Enhanced Level-Set Method for free surface flow applications

TL;DR

This paper introduces an enhanced Level-Set based solver, LSFoam, integrated with Ghost Fluid Method in OpenFOAM for simulating incompressible two-phase flows with surface tension, demonstrating accurate results across various test cases.

Contribution

The paper develops a novel Level-Set solver with improved interface reinitialization and coupling techniques, implemented in OpenFOAM for better free surface flow simulations.

Findings

Accurate simulation of rising bubbles and Rayleigh-Taylor instability.

Effective handling of complex free surface deformations.

Excellent agreement with reference data across test cases.

Abstract

This paper presents a solver using the Level-Set method for incompressible two phase flows with surface tension. A one fluid approach is adopted where both phases share the same velocity and pressure field. The Level Set method has been coupled with the Ghost Fluid Method. An efficient and pragmatic solution is proposed to avoid interface displacement during the reinitialization of the level-Set fields. A solver called LSFoam has been implemented in the OpenFOAM framework with consistent Rhie & Chow interpolation. This solver has been tested on several test cases covering different scales and flow configurations: rising bubble test case, Rayleigh-Taylor instability simulations, Ogee spillway flow, 3D dambreak simulation with a square cylinder obstacle and KVLCC2 steady resistance calculations. Overall results are in excellent agreement with reference data and the present approach is very promising for moderate free surface deformations.