A Semi-Explicit Surface Tracking Mechanism for Multi-Phase Immiscible Liquids.

Area of Science:

• Computational fluid dynamics
• Interface tracking algorithms
• Scientific computing

Background:

• Accurate tracking of complex interfaces in multi-phase immiscible fluids is crucial for various scientific and engineering applications.
• Existing techniques often struggle with complex geometries, volume preservation, and computational efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a new, efficient method for tracking complex interfaces among multi-phase immiscible fluids.
• To address limitations of existing techniques in handling complex geometries and maintaining accuracy with low computational cost.

Main Methods:

• Employs a hybrid approach combining a mesh-based representation for global liquid surfaces with regional level sets (RLS) for complex local geometries.
• Utilizes a spectrally refined grid (SRG) for surface evolution processing, including grid scanning, interpolation, and topology operations.
• Develops specialized advection schemes for RLS on SRG and fast grid-scanning techniques for voxelizing explicit meshes, including robust algorithms for mesh consistency and interconversion.

Main Results:

• The semi-explicit surface mechanism effectively preserves volume, fine features, and foam-like thin films.
• Achieves efficient tracking of complex interfaces at a relatively low computational expenditure.
• Demonstrates robust handling of mesh penetrations, topological variations, and seamless coupling between mesh and RLS regions.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method offers a significant advancement in efficiently and accurately tracking complex fluid interfaces.
• The hybrid mesh-RLS approach provides a robust and computationally feasible solution for challenging multi-phase flow simulations.
• The method's ability to handle intricate topological changes and interconversions enhances its applicability in diverse fluid dynamics problems.