We present the method for computation of fluid flows that are characterized by the large degree of expansion/contraction and in which the fluid velocity is dominated by the bulk component associated with the expansion/contraction and/or rotation of the flow. We consider the formulation of Euler equations of fluid dynamics in a homologously expanding/contracting and/or rotating reference frame. The frame motion is adjusted to minimize local fluid velocities. Such approach allows to accommodate very efficiently large degrees of change in the flow extent. Moreover, by excluding the contribution of the bulk flow to the total energy the method eliminates the high Mach number problem in the flows of interest. An important practical advantage of the method is that it can be easily implemented with virtually any implicit or explicit Eulerian hydrodynamic scheme and adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) strategy. We also consider in detail equation invariance and existence of conservative formulation of equations for special classes of expanding/contracting reference frames. Special emphasis is placed on extensive numerical testing of the method for a variety of reference frame motions, which are representative of the realistic applications of the method. We study accuracy, conservativity, and convergence properties of the method both in problems which are not its optimal applications as well as in systems in which the use of this method is maximally beneficial. Such detailed investigation of the numerical solution behavior is used to define the requirements that need to be considered in devising problem-specific fluid motion feedback mechanisms.

Accepted to Journal of Computational Physics; several additional numerical tests included. High resolution fig. 5 and additional animations of simulations can be found at http://flash.uchicago.edu/~apol/JCP/