Abstract

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is a meshfree particle method based on a Lagrangian formulation, which has been widely applied to different areas in astrophysics involving complicated fluid dynamical processes. For the first part of this project we have expanded an existing smoothed particle hydrodynamic code (StarCrash). We have added different time integration methods and used them to study the code's overall ability to conserve energy. In the second part we have evaluated the StarCrash code's ability to use different numerical treatments to perform shock tube simulations via Sod's shock tube test. We have used different evolution schemes involving either the energy or the entropy of the system, along with different artificial viscosity formulations, and compared the results from the numerical simulations with the analytical solution.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Hydrodynamics--Mathematical models; Dynamics of a particle; Smoothing (Numerical analysis)

Publication Date

7-26-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Astrophysical Sciences and Technology (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

School of Physics and Astronomy (COS)

Advisor

Joshua Faber

Advisor/Committee Member

Jason Nordhaus

Advisor/Committee Member

Nathaniel Barlow

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

ASTP-MS

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