Adaptive hybrid (prismatic-tetrahedral) grids for incompressible flows

Hybrid grids consisting of prisms and tetrahedra are employed for the solution of the 3-D Navier–Stokes equations of incompressible flow. A pressure correction scheme is employed with a finite volume–finite element spatial discretization. The traditional staggered grid formulation has been substituted with a collocated mesh approach which uses fourth-order artificial dissipation. The hybrid grid is refined adaptively in local regions of appreciable flow variations. The scheme operations are performed on an edge-wise basis which unifies treatment of both types of grid elements. The adaptive method is employed for incompressible flows in both single and multiply-connected domains.