ARTICLE:

• AN EULERIAN FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR INTERFACE TRACKING PROBLEMS  download article

Nancy Lock
Institut Universitaire des Systèmes Thermiques Industriels, UMR C.N.R.S 6595, Technopole de Château-Gombert, 5 rue Enrico Fermi, 13453 Marseille Cedex 13, France

Marc Medale
IUSTI - CNRS UMR 6595, Polytech'Marseille, Technopôle de Château-Gombert, 5 rue, Enrico Fermi, 13453, Marseille, France

Marc Jaeger
Institut Universitaire des Systèmes Thermiques Industriels, UMR C.N.R.S 6595, Technopole de Château-Gombert, 5 rue Enrico Fermi, 13453 Marseille Cedex 13, France

ABSTRACT

Numerical simulations of two dimensional flows of immiscible fluids separated by a sharp interface with or without surface tension are discussed. The flow field is computed by solving, on an unstructured fixed mesh, the full Navier-Stokes equations by the finite element method. The interface is tracked through the mesh by a pseudo-concentration based technique. In order to keep the fluid property fields sharp across the interface, a local mesh adaptation method has been developed. This procedure also provides an accurate and natural way to include surface tension effects. Both the Rayleigh-Taylor instability and the bubble motion simulations are presented. The numerical predictions compare very favourably with the theoretical results and/or the available experimental data.

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