This research project presents an overview of the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM), an alternative numerical approach to conventional CFD. LBM has increased in popularity among the scientific community in recent years, due to its promising abilities. Namely, it claims to achieve the same level of accuracy as that of traditional CFD, while offering new benefits such as easy parallelization and the possibility of implementing complex and multiscale flows. Unlike conventional CFD which focuses on the numerical solution of the Navier Stokes Equations, the Lattice Boltzmann Method focuses on microscopic particle interactions to represent the macroscopic behaviour of the fluid. The aim of this project is to appraise the ability of the Lattice Boltzmann Method to accurately simulate incompressible flows and to analyse its accuracy performance and stability. This report presents the theoretical basis of this novel method, as well as a verification of its convergence results through some examples. These examples are implemented through an open-source code (Palabos). This project not only focuses on matching the LBM solutions with analytical or existing solutions, but it also focuses on studying the effect that the parameters of the model have on the results provided, on stability and on computational cost. The results and their analysis show that LBM is an accurate method for representing incompressible flows. The report also describes how to implement the Lattice Boltzmann Method and suggests some ways to continue the work further.

Outgoing