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Assessment of volume of fluid and immersed boundary methods for droplet computations
Author(s) -
Lörstad Daniel,
Francois Marianne,
Shyy Wei,
Fuchs Laszlo
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in fluids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1097-0363
pISSN - 0271-2091
DOI - 10.1002/fld.746
Subject(s) - volume of fluid method , mechanics , surface tension , curvature , computational fluid dynamics , computation , fluid dynamics , immersed boundary method , flow (mathematics) , boundary (topology) , computer science , mathematics , physics , geometry , thermodynamics , mathematical analysis , algorithm
The volume of fluid (VOF) and immersed boundary (IB) methods are two popular computational techniques for multi‐fluid dynamics. To help shed light on the performance of both techniques, we present accuracy assessment, which includes interfacial geometry, detailed and global fluid flow characteristics, and computational robustness. The investigation includes the simulations of a droplet under static equilibrium as a limiting test case and a droplet rising due to gravity for Re ⩽1000. Surface tension force models are key issues in both VOF and IB and alternative treatments are examined resulting in improved solution accuracy. A refined curvature model for VOF is also presented. With the newly developed interfacial treatments incorporated, both IB and VOF perform comparably well for the droplet dynamics under different flow parameters and fluid properties. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.