Mini-Workshop: Interface Problems in Computational Fluid Dynamics

Multiple difficulties are encountered when designing algorithms to simulate flows having free surfaces, embedded particles, or elastic containers. One difficulty common to all of these problems is that the associated interfaces are Lagrangian in character, while the fluid equations are naturally posed in the Eulerian frame. This workshop explores different approaches and algorithms developed to resolve these issues

An Energy Formulation of Surface Tension or Willmore Force For Two-Phase Flow

The motion of a biological cell in liquid is a rich subject for modeling. In the early 1970’s, it was realized by Canham that biological vesicles with lipid bilayer membranes reach a steady state shape that minimizes bending. Helfrich soon after mathematically quantified the related bending energy and showed that the shapes from minimizing this bending energy match the types of shapes observed in nature. The resulting Canham-Helfrich energy, consisting of bending energy and a constant surface area and volume constraint, is a major component of any model of cellular motility. To this end, we consider the cellular vesicle to be a closed interface between two fluids and we present a finite element model for a two-phase flow coupling the minimization of some given energy defined on the interface to the incompressible flow of the two fluids, which is then advected according to the resulting velocity field. We provide a general framework for incorporating the energies on the interface and then focus on three applications of energy on the interface: the first is surface tension minimizing the surface area energy, the second minimizes the bending energy without explicit surface area or volume constraints, the third minimizes the Canham-Helfrich energy including the constraints. We present a semi-implicit model for bending energy which uses an implicit levelset formulation for the interface and couples the forces from the interface to the two phase incompressible Navier-Stokes system through the use of an approximate Dirac delta function defined on a band around the interface. By using energies to describe the motion, our model is immediately provided with a sense of energy stability. We provide various numerical simulations and validations of flow under these three energies in two and three dimensions. Our simulations confirm that enforcing the volume constraint in the incompressible flow is vital to achieve the desired steady state shapes

SOLID-SHELL FINITE ELEMENT MODELS FOR EXPLICIT SIMULATIONS OF CRACK PROPAGATION IN THIN STRUCTURES

Crack propagation in thin shell structures due to cutting is conveniently simulated using explicit finite element approaches, in view of the high nonlinearity of the problem. Solidshell elements are usually preferred for the discretization in the presence of complex material behavior and degradation phenomena such as delamination, since they allow for a correct representation of the thickness geometry. However, in solid-shell elements the small thickness leads to a very high maximum eigenfrequency, which imply very small stable time-steps. A new selective mass scaling technique is proposed to increase the time-step size without affecting accuracy. New ”directional” cohesive interface elements are used in conjunction with selective mass scaling to account for the interaction with a sharp blade in cutting processes of thin ductile shells

An Energy Formulation of Surface Tension or Willmore Force For Two-Phase Flow

The motion of a biological cell in liquid is a rich subject for modeling. In the early 1970’s, it was realized by Canham that biological vesicles with lipid bilayer membranes reach a steady state shape that minimizes bending. Helfrich soon after mathematically quantified the related bending energy and showed that the shapes from minimizing this bending energy match the types of shapes observed in nature. The resulting Canham-Helfrich energy, consisting of bending energy and a constant surface area and volume constraint, is a major component of any model of cellular motility. To this end, we consider the cellular vesicle to be a closed interface between two fluids and we present a finite element model for a two-phase flow coupling the minimization of some given energy defined on the interface to the incompressible flow of the two fluids, which is then advected according to the resulting velocity field. We provide a general framework for incorporating the energies on the interface and then focus on three applications of energy on the interface: the first is surface tension minimizing the surface area energy, the second minimizes the bending energy without explicit surface area or volume constraints, the third minimizes the Canham-Helfrich energy including the constraints. We present a semi-implicit model for bending energy which uses an implicit levelset formulation for the interface and couples the forces from the interface to the two phase incompressible Navier-Stokes system through the use of an approximate Dirac delta function defined on a band around the interface. By using energies to describe the motion, our model is immediately provided with a sense of energy stability. We provide various numerical simulations and validations of flow under these three energies in two and three dimensions. Our simulations confirm that enforcing the volume constraint in the incompressible flow is vital to achieve the desired steady state shapes

Computational phase-field modeling

Phase-field modeling is emerging as a promising tool for the treatment of problems with interfaces. The classical description of interface problems requires the numerical solution of partial differential equations on moving domains in which the domain motions are also unknowns. The computational treatment of these problems requires moving meshes and is very difficult when the moving domains undergo topological changes. Phase-field modeling may be understood as a methodology to reformulate interface problems as equations posed on fixed domains. In some cases, the phase-field model may be shown to converge to the moving-boundary problem as a regularization parameter tends to zero, which shows the mathematical soundness of the approach. However, this is only part of the story because phase-field models do not need to have a moving-boundary problem associated and can be rigorously derived from classical thermomechanics. In this context, the distinguishing feature is that constitutive models depend on the variational derivative of the free energy. In all, phase-field models open the opportunity for the efficient treatment of outstanding problems in computational mechanics, such as, the interaction of a large number of cracks in three dimensions, cavitation, film and nucleate boiling, tumor growth or fully three-dimensional air-water flows with surface tension. In addition, phase-field models bring a new set of challenges for numerical discretization that will excite the computational mechanics community

Isogeometric Analysis for High Order Geometric Partial Differential Equations with Applications

In this thesis, we consider the numerical approximation of high order geometric Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). We first consider high order PDEs defined on surfaces in the 3D space that are represented by single-patch tensor product NURBS. Then, we spatially discretize the PDEs by means of NURBS-based Isogeometric Analysis (IGA) in the framework of the Galerkin method. With this aim, we consider the construction of periodic NURBS function spaces with high degree of global continuity, even on closed surfaces. As benchmark problems for the proposed discretization, we propose Laplace-Beltrami problems of the fourth and sixth orders, as well as the corresponding eigenvalue problems, and we analyze the impact of the continuity of the basis functions on the accuracy as well as on computational costs. The numerical solution of two high order phase field problems on both open and closed surfaces is also considered: the fourth order Cahn-Hilliard equation and the sixth order crystal equation, both discretized in time with the generalized-alpha method. We then consider the numerical approximation of geometric PDEs, derived, in particular, from the minimization of shape energy functionals by L^2-gradient flows. We analyze the mean curvature and the Willmore gradient flows, leading to second and fourth order PDEs, respectively. These nonlinear geometric PDEs are discretized in time with Backward Differentiation Formulas (BDF), with a semi-implicit formulation based on an extrapolation of the geometry, leading to a linear problem to be solved at each time step. Results about the numerical approximation of the two geometric flows on several geometries are analyzed. Then, we study how the proposed mathematical framework can be employed to numerically approximate the equilibrium shapes of lipid bilayer biomembranes, or vesicles, governed by the Canham-Helfrich curvature model. We propose two numerical schemes for enforcing the conservation of the area and volume of the vesicles, and report results on benchmark problems. Then, the approximation of the equilibrium shapes of biomembranes with different values of reduced volume is presented. Finally, we consider the dynamics of a vesicle, e.g. a red blood cell, immersed in a fluid, e.g. the plasma. In particular, we couple the curvature-driven model for the lipid membrane with the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations governing the fluid. We consider a segregated approach, with a formulation based on the Resistive Immersed Surface method applied to NURBS geometries. After analyzing benchmark fluid simulations with immersed NURBS objects, we report numerical results for the investigation of the dynamics of a vesicle under different flow conditions