Numerical convergence study of nearly incompressible, inviscid Taylor-Green vortex flow

A spectral method and a fifth-order weighted essentially non-oscillatory method were used to examine the consequences of filtering in the numerical simulation of the three-dimensional evolution of nearly-incompressible, inviscid Taylor-Green vortex flow. It was found that numerical filtering using the high-order exponential filter and low-pass filter with sharp high mode cutoff applied in the spectral simulations significantly affects the convergence of the numerical solution. While the conservation property of the spectral method is highly desirable for fluid flows described by a system of hyperbolic conservation laws, spectral methods can yield erroneous results and conclusions at late evolution times when the flow eventually becomes under-resolved. In particular, it is demonstrated that the enstrophy and kinetic energy, which are two integral quantities often used to evaluate the quality of numerical schemes, can be misleading and should not be used unless one can assure that the solution is sufficiently well-resolved. In addition, it is shown that for the Taylor-Green vortex (for example) it is useful to compare the predictions of at least two numerical methods with different algorithmic foundations (such as a spectral and finite-difference method) in order to corroborate the conclusions from the numerical solutions when the analytical solution is not known.