A computationally efficient 3D finite‐volume scheme for violent liquid–gas sloshing

We describe a semi‐implicit volume‐of‐fluid free‐surface‐modelling methodology for flow problems involving violent free‐surface motion. For efficient computation, a hybrid‐unstructured edge‐based vertex‐centred finite volume discretisation is employed, while the solution methodology is entirely matrix free. Pressures are solved using a matrix‐free preconditioned generalised minimum residual algorithm and explicit time‐stepping is employed for the momentum and interface‐tracking equations. The high resolution artificial compressive (HiRAC) volume‐of‐fluid method is used for accurate capturing of the free surface in violent flow regimes while allowing natural applicability to hybrid‐unstructured meshes. The code is parallelised for solution on distributed‐memory architectures and evaluated against 2D and 3D benchmark problems. Good parallel scaling is demonstrated, with almost linear speed‐up down to 6000 cells per core. Finally, the code is applied to an industrial‐type problem involving resonant excitation of a fuel tank, and a comparison with experimental results is made in this violent sloshing regime. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element analysis of transient fluid flow with free surface using VOF (volume-of-fluid) method and adaptive grid

The VOF method is adopted for the finite element analysis of transient fluid flow with a free surface. In particular, an adaptation technique for generating an adaptive grid is incorporated to capture a higher resolution of the free surface configuration. An adaptive grid is created through the refinement and mergence of elements. In this domain the elements in the surface region are made finer than those in the remaining regions for more efficient computation. Also, three techniques based on the VOF method are newly developed to increase the accuracy of the analysis, namely the filling pattern, advection treatment and free surface smoothing techniques. Using the proposed numerical techniques, radial flow with a point source and the collapse of a dam are analysed. The numerical results agree well with the theoretical solutions as well as with the experimental results. Through comparisons with the numerical results of several cases using different grids, the efficiency of the proposed technique is verified. © 1998 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of free‐surface flow using the level‐set method with global mass correction

A new numerical method that couples the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations with the global mass correction level‐set method for simulating fluid problems with free surfaces and interfaces is presented in this paper. The finite volume method is used to discretize Navier–Stokes equations with the two‐step projection method on a staggered Cartesian grid. The free‐surface flow problem is solved on a fixed grid in which the free surface is captured by the zero level set. Mass conservation is improved significantly by applying a global mass correction scheme, in a novel combination with third‐order essentially non‐oscillatory schemes and a five stage Runge–Kutta method, to accomplish advection and re‐distancing of the level‐set function. The coupled solver is applied to simulate interface change and flow field in four benchmark test cases: (1) shear flow; (2) dam break; (3) travelling and reflection of solitary wave and (4) solitary wave over a submerged object. The computational results are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions, experimental data and previous numerical simulations using a RANS‐VOF method. The simulations reveal some interesting free‐surface phenomena such as the free‐surface vortices, air entrapment and wave deformation over a submerged object. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A parallel monolithic algorithm for the numerical simulation of large‐scale fluid structure interaction problems

A novel parallel monolithic algorithm has been developed for the numerical simulation of large‐scale fluid structure interaction problems. The governing incompressible Navier–Stokes equations for the fluid domain are discretized using the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation‐based side‐centered unstructured finite volume method. The deformation of the solid domain is governed by the constitutive laws for the nonlinear Saint Venant–Kirchhoff material, and the classical Galerkin finite element method is used to discretize the governing equations in a Lagrangian frame. A special attention is given to construct an algorithm with exact total fluid volume conservation while obeying both the global and the local discrete geometric conservation law. The resulting large‐scale algebraic nonlinear equations are multiplied with an upper triangular right preconditioner that results in a scaled discrete Laplacian instead of a zero block in the original system. Then, a one‐level restricted additive Schwarz preconditioner with a block‐incomplete factorization within each partitioned sub‐domains is utilized for the modified system. The accuracy and performance of the proposed algorithm are verified for the several benchmark problems including a pressure pulse in a flexible circular tube, a flag interacting with an incompressible viscous flow, and so on. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian finite element approach to non‐steady state turbulent fluid flow with application to mould filling in casting

This paper presents a two‐dimensional Lagrangian–Eulerian finite element approach of non‐steady state turbulent fluid flows with free surfaces. The proposed model is based on a velocity–pressure finite element Navier–Stokes solver, including an augmented Lagrangian technique and an iterative resolution of Uzawa type. Turbulent effects are taken into account with the k–ε two‐equation statistical model. Mesh updating is carried out through an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method in order to describe properly the free surface evolution. Three comparisons between experimental and numerical results illustrate the efficiency of the method. The first one is turbulent flow in an academic geometry, the second one is a mould filling in effective casting conditions and the third one is a precise confrontation to a water model. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of a compressive surface capturing formulation for modelling free‐surface flow by using the volume‐of‐fluid approach

With the aim of accurately modelling free‐surface flow of two immiscible fluids, this study presents the development of a new volume‐of‐fluid free‐surface capturing formulation. By building on existing volume‐of‐fluid approaches, the new formulation combines a blended higher resolution scheme with the addition of an artificial compressive term to the volume‐of‐fluid equation. This reduces the numerical smearing of the interface associated with explicit higher resolution schemes while limiting the contribution of the artificial compressive term to ensure the integrity of the interface shape is maintained. Furthermore, the computational efficiency of the the higher resolution scheme is improved through the reformulation of the normalised variable approach and the implementation of a new higher resolution blending function. The volume‐of‐fluid equation is discretised via an unstructured vertex‐centred finite volume method and solved via a Jacobian‐type dual time‐stepping approach. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A semi‐implicit numerical method for the free‐surface Navier–Stokes equations

Semi‐implicit methods are known for being the basis of simple, efficient, accurate, and stable numerical algorithms for simulating a large variety of geophysical free‐surface flows. Geophysical flows are typically characterized by having a small vertical scale as compared with their horizontal extents. Hence, the hydrostatic approximation often applies, and the free surface can be conveniently represented by a single‐valued function of the horizontal coordinates. In the present investigation, semi‐implicit methods are extended to complex free‐surface flows that are governed by the full incompressible Navier–Stokes equations and are delimited by solid boundaries and arbitrarily shaped free‐surfaces. The primary dependent variables are the velocity components and the pressure. Finite difference equations for momentum, and a finite volume discretization for continuity, are derived in such a fashion that, after simple manipulation, the resulting pressure equation yields a well‐posed piecewise linear system from which both the pressure and the fluid volume within each computational cell are naturally derived. This system is efficiently solved by a nested Newton type iterative scheme, and the resulting fluid volumes are assured to be nonnegative and bounded from above by the available cell volumes. The time step size is not restricted by stability conditions dictated by surface wave speed, but can be freely chosen just to achieve the desired accuracy. Several examples illustrate the model applicability to a large range of complex free‐surface flows and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A pressure correction‐volume of fluid method for simulation of two‐phase flows

A pressure correction method coupled with the volume of fluid (VOF) method is developed to simulate two‐phase flows. A volume fraction function is introduced in the VOF method and is governed by an advection equation. A modified monotone upwind scheme for a conservation law (modified MUSCL) is used to solve the solution of the advection equation. To keep the initial sharpness of an interface, a slope modification scheme is introduced. The continuum surface tension (CST) model is used to calculate the surface tension force. Three schemes, central‐upwind, Parker–Youngs, and mixed schemes, are introduced to compute the interface normal vector and the gradient of the volume fraction function. Moreover, a height function technique is applied to compute the local curvature of the interface. Several basic test problems are performed to check the order of accuracy of the present numerical schemes for computing the interface normal vector and the gradient of the volume fraction function. Three physical problems, two‐dimensional broken dam problem, static drop, and spurious currents, and three‐dimensional rising bubble, are performed to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the pressure correction method. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel fully‐implicit finite volume method applied to the lid‐driven cavity problem—Part II: Linear stability analysis

A novel finite volume method, described in Part I of this paper (Sahin and Owens, Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2003; 42 :57–77), is applied in the linear stability analysis of a lid‐driven cavity flow in a square enclosure. A combination of Arnoldi's method and extrapolation to zero mesh size allows us to determine the first critical Reynolds number at which Hopf bifurcation takes place. The extreme sensitivity of the predicted critical Reynolds number to the accuracy of the method and to the treatment of the singularity points is noted. Results are compared with those in the literature and are in very good agreement. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new volume of fluid method in three dimensions—Part II: Piecewise‐planar interface reconstruction with cubic‐Bézier fit

A new interface reconstruction method in 3D is presented. The method involves a conservative level‐contour reconstruction coupled to a cubic‐Bézier interpolation. The use of the proposed piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC) reconstruction scheme coupled to a multidimensional time integration provides solutions of second‐order spatial and temporal accuracy. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed reconstruction algorithm are demonstrated through several tests, whose results are compared with those obtained with other recently proposed methods. An overall improvement in accuracy with respect to other recent methods has been achieved, along with a substantial reduction in the central processing unit time required. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A semi‐implicit scheme for 3D free surface flows with high‐order velocity reconstruction on unstructured Voronoi meshes

In this paper, we present a computationally efficient semi‐implicit scheme for the simulation of three‐dimensional hydrostatic free surface flow problems on staggered unstructured Voronoi meshes. For each polygonal control volume, the pressure is defined in the cell center, whereas the discrete velocity field is given by the normal velocity component at the cell faces. A piecewise high‐order polynomial vector velocity field is then reconstructed from the scalar normal velocities at the cell faces by using a new high‐order constrained least‐squares reconstruction operator. The reconstructed high‐order piecewise polynomial velocity field is used for trajectory integration in a semi‐Lagrangian approach to discretize the nonlinear convective terms in the governing PDE. For that purpose, a high‐order Taylor method is used as ODE integrator. The resulting semi‐implicit algorithm is extensively validated on a large set of different academic test problems with exact analytical solution and is finally applied to a real‐world engineering problem consisting of a curved channel upstream of two micro‐turbines of a hydroelectric power plant. For this realistic case, some experimental reference data are available from field measurements. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A semi‐implicit finite volume implementation of the CSF method for treating surface tension in interfacial flows

We present an implementation of Hysing's (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2006; 51 :659–672) semi‐implicit method for treating surface tension, for finite volume models of interfacial flows. Using this method, the surface tension timestep restriction, which is often very stringent, can be exceeded by at least a factor of 5 without destabilizing the solution. The surface tension force in this method consists of an explicit part, which is the regular continuum surface force, and an implicit part which represents the diffusion of velocities induced by surface tension on fluids interfaces. The surface tension force is applied to the velocity field by solving a system of equations iteratively. Since the equations are solved only near interfaces, the computational time spent on the iterative procedure is insignificant. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel fully implicit finite volume method applied to the lid‐driven cavity problem—Part I: High Reynolds number flow calculations

A novel implicit cell‐vertex finite volume method is described for the solution of the Navier–Stokes equations at high Reynolds numbers. The key idea is the elimination of the pressure term from the momentum equation by multiplying the momentum equation with the unit normal vector to a control volume boundary and integrating thereafter around this boundary. The resulting equations are expressed solely in terms of the velocity components. Thus any difficulties with pressure or vorticity boundary conditions are circumvented and the number of primary variables that need to be determined equals the number of space dimensions. The method is applied to both the steady and unsteady two‐dimensional lid‐driven cavity problem at Reynolds numbers up to 10000. Results are compared with those in the literature and show excellent agreement. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new volume of fluid method in three dimensions—Part I: Multidimensional advection method with face‐matched flux polyhedra

A multidimensional advection scheme in 3D based on the use of face‐matched flux polyhedra to integrate the volume fraction evolution equation is proposed. The algorithm tends to reduce the formation of ‘over/undershoots’ by alleviating the over/underlapping of flux polyhedra, thus diminishing the need to use local redistribution algorithms. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed advection algorithm, which are analyzed using different tests with prescribed velocity field, compare well with other multidimensional advection methods proposed recently. The algorithm is also applied, in combination with a Navier–Stokes solver, to reproduce the impact of a water droplet falling through air on a pool of deep water. The interfacial curvature is calculated using a height‐function technique with adaptive stencil adjustment, which provides improved accuracy in regions of low grid resolution. The comparison of the numerical results with experimental results shows a good degree of agreement. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A semi‐discrete central scheme for scalar hyperbolic conservation laws with heterogeneous storage coefficient and its application to porous media flow

In this paper, we develop a new Godunov‐type semi‐discrete central scheme for a scalar conservation law on the basis of a generalization of the Kurganov and Tadmor scheme, which allows for spatial variability of the storage coefficient (e.g. porosity in multiphase flow in porous media) approximated by piecewise constant interpolation. We construct a generalized numerical flux at element edges on the basis of a nonstaggered inhomogeneous dual mesh, which reproduces the one postulated by Kurganov and Tadmor under the assumption of homogeneous storage coefficient. Numerical simulations of two‐phase flow in strongly heterogeneous porous media illustrate the performance of the proposed scheme and highlight the important rule of the permeability–porosity correlation on finger growth and breakthrough curves. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advances in the simulation of multi‐fluid flows with the particle finite element method. Application to bubble dynamics

In this work, we extend the Particle Finite Element Method (PFEM) to multi‐fluid flow problems with the aim of exploiting the fact that Lagrangian methods are specially well suited for tracking interfaces. We develop a numerical scheme able to deal with large jumps in the physical properties, included surface tension, and able to accurately represent all types of discontinuities in the flow variables. The scheme is based on decoupling the velocity and pressure variables through a pressure segregation method that takes into account the interface conditions. The interface is defined to be aligned with the moving mesh, so that it remains sharp along time, and pressure degrees of freedom are duplicated at the interface nodes to represent the discontinuity of this variable due to surface tension and variable viscosity. Furthermore, the mesh is refined in the vicinity of the interface to improve the accuracy and the efficiency of the computations. We apply the resulting scheme to the benchmark problem of a two‐dimensional bubble rising in a liquid column presented in Hysing et al. (International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids 2009; 60 : 1259–1288), and propose two breakup and coalescence problems to assess the ability of a multi‐fluid code to model topology changes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A generalized Rusanov method for the Baer‐Nunziato equations with application to DDT processes in condensed porous explosives

The paper addresses a numerical approach for solving the Baer‐Nunziato equations describing compressible 2‐phase flows. We are developing a finite‐volume method where the numerical flux is approximated with the Godunov scheme based on the Riemann problem solution. The analytical solution to this problem is discussed, and approximate solvers are considered. The obtained theoretical results are applied to develop the discrete model that can be treated as an extension of the Rusanov numerical scheme to the Baer‐Nunziato equations. Numerical results are presented that concern the method verification and also application to the deflagration‐to‐detonation transition (DDT) in porous reactive materials.