No Arabic abstract
The method of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) has been widely studied and implemented for a large variety of problems, ranging from astrophysics to fluid dynamics and elasticity problems in solids. However, the method is known to have several deficiencies and discrepancies in comparison with traditional mesh-based codes. In particular, there has been a discussion about its ability to reproduce the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in shearing flows. Several authors reported that they were able to reproduce correctly the instability by introducing some improvements to the algorithm. In this contribution, we compare the results of Read et al. (2010) implementation of the SPH algorithm with the original Gadget-2 N-body/SPH code.
The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability serves as a simple, well-defined setup for assessing the accuracy of different numerical methods for solving the equations of hydrodynamics. We use it to extend our previous analysis of the convergence and the numerical dissipation in models of the propagation of waves and in the tearing-mode instability in magnetohydrodynamic models. To this end, we perform two-dimensional simulations with and without explicit physical viscosity at different resolutions. A comparison of the growth of the modes excited by our initial perturbations allows us to estimate the effective numerical viscosity of two spatial reconstruction schemes (fifth-order monotonicity preserving and second-order piecewise linear schemes).
There has been interest in recent years to assess the ability of astrophysical hydrodynamics codes to correctly model the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), in particular, has received significant attention, though there has yet to be a clear demonstration that SPH yields converged solutions that are in agreement with other methods. We have performed SPH simulations of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability using the test problem put forward by Lecoanet et al (2016). We demonstrate that the SPH solutions converge to the reference solution in both the linear and non-linear regimes. Quantitative convergence in the strongly non-linear regime is achieved by using a physical Navier-Stokes viscosity and thermal conductivity. We conclude that standard SPH with an artificial viscosity can correctly capture the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
We perform simulations of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). The instability is studied both in the linear and strongly non-linear regimes. The smooth, well-posed initial conditions of Lecoanet et al. (2016) are used, along with an explicit Navier-Stokes viscosity and thermal conductivity to enforce the evolution in the non-linear regime. We demonstrate convergence to the reference solution using SPH. The evolution of the vortex structures and the degree of mixing, as measured by a passive scalar `colour field, match the reference solution. Tests with an initial density contrast produce the correct qualitative behaviour. The L2 error of the SPH calculations decreases as the resolution is increased. The primary source of error is numerical dissipation arising from artificial viscosity, and tests with reduced artificial viscosity have reduced L2 error. A high-order smoothing kernel is needed in order to resolve the initial velocity amplitude of the seeded mode and inhibit excitation of spurious modes. We find that standard SPH with an artificial viscosity has no difficulty in correctly modelling the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and yields convergent solutions.
This work investigates the short wavelength stability of the magnetopause between a rapidly-rotating, supersonic, dense accretion disc and a slowly-rotating low-density magnetosphere of a magnetized star. The magnetopause is a strong shear layer with rapid changes in the azimuthal velocity, the density, and the magnetic field over a short radial distance and thus the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability may be important. The plasma dynamics is treated using non-relativistic, compressible (isentropic) magnetohydrodynamics. It is necessary to include the displacement current in order that plasma wave velocities remain less than the speed of light. We focus mainly on the case of a star with an aligned dipole magnetic field so that the magnetic field is axial in the disc midplane and perpendicular to the disc flow velocity. However, we also give results for cases where the magnetic field is at an arbitrary angle to the flow velocity. For the aligned dipole case the magnetopause is most unstable for KH waves propagating in the azimuthal direction perpendicular to the magnetic field which tends to stabilize waves propagating parallel to it. The wave phase velocity is that of the disc matter. A quasi-linear theory of the saturation of the instability leads to a wavenumber ($k$) power spectrum $propto k^{-1}$ of the density and temperature fluctuations of the magnetopause, and it gives the mass accretion and angular momentum inflow rates across the magnetopause. For self-consistent conditions this mass accretion rate will be equal to the disc accretion rate at large distances from the magnetopause.
The Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability is commonly found in many astrophysical, laboratory, and space plasmas. It could mix plasma components of different properties and convert dynamic fluid energy from large scale structure to smaller ones. In this study, we combined the ground-based New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) and the Solar Dynamic Observatories (SDO) / Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) to observe the plasma dynamics associated with active region 12673 on 09 September 2017. In this multi-temperature view, we identified three adjacent layers of plasma flowing at different speeds, and detected KH instabilities at their interfaces. We could unambiguously track a typical KH vortex and measure its motion. We found that the speed of this vortex suddenly tripled at a certain stage. This acceleration was synchronized with the enhancements in emission measure and average intensity of the 193 AA{} data. We interpret this as evidence that KH instability triggers plasma heating. The intriguing feature in this event is that the KH instability observed in the NVST channel was nearly complementary to that in the AIA 193 AA{}. Such a multi-thermal energy exchange process is easily overlooked in previous studies, as the cold plasma component is usually not visible in the extreme ultraviolet channels that are only sensitive to high temperature plasma emissions. Our finding indicates that embedded cold layers could interact with hot plasma as invisible matters. We speculate that this process could occur at a variety of length scales and could contribute to plasma heating.