A new isosurface extraction method on arbitrary grids

The development of interface-capturing methods (such as level-set, phase-field or volume of fluid (VOF) methods) for arbitrary 3D grids has further highlighted the need for more accurate and efficient interface reconstruction procedures. In this work, we propose a new method for the extraction of isosurfaces on arbitrary polyhedra that can be used with advantage for this purpose. The isosurface is extracted from volume fractions by a general polygon tracing procedure, which is valid for convex or non-convex geometries, even with non-planar faces. The proposed method, which can be considered as an extension of the marching cubes technique, produces consistent results even for ambiguous situations in polyhedra of arbitrary shape. To show the reproducibility of the results presented in this work, we provide the open source library isoap, which has been developed to implement the proposed method and includes test programs to demonstrate the successful extraction of isosurfaces on several grids with polyhedral cells of different types. We present results obtained not only for isosurface extraction from discrete volume fractions resulting from a volume of fluid method, but also from data sets obtained from implicit mathematical functions and signed distances to scanned surfaces. The improvement provided by the proposed method for the extraction of isosurfaces in arbitrary grids will also be very useful in other fields, such as CFD visualization or medical imaging.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades - Agencia Estatal de Investigación and FEDER through projects DPI2017-87826-C2-1-P and DPI2017-87826-C2-2-P

An iterative interface reconstruction method for PLIC in general convex grids as part of a Coupled Level Set Volume of Fluid solver

Reconstructing the interface within a cell, based on volume fraction and normal direction, is a key part of multiphase flow solvers which make use of piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC) such as the Coupled Level Set Volume of Fluid (CLSVOF) method. In this paper, we present an iterative method for interface reconstruction (IR) in general convex cells based on tetrahedral decomposition. By splitting the cell into tetrahedra prior to IR the volume of the truncated polyhedron can be calculated much more rapidly than using existing clipping and capping methods. In addition the root finding algorithm is designed to take advantage of the nature of the relationship between volume fraction and interface position by using a combination of Newton's and Muller's methods. In stand-alone tests of the IR algorithm on single cells with up to 20 vertices the proposed method was found to be 2 times faster than an implementation of an existing analytical method, while being easy to implement. It was also found to be 3.4–11.8 times faster than existing iterative methods using clipping and capping and combined with Brent's root finding method. Tests were then carried out of the IR method as part of a CLSVOF solver. For a sphere deformed by a prescribed velocity field the proposed method was found to be up to 33% faster than existing iterative methods. For simulations including the solution of the velocity field the maximum speed up was found to be approximately 52% for a case where 12% of cells lie on the interface. Analysis of the full simulation CPU time budget also indicates that while the proposed method has produced a considerable speed-up, further gains due to increasing the efficiency of the IR method are likely to be small as the IR step now represents only a small proportion of the run time

On estimating the interface normal and curvature in PLIC-VOF approach for 3D arbitrary meshes

Volume of fluid (VOF) method with its Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation (PLIC) reconstruction algorithm is one of the most popular approaches in numerical simulation of interfacial flows with a wide range of applications in different areas. In an effort to evaluate the similarity of the PLIC-generated planes in comparison with the exact interface, a point-cloud, based on the polygon centers of PLIC planes is extracted, which later is used to form a triangular grid that represents the estimated interface. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the interface geometrical properties based on the extracted triangular grid of the interface. The methods presented in this article, characterized by a higher spatially convergence ratio, are compared with the commonly used methods. The proposed methods are tested for two 3-dimensional general test cases, where an evident improvement is seen in calculation accuracy and spatial convergence of the errors of interface normal vector and curvature.This work has been financially supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033 Spain, project PID2020-115837RBI00. E. Schillaci acknowledges the financial support of the Programa Torres Quevedo (PTQ2018-010060).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Finite element discretization methods for velocity-pressure and stream function formulations of surface Stokes equations

In this paper we study parametric TraceFEM and parametric SurfaceFEM (SFEM) discretizations of a surface Stokes problem. These methods are applied both to the Stokes problem in velocity-pressure formulation and in stream function formulation. A class of higher order methods is presented in a unified framework. Numerical efficiency aspects of the two formulations are discussed and a systematic comparison of TraceFEM and SFEM is given. A benchmark problem is introduced in which a scalar reference quantity is defined and numerically determined.Comment: 26 page

Balanced-force two-phase flow modelling on unstructured and adaptive meshes

Two-phase flows occur regularly in nature and industrial processes and their understanding is of significant interest in engineering research and development. Various numerical methods to predict two-phase phase flows have been developed as a result of extensive research efforts in past decades, however, most methods are limited to Cartesian meshes. A fully-coupled implicit numerical framework for two-phase flows on unstructured meshes is presented, solving the momentum equations and a specifically constructed continuity constraint in a single equation system. The continuity constraint, derived using a momentum interpolation method, satisfies continuity, provides a strong pressure-velocity coupling and ensures a discrete balance between pressure gradient and body forces. The numerical framework is not limited to specific density ratios or a particular interface topology and includes several novelties. A further step towards a more accurate prediction of two-phase flows on unstructured meshes is taken by proposing a new method to evaluate the interface curvature. The curvature estimates obtained with this new method are shown to be as good as or better than methods reported in literature, which are mostly limited to Cartesian meshes, and the accuracy on structured and unstructured meshes is shown to be comparable. Furthermore, lasting contributions are made towards the understanding of convolution methods for two-phase flow modelling and the underlying mechanisms of parasitic currents are studied in detailed. The mesh resolution is of particular importance for two-phase flows due to the inherent first-order accuracy of the interface position using interface capturing methods. A mesh adaption algorithm for tetrahedral meshes with application to two-phase flows and its implementation are presented. The algorithm is applied to study mesh resolution requirements at interfaces and force-balancing for surface-tension-dominated two-phase flows on adaptive meshes.Open Acces

ICASE/LaRC Workshop on Adaptive Grid Methods

Solution-adaptive grid techniques are essential to the attainment of practical, user friendly, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. In this three-day workshop, experts gathered together to describe state-of-the-art methods in solution-adaptive grid refinement, analysis, and implementation; to assess the current practice; and to discuss future needs and directions for research. This was accomplished through a series of invited and contributed papers. The workshop focused on a set of two-dimensional test cases designed by the organizers to aid in assessing the current state of development of adaptive grid technology. In addition, a panel of experts from universities, industry, and government research laboratories discussed their views of needs and future directions in this field