A coupled volume-of-fluid/level-set method for simulation of two-phase flows in unstructured meshes

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology for simulation of two-phase flows with surface tension in the framework of unstructured meshes, which combines volume-of-fluid with level-set methods. While the volume-of-fluid transport relies on a robust and accurate polyhedral library for interface advection, surface tension force is calculated by using a level-set function reconstructed by means of a geometrical procedure. Moreover the solution of the fluid flow equations is performed through the fractional step method, using a finite-volume discretization on a collocated grid arrangement. The numerical method is validated against two- and three-dimensional test cases well established in the literature. Conservation properties of this method are shown to be excellent, while geometrical accuracy remains satisfactory even for the most complex flows.

This paper presents a methodology for simulation of two-phase flows with surface tension in the framework of unstructured meshes, which combines volume-of-fluid with level-set methods. While the volume-of-fluid transport relies on a robust and accurate polyhedral library for interface advection, surface tension force is calculated by using a level-set function reconstructed by means of a geometrical procedure. Moreover the solution of the fluid flow equations is performed through the fractional step method, using a finite-volume discretization on a collocated grid arrangement. The numerical method is validated against two- and three-dimensional test cases well established in the literature. Conservation properties of this method are shown to be excellent, while geometrical accuracy remains satisfactory even for the most complex flows.