A dimensionally split Cartesian cut cell method for the compressible Navier–Stokes equations

We present a dimensionally split method for computing solutions to the compressible Navier–Stokes equations on Cartesian cut cell meshes. The method is globally second order accurate in the L1 norm, fully conservative, and allows the use of time steps determined by the regular grid spacing. We provide a description of the three-dimensional implementation of the method and evaluate its numerical performance by computing solutions to a number of test problems ranging from the nearly incompressible to the highly compressible flow regimes. All the computed results show good agreement with reference results from theory, experiment and previous numerical studies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first presentation of a dimensionally split cut cell method for the compressible Navier–Stokes equations in the literature. •A Cartesian cut cell method is presented for the compressible Navier–Stokes equations.•The method is dimensionally split and simple to implement.•The scheme is fully conservative and globally second order accurate in the L1 norm.•Numerical results are presented for a wide range of multi-dimensional test problems.