Liquid-gas-solid flows with lattice Boltzmann: Simulation of floating bodies

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified lattice Boltzmann model for simulating liquid-gas-solid flows, demonstrating its effectiveness in predicting the stability of floating bodies on water surfaces.

Contribution

A novel set of dynamic cell conversion rules unifies liquid-gas and liquid-solid flow simulations within the lattice Boltzmann framework.

Findings

Method accurately predicts the rotational stability of floating bodies.

Converges towards ideal solutions for heeling stability measurements.

Demonstrates consistency in complex fluid-structure interactions.

Abstract

This paper presents a model for the simulation of liquid-gas-solid flows by means of the lattice Boltzmann method. The approach is built upon previous works for the simulation of liquid-solid particle suspensions on the one hand, and on a liquid-gas free surface model on the other. We show how the two approaches can be unified by a novel set of dynamic cell conversion rules. For evaluation, we concentrate on the rotational stability of non-spherical rigid bodies floating on a plane water surface - a classical hydrostatic problem known from naval architecture. We show the consistency of our method in this kind of flows and obtain convergence towards the ideal solution for the measured heeling stability of a floating box.