A study on the extension of a VOF/PLIC based method to a curvilinear co-ordinate system |
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Authors: | W. Jang F.S. Lien H. Ji |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Mechanical Engineering , University of Waterloo , Waterloo, Ont., Canada , N2L 3G1;2. Waterloo CFD Engineering Consulting Inc. , Waterloo, ON, Canada , N2T 2N7 |
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Abstract: | The conventional volume-of-fluid method has the potential to deal with large free surface deformation on a fixed Cartesian grid. However, when free-surface flows are within or over complex geometries of industrial relevance, such as free-surface flows over offshore oil platforms, it is advantageous to extend the method originally written in Cartesian forms into non-Cartesian forms. In the present study, an algorithm similar to the algorithm described by Rudman in 1997 is proposed for use with curvilinear co-ordinates. This extension results in the ability to model complex geometries which could not be modelled using the original algorithm. Excellent agreement between the solutions obtained on both orthogonal and non-orthogonal meshes is achieved, although in general the L 1 error, based on the exact solution, on the non-orthogonal mesh is slightly higher than that on the orthogonal mesh. The extended fluid flow solving capacity of the present method is demonstrated through its application to a non-orthogonal Rayleigh–Taylor instability problem. |
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Keywords: | volume-of-fluid non-orthogonal grid free-surface flow piecewise linear interface calculation |
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