Numerical Simulation of Transient Free Surface Flows Using a Moving Mesh Technique

2006 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 1017-1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Battaglia ◽  
Jorge D’Elía ◽  
Mario Storti ◽  
Norberto Nigro

In this work, transient free surface flows of a viscous incompressible fluid are numerically solved through parallel computation. Transient free surface flows are boundary-value problems of the moving type that involve geometrical nonlinearities. In contrast to more conventional computational fluid dynamics problems, the computational flow domain is partially bounded by a free surface which is not known a priori, since its shape must be computed as part of the solution. In steady flow the free surface is obtained by an iterative process, but when the free surface evolves with time the problem is more difficult as it generates large distortions in the computational flow domain. The incompressible Navier-Stokes numerical solver is based on the finite element method with equal order elements for pressure and velocity (linear elements), and it uses a streamline upwind/Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG) scheme (Hughes, T. J. R., and Brooks, A. N., 1979, “A Multidimensional Upwind Scheme With no Crosswind Diffusion,” in Finite Element Methods for Convection Dominated Flows, ASME ed., 34. AMD, New York, pp. 19–35, and Brooks, A. N., and Hughes, T. J. R., 1982, “Streamline Upwind/Petrov-Galerkin Formulations for Convection Dominated Flows With Particular Emphasis on the Incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations,” Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng., 32, pp. 199–259) combined with a Pressure-Stabilizing/Petrov-Galerkin (PSPG) one (Tezduyar, T. E., 1992, “Stablized Finite Element Formulations for Incompressible Flow Computations,” Adv. Appl. Mech., 28, pp. 1–44, and Tezduyar, T. E., Mittal, S., Ray, S. E., and Shih, R., 1992, “Incompressible Flow Computations With Stabilized Bilinear and Linear Equal Order Interpolation Velocity-Pressure Elements,” Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng., 95, pp. 221–242). At each time step, the fluid equations are solved with constant pressure and null viscous traction conditions at the free surface and the velocities obtained in this way are used for updating the positions of the surface nodes. Then, a pseudo elastic problem is solved in the fluid domain in order to relocate the interior nodes so as to keep mesh distortion controlled. This has been implemented in the PETSc-FEM code (PETSc-FEM: a general purpose, parallel, multi-physics FEM program. GNU general public license (GPL), http://www.cimec.org.ar/petscfem) by running two parallel instances of the code and exchanging information between them. Some numerical examples are presented.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepak Garg ◽  
Antonella Longo ◽  
Paolo Papale

This work aims to develop a numerical wave tank for viscous and inviscid flows. The Navier-Stokes equations are solved by time-discontinuous stabilized space-time finite element method. The numerical scheme tracks the free surface location using fluid velocity. A segregated algorithm is proposed to iteratively couple the fluid flow and mesh deformation problems. The numerical scheme and the developed computer code are validated over three free surface problems: solitary wave propagation, the collision between two counter moving waves, and wave damping in a viscous fluid. The benchmark tests demonstrate that the numerical approach is effective and an attractive tool for simulating viscous and inviscid free surface flows.


1989 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 829-844
Author(s):  
A. Soulaïmani ◽  
Y. Ouellet ◽  
G. Dhatt ◽  
R. Blanchet

This paper is devoted to the computational analysis of three-dimensional free surface flows. The model solves the Navier-Stokes equations without any a priori restriction on the pressure distribution. The variational formulation along with the solution algorithm are presented. Finally, the model is used to study the hydrodynamic regime in the vicinity of a projected harbor installation. Key words: free surface flows, three-dimensional flows, finite element method.


2013 ◽  
Vol 405-408 ◽  
pp. 3208-3212
Author(s):  
Jyh Haw Tang ◽  
Ming Kuan Sun ◽  
Ying Chen

This paper proposes the least-squares finite element method (LSFEM) for simulating the free surface flows in multi-step free overfalls. Motion of the free surface flows is represented with two-phased surface profiles by solving the Navier-Stokes equations. The fluid is considered to be incompressible and the dynamic and kinematic boundary conditions of free surface are described in an Eulerian coordinate system. In this simulation, the volume of fluid (VOF) method and continuous stress force (CSF) models in association of color function are incorporated for the determination of the interface between water and air. The simulation results from the LSFEM model are carefully verified for the unit-step free overfall case. The quantitative comparisons in terms of the parameters such as different inflow rates, reattached length, water height after the fall and critical depth with previous numerical results or experimental measurements are shown to be in good agreement. In order to understand more about the complicate free surface profile of a dual-step free overfall, the LSFEM model is simulated for different inflow rates. In comparison with the available experimental data, it is shown that the LSFEM can effectively simulate the multi-step free overfall flow phenomena. Our study presents some regression formula for the dual-step free overfall, it is hoped that these formula will be helpful for the engineering designs and applications.


Author(s):  
Niklas Kühl ◽  
Michael Hinze ◽  
Thomas Rung

AbstractThe paper is devoted to the simulation of maritime two-phase flows of air and water. Emphasis is put on an extension of the classical Volume-of-Fluid (VoF) method by a diffusive contribution derived from a Cahn-Hilliard (CH) model and its benefits for simulating immiscible, incompressible two-phase flows. Such flows are predominantly simulated with implicit VoF schemes, which mostly employ heuristic downwind-biased approximations for the concentration transport to mimic a sharp interface. This strategy introduces a severe time step restriction and requires pseudo time-stepping of steady flows. Our overall goal is a sound description of the free-surface region that alleviates artificial time-step restrictions, supports an efficient and robust upwind-based approximation framework, and inherently includes surface tension effects when needed. The Cahn-Hilliard Navier-Stokes (CH-NS) system is verified for an analytical Couette-flow example and the bubble formation under the influence of surface tension forces. 2D validation examples are concerned with laminar standing waves reaching from gravity to capillary scale as well as a submerged hydrofoil flow. The final application refers to the 3D flow around an experimentally investigated container vessel at fixed floatation for Re = 1.4 × 107 and Fn = 0.26. Results are compared with data obtained from VoF approaches, supplemented by analytical solutions and measurements. The study indicates the superior efficiency, resharpening capability, and wider predictive realm of the CH-based extension for free-surface flows with a confined spatial range of interface Courant numbers.


Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 460
Author(s):  
Milad Rakhsha ◽  
Christopher E. Kees ◽  
Dan Negrut

As a step towards addressing a scarcity of references on this topic, we compared the Eulerian and Lagrangian Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approaches for the solution of free-surface and Fluid–Solid Interaction (FSI) problems. The Eulerian approach uses the Finite Element Method (FEM) to spatially discretize the Navier–Stokes equations. The free surface is handled via the volume-of-fluid (VOF) and the level-set (LS) equations; an Immersed Boundary Method (IBM) in conjunction with the Nitsche’s technique were applied to resolve the fluid–solid coupling. For the Lagrangian approach, the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is the meshless discretization technique of choice; no additional equations are needed to handle free-surface or FSI coupling. We compared the two approaches for a flow around cylinder. The dam break test was used to gauge the performance for free-surface flows. Lastly, the two approaches were compared on two FSI problems—one with a floating rigid body dropped into the fluid and one with an elastic gate interacting with the flow. We conclude with a discussion of the robustness, ease of model setup, and versatility of the two approaches. The Eulerian and Lagrangian solvers used in this study are open-source and available in the public domain.


Author(s):  
Alexander Danilov ◽  
Alexander Lozovskiy ◽  
Maxim Olshanskii ◽  
Yuri Vassilevski

AbstractThe paper introduces a finite element method for the Navier-Stokes equations of incompressible viscous fluid in a time-dependent domain. The method is based on a quasi-Lagrangian formulation of the problem and handling the geometry in a time-explicit way. We prove that numerical solution satisfies a discrete analogue of the fundamental energy estimate. This stability estimate does not require a CFL time-step restriction. The method is further applied to simulation of a flow in a model of the left ventricle of a human heart, where the ventricle wall dynamics is reconstructed from a sequence of contrast enhanced Computed Tomography images.


2021 ◽  
Vol 153 (A2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Q Yang ◽  
W Qiu

Slamming forces on 2D and 3D bodies have been computed based on a CIP method. The highly nonlinear water entry problem governed by the Navier-Stokes equations was solved by a CIP based finite difference method on a fixed Cartesian grid. In the computation, a compact upwind scheme was employed for the advection calculations and a pressure-based algorithm was applied to treat the multiple phases. The free surface and the body boundaries were captured using density functions. For the pressure calculation, a Poisson-type equation was solved at each time step by the conjugate gradient iterative method. Validation studies were carried out for 2D wedges with various deadrise angles ranging from 0 to 60 degrees at constant vertical velocity. In the cases of wedges with small deadrise angles, the compressibility of air between the bottom of the wedge and the free surface was modelled. Studies were also extended to 3D bodies, such as a sphere, a cylinder and a catamaran, entering calm water. Computed pressures, free surface elevations and hydrodynamic forces were compared with experimental data and the numerical solutions by other methods.


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