A numerical algorithm for geophysical and astrophysical inhomogeneous fluid flows Original Research Article

We present a 3-dimensional explicit high accuracy numerical code for the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations in the Boussinesq approximation. The code is conceived to investigate inhomogeneous fluid flow characterized by the presence of nonlinear interactions and of very strong gradients of the physical fields delocalized in the inhomogeneous direction. In the linear regime the code has been tested by solving the well-known convective instability problem for which analytical solutions are available. To check its correctness and the stability in the nonlinear regime, we have solved the temporal mixing layer problem and reproduced results well established in the current literature. The code is optimized for massively parallel computers.