Volume of Fluid (VOF) type advection methods in two-phase flow: a comparative study

TL;DR

This study compares four VOF advection methods, including simplified versions without interface reconstruction, within a unified code framework to evaluate their accuracy and implementation complexity in two-phase flow simulations.

Contribution

It provides a direct comparison of four VOF methods in a consistent setting, highlighting differences in accuracy and ease of implementation for two-phase flow modeling.

Findings

Simplified VOF methods perform comparably to more complex ones in certain flow conditions.

Coupled Level Set VOF methods effectively simulate static and dynamic two-phase flows.

Implementation complexity varies significantly among the methods.

Abstract

In this paper, four distinct approaches to Volume of Fluid (VOF) computational method are compared. Two of the methods are the 'simplified' VOF formulations, in that they do not require geometrical interface reconstruction. The assessment is made possible by implementing all four approaches into the same code as a switchable options. This allows to rule out possible influence of other parts of numerical scheme, be it the discretisation of Navier-Stokes equations or chosen approximation of curvature, so that we are left with conclusive arguments because only one factor differs the compared methods. The comparison is done in the framework of CLSVOF (Coupled Level Set Volume of Fluid), so that all four methods are coupled with Level Set interface, which is used to compute pressure jump via the GFM (Ghost-Fluid Method). Results presented include static advections, full N-S solutions in laminar and turbulent flows. The paper is aimed at research groups who are implementing VOF methods in their computations or intend to do it, and might consider a simplified approach as a preliminary measure, since the methods presented differ greatly in complication level, or ease of implementation expressed e.g. in number of code lines.