An adaptive moving grid method for solving convection dominated transport equations in chemical engineering

Abstract

Convection dominated processes in chemical engineering are frequently accompanied by steep propagating fronts. Numerical simulation of corresponding models with uniform fixed grids requires an excessive amount of grid points along the expected range of the front movement. In this contribution the implementation of an efficient adaptive grid method is presented and applied to two relevant spatially one-dimensional cases, the chlorination stage of the Deacon process and oxygen storage processes in a three-way catalyst. The algorithm exhibits a high accuracy with a much lower number of grid points and a therefore reduced computational effort as opposed to a fixed grid simulation. The present work demonstrates that the algorithm allows for a robust, simple, and fast implementation of the adaptive grid method in common simulation tools and, together with adequate supplementary material, aims to make the method readily accessible to the interested reader.