations (PDEs) within the volumes enclosed by these CAD models using (collocation-based) meshless numerical discretizations. Our hierarchical algorithm first generates quasi-uniform node sets directly on the NURBS surfaces representing the domain boundary, then uses the NURBS representation in conjunction with the surface nodes to generate nodes within the volume enclosed by the NURBS surface. We provide evidence for the quality of these node sets by analyzing them in terms of local regularity and separation distances. Finally, we demonstrate that these node sets are well-suited (both in terms of accuracy and numerical stability) for meshless radial basis function generated finite differences (RBF-FD) discretizations of the Poisson, Navier-Cauchy, and heat equations. Our algorithm constitutes an important step in bridging the field of node generation for meshless discretizations with isogeometric analysis.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

Spatially-varying meshless approximation method for enhanced computational efficiency

In this paper, we address a way to reduce the total computational cost of meshless approximation by reducing the required stencil size through spatial variation of computational node regularity. Rather than covering the entire domain with scattered nodes, only regions with geometric details are covered with scattered nodes, while the rest of the domain is discretised with regular nodes. Consequently, in regions covered with regular nodes the approximation using solely the monomial basis can be performed, effectively reducing the required stencil size compared to the approximation on scattered nodes where a set of polyharmonic splines is added to ensure convergent behaviour. The performance of the proposed hybrid scattered-regular approximation approach, in terms of computational efficiency and accuracy of the numerical solution, is studied on natural convection driven fluid flow problems. We start with the solution of the de Vahl Davis benchmark case, defined on square domain, and continue with two- and three-dimensional irregularly shaped domains. We show that the spatial variation of the two approximation methods can significantly reduce the computational complexity, with only a minor impact on the solution accuracy.

math.NA↗