A positivity-preserving high-order weighted compact nonlinear scheme for compressible gas-liquid flows

Abstract: We present a robust, highly accurate, and efficient positivity- and boundedness-preserving diffuse interface method for the simulations of compressible gas-liquid two-phase flows with the five-equation model by Allaire et al. using high-order finite difference weighted compact nonlinear scheme (WCNS) in the explicit form. The equation of states of gas and liquid are given by the ideal gas and stiffened gas laws respectively. Under a mild assumption on the relative magnitude between the ratios of specific heats of the gas and liquid, we can construct limiting procedures for the fifth order incremental-stencil WCNS (WCNS-IS) with the first order Harten-Lax-van Leer contact (HLLC) flux such that positive partial densities and squared speed of sound can be ensured in the solutions, together with bounded volume fractions and mass fractions. The limiting procedures are discretely conservative for all conservative equations in the five-equation model and can also be easily extended for any other conservative finite difference or finite volume scheme. Numerical tests with liquid water and air are reported to demonstrate the robustness and high accuracy of the WCNS-IS with the positivity- and boundedness-preserving limiters even under extreme conditions.