An improved pressure gradient method for viscous incompressible flows

The pressure gradient method solves the viscous incompressible flow with the pressure gradients, rather than the pressure, as unknown variables. Two variants of the pressure gradient method have been developed in the past but have not received much attention due to their unsatisfactory performance or implementation complexity. Based on the artificial compressibility concept, this study proposes an improved pressure gradient method. One distinct feature of this method is that it requires no pressure/pressure gradient boundary condition or special treatment on wall boundaries. An auxiliary variable is introduced to represent the velocity dilatation, greatly simplifying the spatial discretization and computational procedure. The mathematical formulations are elaborated and compared with the previous pressure gradient methods, followed by discussions of compatibility relationships, boundary condition setup, and an extension to a pressure Poisson-like equation. Four validation examples are performed for various flow scenarios, and the solutions and domain solenoidity are examined for each case. The study also compares associated computational methods, different pressure boundary conditions, and flow characteristics, demonstrating the benefits of the present method.