An Improvement of the Computational Efficiency of the SOLA Method

Abstract

The SOLA (solution algorithm) method is one of the most widely used methods for analyzing incompressible flows. However, this method often requires a number of iterations to obtain a converged solution for a practical problem on transient flow. Hence, a theoretical analysis of this method was carried out in the present study to clarify the reason why this method can give converged solutions. It was proven that the SOLA method is identical to the SMAC (simplified marker and cell) method for the interior cells of the computational domain. On the other hand, it is not identical to the SMAC method for the cells adjacent to the boundary cells. Hence, a modified SOLA method which improves computational efficiency was developed by taking into account boundary conditions in the iteration process. It was demonstrated that the modified SOLA method could analyze transient flow more efficiently than the original SOLA.