Abstract
The effect on aliasing errors of different formulations describing the cubically nonlinear convective terms within the discretized Navier–Stokes equations is examined in the presence of a non-trivial density spectrum. Fourier analysis shows that the existing skew-symmetric forms of the convective term result in reduced aliasing errors relative to the conservation form. Several formulations of the convective term, including a new formulation proposed for cubically nonlinear terms, are tested in direct numerical simulation (DNS) of decaying compressible isotropic turbulence both in chemically inert (small density fluctuations) and reactive cases (large density fluctuations) and for different degrees of resolution. In the DNS of reactive turbulent flow, the new cubic skew-symmetric form gives the most accurate results, consistent with the spectral error analysis, and at the lowest cost. In marginally resolved DNS and LES (poorly resolved by definition) the new cubic skew-symmetric form represents a robust convective formulation which minimizes both aliasing and computational cost while also allowing a reduction in the use of computationally expensive high-order dissipative filters.