A computational method for sharp interface advection

Area of Science:

• Computational fluid dynamics
• Numerical analysis
• Interface tracking

Background:

• Accurate simulation of interfaces between immiscible fluids is crucial in many scientific and engineering fields.
• Existing methods for passive advection of surfaces across computational meshes face challenges in accuracy and conservation, especially on general meshes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel, accurate, and efficient numerical method for passive advection of surfaces, specifically fluid interfaces, across arbitrary polyhedral computational meshes.
• To improve volume conservation and surface sharpness in interface tracking simulations.

Main Methods:

• The isoAdvector method utilizes a geometric surface reconstruction based on the isosurface concept to model the interface within cells.
• It calculates the volume of fluid transported across mesh faces by modeling the motion of the face-interface intersection line.
• The method is based on the Volume of Fluid (VOF) principle.

Main Results:

• The isoAdvector method demonstrated highly satisfactory results in terms of volume conservation, boundedness, and surface sharpness.
• Testing on 2D and 3D interface advection problems across structured and unstructured meshes confirmed the method's efficiency.
• The numerical method achieved accurate estimates for fluid volume transport across mesh faces.

Conclusions:

• The isoAdvector method provides a robust and accurate solution for passive surface advection problems.
• Its implementation as an open-source OpenFOAM extension facilitates its application in diverse computational fluid dynamics simulations.
• The method offers significant improvements in simulating fluid interfaces compared to existing techniques.