Interface Pressure Model for Surface Tension Force for Vof-Based Methods in Interfacial Flows

Abstract

In this article, the two-dimensional staggered grid interface pressure (SGIP) model is generalized and presented in three-dimensional form. The model has been used to simulate three-dimensional interfacial flows and the results have been compared with other existing models. For this purpose, various models of surface tension force for interfacial flows-CSF, CSS and PCIL models as well as the proposed model, SGIP-have been applied to simulate both static and dynamic cases. A three-dimensional motionless drop of liquid and a bubble of gas in an initially stagnant fluid with no gravity force are simulated as the static test case. The motion of small air bubbles in water is simulated as the dynamic test case. It has been demonstrated that the SGIP model produces the least maximum and norm spurious velocities in comparison with the CSF, CSS and PCIL models. Moreover, it is observed that the proposed model produces more accurate pressure jumps across the interface. Results of the dynamic case show that for both CSF and CSS models, the magnitude of spurious currents is too high to enable a successful simulation of this type of surface tension dominated flows. On the other hand, by using SGIP or PCIL models, we are able to simulate bubble rise and to obtain results which are in close agreement with the experimental data.