Chapter 3
Stability analysis
We will now perform transient growth analysis with a Krylov subspace of kdim=4
. The
parameters and properties needed for this are present in the file bfs_tg.xml
in
$NEKTUTORIAL/stability
. In this case the Arpack
library was used to compute the largest
eigenvalue of the system and the corresponding eigenmode. We will compute the maximum
growth for a time horizon of τ = 1, usually denoted G(1).
Task: 3.1 Configure the
bfs_tg.xml
session for performing transient growth analysis:
- Set the
EvolutionOperator
to TransientGrowth
.
- Define a parameter
FinalTime
that is equal to 1 (this is the time horizon τ).
- Set the number of steps (
NumSteps
) to be the ratio between the final time and the
time step.
- Since the simulations take several iterations to converge, use the restart file
bfs_tg.rst
for the initial condition. This file contains an eigenmode of the system.
Now run the simulation
IncNavierStokesSolver bfs_tg.xml
The terminal screen should look like this:
=======================================================================
EquationType: UnsteadyNavierStokes
Session Name: bfs_tg
Spatial Dim.: 2
Max SEM Exp. Order: 7
Expansion Dim.: 2
Projection Type: Continuous Galerkin
Advection: explicit
Diffusion: explicit
Time Step: 0.002
No. of Steps: 500
Checkpoints (steps): 500
Integration Type: IMEXOrder2
=======================================================================
Arnoldi solver type : Arpack
Arpack problem type : LM
Single Fourier mode : false
Beta set to Zero : false
Evolution operator : TransientGrowth
Krylov-space dimension : 4
Number of vectors : 1
Max iterations : 500
Eigenvalue tolerance : 1e-06
======================================================
Initial Conditions:
Field p not found.
Field p not found.
- Field u: from file bfs_tg.rst
- Field v: from file bfs_tg.rst
- Field p: from file bfs_tg.rst
Writing: "bfs_tg_0.chk"
Inital vector : input file
Iteration 0, output: 0, ido=1 Steps: 500 Time: 1 CPU Time: 10.4384s
Writing: "bfs_tg_1.chk"
Time-integration : 10.4384s
Steps: 500 Time: 29 CPU Time: 8.96463s
Writing: "bfs_tg_1.chk"
Time-integration : 8.96463s
Writing: "bfs_tg.fld"
Iteration 1, output: 0, ido=1 Steps: 500 Time: 2 CPU Time: 8.90168s
Writing: "bfs_tg_1.chk"
Time-integration : 8.90168s
Steps: 500 Time: 30 CPU Time: 8.90607s
Writing: "bfs_tg_1.chk"
Time-integration : 8.90607s
Iteration 2, output: 0, ido=1 Steps: 500 Time: 3 CPU Time: 8.96875s
Writing: "bfs_tg_1.chk"
Time-integration : 8.96875s
Steps: 500 Time: 31 CPU Time: 8.92276s
Writing: "bfs_tg_1.chk"
Time-integration : 8.92276s
Iteration 3, output: 0, ido=1 Steps: 500 Time: 4 CPU Time: 8.92597s
Writing: "bfs_tg_1.chk"
Time-integration : 8.92597s
Steps: 500 Time: 32 CPU Time: 8.96103s
Writing: "bfs_tg_1.chk"
Time-integration : 8.96103s
Iteration 4, output: 0, ido=99
Converged in 4 iterations
Converged Eigenvalues: 1
Magnitude Angle Growth Frequency
EV: 0 3.23586 0 1.1743 0
Writing: "bfs_tg_eig_0.fld"
L 2 error (variable u) : 0.0118694
L inf error (variable u) : 0.0118647
L 2 error (variable v) : 0.0174185
L inf error (variable v) : 0.0244285
L 2 error (variable p) : 0.0109063
L inf error (variable p) : 0.0138423
Initially, the solution will be evolved forward in time using the operator A , then backward in
time through the adjoint operator A*.
Task: 3.2 Verify that the leading eigenvalue is equal
to λ = 3.23586.
The leading eigenvalue corresponds to the largest possible transient growth at the time
horizon τ = 1. The leading eigenmode is shown in figures 3.1 and 3.2. This is the optimal
initial condition which will lead to the greatest growth when evolved under the linearised
Navier-Stokes equations.
We can visualise graphically the optimal growth, recalling that the energy of the perturbation
field at any given time t is defined by means of the inner product:
The solver can output the evolution of the energy of the perturbation in time by using the
ModalEnergy
filter (defined in the FILTERS
section of the XML file):
1<FILTER TYPE="ModalEnergy">
2 <PARAM NAME="OutputFile">energy</PARAM>
3 <PARAM NAME="OutputFrequency">10</PARAM>
4</FILTER>
This will write the energy of the perturbation every 10 time steps to the file energy.mld
.
Repeating these simulations for different τ with the optimal initial perturbation as the initial
condition, it is possible to create a plot similar to figure 3.3. Each curve necessarily meets the
optimal growth envelope (denoted by the circles) at its corresponding value of τ, and never
exceeds it.
The $NEKTUTORIAL/energy
folder contains the files bfs_energy_tau01.xml
and
bfs_energy_tau20.xml
, as well as the pre-computed optimal initial condition for
τ = 20 (bfs_energy_tau20.rst
), with corresponding optimal growth of 2172.9.
Task: 3.3 (Advanced/Optional) Generate energy curves for the optimal initial
condition (leading eigenmode) computed in the previous task for τ = 1, and for
τ = 20.
Use your favourite plotting program (e.g. MATLAB or GNUPlot) to read in the files produced
by the energy filter and plot the normalised energy growth curves.
Tip: You will need to switch to using the Standard
driver. You should also use the Direct
evolution operator for this task, similar to the channel example.
Examine your plot. Verify the energy at time t = τ matches the optimal growth in each case.
Now examine the plot at time t = 1. Note that although the overall energy growth for the
τ = 20 curve is far greater than the corresponding τ = 1 curve, the τ = 1 curve has greater
growth at t = τ = 1.