Transient finite element method for calculating steady state three-dimensional free surfaces

In order to reduce the cost of large three-dimensional calculations of steady state free surfaces, we have combined a time-dependent approach, a decoupling algorithm and a conjugate gradient solver along the lines introduced earlier by Gresho and Chan. The free surface is calculated separately by applying the kinematic condition to a number of faces defined on the undeformed surface. For the pseudo-time-marching technique we show that it is economical to adopt different time steps for the free surface calculation and the other fields. The accuracy of the method is tested on the well-known circular die problem; the method is then used to reveal the effects of inertia and shear thinning on square and rectangular dies.     

A volume-of-fluid method for incompressible free surface flows

This paper proposes a hybrid volume-of-fluid (VOF) level-set method for simulating incompressible two-phase flows. Motion of the free surface is represented by a VOF algorithm that uses high resolution differencing schemes to algebraically preserve both the sharpness of interface and the boundedness of volume fraction. The VOF method is specifically based on a simple order high resolution scheme lower than that of a comparable method, but still leading to a nearly equivalent order of accuracy. Retaining the mass conservation property, the hybrid algorithm couples the proposed VOF method with a level-set distancing algorithm in an implicit manner when the normal and the curvature of the interface need to be accurate for consideration of surface tension. For practical purposes, it is developed to be efficiently and easily extensible to three-dimensional applications with a minor implementation complexity. The accuracy and convergence properties of the method are verified through a wide range of tests: advection of rigid interfaces of different shapes, a three-dimensional air bubble's rising in viscous liquids, a two-dimensional dam-break, and a three-dimensional dam-break over an obstacle mounted on the bottom of a tank. The standard advection tests show that the volume advection algorithm is comparable in accuracy with geometric interface reconstruction algorithms of higher accuracy than other interface capturing-based methods found in the literature. The numerical results for the remainder of tests show a good agreement with other numerical solutions or available experimental data. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simple numerical technique for transient creep flows with free surfaces

A simple, but powerful iterative technique is presented for the numerical solution of the time-dependent flow of an incompressible viscous fluid with or without a free surface. The usual numerical stability restrictions related to the viscous acceleration terms are avoided using standard implicit differencing techniques. The properties and accuracy of the method are illustrated by several calculational examples.     

A Kantorovich computational method for free surface gravity flows

Computing free surface gravity flows involves basically two coupled problems, namely, the location of the free surface position and the determination of the internal flow field (for assumed values H₀ and Q of the total head and discharge, respectively). Solution techniques are invariably based on iterative procedures, but those that iterate between the two coupled problems may become unstable. In this paper we present a computational method in which the coupling is kept throughout the process of iteration. This is achieved by converting the coupled problems (by means of the Kantorovich method) into the single problem of finding a set of streamlines, including that of the free surface. These streamlines are moved (iteratively) to satisfy the stationary conditions of the governing variational principle. The algorithm is very stable and converges rapidly. It is also easy to implement to solve various types of steady flows with a free surface under gravity.     

A boundary-integral equation method for free surface viscous flows

Summary A boundary integral equation method is proposed for the solution of viscous recirculating flows with free surfaces. In particular the method is applied to thermocapillary convection and to drop formation, both in micro-gravity conditions, the latter to test its capability to handle real unsteady problems.The presence of non linear terms in Navier-Stokes equations leads to a volume integral, which has to be approximated by a linearization procedure.Several numerical results for thermocapillary flows, both with fixed and moving free surface, are discussed in comparison with previously obtained finite difference solutions. Some preliminary results, and in particular the time evolution of the free surface shape, are also presented for the drop formation problem. Only plane two dimensional fields are considered for both problems.

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Sommario Si propone un metodo basato sulla soluzione di equazioni integrali di contorno per flussi viscosi con superficie libera. Tale metodo è applicato allo studio della convezione termocapillare ed al processo di formazione di una goccia, entrambi in condizioni di microgravità. La presenza dei termini non lineari nell'equazione di Navier-Stokes comporta un integrale di volume che viene approssimato mediante un processo di linearizzazione.Risultati numerici per flussi termocapillari con superficie libera sia fissa che mobile sono confrontati con altri ottenuti in precedenza con un metodo alle differenze finite. Si presentano inoltre alcuni risultati preliminari sul problema della formazione della goccia ed in particolare l'evoluzione nel tempo della configurazione geometrica della superficie libera. Nei due casi si analizzano solo campi bidimensionali.

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Presented at the VII National Conference AIDAA, Naples, September 1983.

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In leave of absence from Tianjin University, China.     

A control volume finite element method for three-dimensional three-phase flows

A novel control volume finite element method with adaptive anisotropic unstructured meshes is presented for three-dimensional three-phase flows with interfacial tension. The numerical framework consists of a mixed control volume and finite element formulation with a new P₁DG-P₂ elements (linear discontinuous velocity between elements and quadratic continuous pressure between elements). A “volume of fluid” type method is used for the interface capturing, which is based on compressive control volume advection and second-order finite element methods. A force-balanced continuum surface force model is employed for the interfacial tension on unstructured meshes. The interfacial tension coefficient decomposition method is also used to deal with interfacial tension pairings between different phases. Numerical examples of benchmark tests and the dynamics of three-dimensional three-phase rising bubble, and droplet impact are presented. The results are compared with the analytical solutions and previously published experimental data, demonstrating the capability of the present method.     

A spectral method for free surface flows of inviscid fluids

In this paper, an efficient numerical method for unsteady free surface motions, with simple geometries, has been devised. Under the potential flow assumption, the governing equation of free surface flows becomes a Laplace equation, which is treated here by means of a series expansions of the velocity potential. The free surface is represented with a height function. The present method is applied to surface gravity waves to test the stability and accuracy of the method. To show the versatility of the method, a model for a dip formation is considered. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical study of flows with multiple free surfaces

This paper demonstrates that a numerical method based on the generalized simplified marker and cell (GENSMAC) flow solver and Youngs' volume of fluid (Y‐VOF) surface‐tracking technique is an effective tool for studying the basic mechanics of hydraulic engineering problems with multiple free surfaces and non‐hydrostatic pressure distributions. Two‐dimensional flow equations in a vertical plane are solved numerically for this purpose. The numerical results are compared with experimental data and earlier numerical results based on a higher‐order depth‐averaged flow model available in the literature. Two classical problems, (i) flow in a free overfall and (ii) flow past a floor slot, are considered. The numerical results correspond very well with the experimental data for both sub‐critical and supercritical flows. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonlinear two- and three-dimensional free surface flows due to moving disturbances

Boundary integral equation methods for computing two- and three-dimensional nonlinear free surface flows are presented. In two dimensions, integral formulations can be derived by using complex variables or Green's functions. Both formulations are shown to yield the same level of accuracy. The formulation based on Green's functions is extended to three dimensions by following Forbes [J. Comput. Phys. 82 (1989) 330–347] and accurate numerical results are presented for moving distributions of pressure and moving submerged disturbances.     

A stabilized SPH method for inviscid shallow water flows

In this paper, the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is applied to the solution of shallow water equations. A brief review of the method in its standard form is first described then a variational formulation using SPH interpolation is discussed. A new technique based on the Riemann solver is introduced to improve the stability of the method. This technique leads to better results. The treatment of solid boundary conditions is discussed but remains an open problem for general geometries. The dam‐break problem with a flat bed is used as a benchmark test. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of a vortex method to free surface flows

Vortex methods have found wide applications in various practical problems. The use of vortex methods in free surface flow problems, however, is still very limited. This paper demonstrates a vortex method for practical computation of non-linear free surface flows produced by moving bodies. The method is a potential flow formulation which uses the exact non-linear free surface boundary condition at the exact location of the instantaneous free surface. The position of the free surface, on which vortices are distributed, is updated using a Lagrangian scheme following the fluid particles on the free surface. The vortex densities are updated by the non-linear dynamic boundary condition, derived from the Euler equations, with an iterative Lagrangian numerical scheme. The formulation is tested numerically for a submerged circular cylinder in unsteady translation. The iteration is shown to converge for all cases. The results of the unsteady simulations agree well with classical linearized solutions. The stability of the method is also discussed.     

A novel non-primitive Boundary Integral Equation Method for three-dimensional and axisymmetric Stokes flows

A new Boundary Integral Equation (BIE) formulation for Stokes flow is presented for three-dimensional and axisymmetrical problems using non-primitive variables, assuming velocity field is prescribed on the boundary. The formulation involves the vector potential, instead of the classical stream function, and all three components of the vorticity are implied. Furthermore, following the Helmholtz decomposition, a scalar potential is added to represent the solenoidal velocity field. Firstly, the BIEs for three-dimensional flows are formulated for the vector potential and the vorticity by employing the fundamental solutions in free space of vector Laplace and biharmonic equations. The equations for axisymmetric flows are then derived from the three-dimensional formulation in a second step. The outcome is a domain integral free BIE formulation for both three-dimensional and axisymmetric Stokes flows with prescribed velocity boundary condition. Numerical results are included to validate and show the efficiency of the proposed axisymmetric formulation.     

Numerical simulation of unsteady inviscid flows with free surfaces

The boundary element method is used to calculate numerically the unteady flow of a capillary liquid associated with the interaction of an expanding gas cavity and the free surface of the liquid.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 3–7, March–April, 1990.     

板壳问题的三维无网格伽辽金直接分析法

对于板壳问题,共有三种数值模拟方案:线性或非线性的板壳理论、退化连续体方案和直接三维连续体方案。无网格法近似函数可具有C1甚至更高的连续性,便于在K irchhoff-Love理论中应用。但当各种无网格法用于M ind lin-R e issner板理论时,会遇到数值锁死的困扰。对比之下,三维连续体方案是最简单,最精确但并不常用的一种方案。无网格法近似函数具有高度光滑性,在板壳的厚度方向仅布置2~5层点就可以很好地捕捉此方向场的梯度,同时还可以在一定参数范围内避免剪切和体积锁死,在处理复杂本构关系、非线性板壳等问题中更是具有很大优势。本文采用无网格伽辽金法(EFG)和三维连续体方案分析了线性板壳问题,与有限单元法做了对比,并讨论了数值锁死等问题。     

A time-splitting method for the three-dimensional shallow water equations

In this paper we describe a time-splitting method for the three-dimensional shallow water equations. The stability of this method neither depends on the vertical diffusion term nor on the terms describing the propagation of the surface waves. The method consists of two stages and requires the solution of a sequence of linear systems. For the solution of these systems we apply a Jacobi-type iteration method and a conjugate gradient iteration method. The performance of both methods is accelerated by a technique based on smoothing. The resulting method is mass-conservative and efficient on vector and parallel computers. The accuracy, stability and computational efficiency of this method are demonstrated for wind-induced problems in a rectangular basin.     

A sampling surfaces method and its application to three-dimensional exact solutions for piezoelectric laminated shells

The application of the sampling surfaces (SaS) method to piezoelectric laminated composite plates is presented in a companion paper (Kulikov, G.M., Plotnikova, S.V., Three-dimensional exact analysis of piezoelectric laminated plates via sampling surfaces method. International Journal of Solids and Structures 50, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2013.02.015). In this paper, we extend the SaS method to shells to solve the static problems of three-dimensional (3D) electroelasticity for cylindrical and spherical piezoelectric laminated shells. For this purpose, we introduce inside the nth layer I_n not equally spaced SaS parallel to the middle surface of the shell and choose displacements of these surfaces as basic kinematic variables. Such choice of displacements permits, first, the presentation of governing equations of the proposed piezoelectric shell formulation in a very compact form and, second, gives an opportunity to utilize the strain–displacement equations, which precisely represent all rigid-body shell motions in any convected curvilinear coordinate system. It is shown that the developed piezoelectric shell formulation can be applied efficiently to finding of 3D exact solutions for piezoelectric cross-ply and angle-ply shells with a specified accuracy using a sufficient number of SaS, which are located at Chebyshev polynomial nodes and layer interfaces as well.     

An efficient three-dimensional semi-implicit finite element scheme for simulation of free surface flows

An efficient semi-implicit finite element model is proposed for the simulation of three-dimensional flows in stratified seas. The body of water is divided into a number of layers and the two horizontal momentum equations for each layer of water are first integrated vertically. Nine-node Lagrangian quadratic isoparametric elements are employed for spatial discretization in the horizontal domain. The time derivatives are approximated using a second-order-accurate semi-implicit time-stepping scheme. The distinguishing feature of the proposed numerical scheme is that only nodal values on the same vertical line are coupled. Two test cases for which analytic solutions are available are employed to test the proposed scheme. The test results show that the scheme is efficient and stable. A numerical experiment is also included to compare the proposed scheme with a finite difference scheme.     

A three-dimensional photoelastic method for analysis of differential-contraction stresses

The property of homogeneous and isotropic contraction accompanying the slow polymerization of a photoelastic epoxy resin is utilized to produce a photoelastic model of the same size and shape, at the elevated cure temperature, as the container in which it was cast. Reducing the temperature of the bonded model-container composite structure through the epoxy material transition-temperature range results in frozen-stress photoelastic patterns which correspond to the forces of mutual elastic restraint of differential thermal contraction. The requirements for model-prototype similarity and the model-calibration method are discussed. Particular experiments with calibration specimens and with more complex structures in two and three dimensions are described. The validity of the technique is further demonstrated by correlation with a three-dimensional numerical solution. The properties of a material that was specially developed for use in this new technique are given.     

A height–flux method for simulating free surface flows and interfaces

A new technique for the numerical simulation of the free surface flows is developed. This technique is based on the finite element method with penalty formulation, and a flux method for surface advection. The advection part which is completely independent of the momentum solver is based on subdividing the fluid domain into small subvolumes along one of the co-ordinate axis. The subvolumes are then used to find the height function which will later describe the free surface. The free surface of the fluid in each subvolume is approximated by a line segment and its slope is calculated using the volume of the fluid in the two neighbouring subvolumes. Later, the unidirectional volume flux from one subvolume to its neighbouring one is calculated using the conservation laws, and the new surface line segments are reconstructed. This technique, referred to as the Height–Flux Method (HFM) is implemented to simulate the temporal instability of a capillary jet. The results of the numerical simulation well predict the experimental data. It is also shown that the HFM is computationally more efficient than the techniques which use a kinematic boundary condition for the surface advection.