A Delaunay Refinement Algorithm for the Particle Finite Element Method applied to Free Surface Flows

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Leyssens, Thomas, Henry, Michel, Lambrechts, Jonathan, Remacle, Jean-Francois
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Leyssens, Thomas
Henry, Michel
Lambrechts, Jonathan
Remacle, Jean-Francois
author_facet Leyssens, Thomas
Henry, Michel
Lambrechts, Jonathan
Remacle, Jean-Francois
contents This paper proposes two contributions to the calculation of free surface flows using the particle finite element method (PFEM). The PFEM is based on a Lagrangian approach: a set of particles defines the fluid. Then, unlike a pure Lagrangian method, all the particles are connected by a triangular mesh. The difficulty lies in locating the free surface from this mesh. It is a matter of deciding which of the elements in the mesh are part of the fluid domain, and to define a boundary - the free surface. Then, the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved on the fluid domain and the particles' position is updated using the resulting velocity vector. Our first contribution is to propose an approach to adapt the mesh with theoretical guarantees of quality: the mesh generation community has acquired a lot of experience and understanding about mesh adaptation approaches with guarantees of quality on the final mesh. We use here a Delaunay refinement strategy, allowing to insert and remove nodes while gradually improving mesh quality. We show that this allows to create stable and smooth free surface geometries. Our PFEM approach models the topological evolution of one fluid. It is nevertheless necessary to apply conditions on the domain boundaries. When a boundary is a free surface, the flow on the other side is not modelled, it is represented by an external pressure. On the external free surface boundary, atmospheric pressure can be imposed. Nevertheless, there may be internal free surfaces: the fluid can fully encapsulate cavities to form bubbles. The pressure required to maintain the volume of those bubbles is a priori unknown. We propose a multi-point constraint approach to enforce global incompressibility of those empty bubbles. This approach allows to accurately model bubbly flows that involve two fluids with large density differences, while only modelling the heavier fluid.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_18416
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Delaunay Refinement Algorithm for the Particle Finite Element Method applied to Free Surface Flows
Leyssens, Thomas
Henry, Michel
Lambrechts, Jonathan
Remacle, Jean-Francois
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
This paper proposes two contributions to the calculation of free surface flows using the particle finite element method (PFEM). The PFEM is based on a Lagrangian approach: a set of particles defines the fluid. Then, unlike a pure Lagrangian method, all the particles are connected by a triangular mesh. The difficulty lies in locating the free surface from this mesh. It is a matter of deciding which of the elements in the mesh are part of the fluid domain, and to define a boundary - the free surface. Then, the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved on the fluid domain and the particles' position is updated using the resulting velocity vector. Our first contribution is to propose an approach to adapt the mesh with theoretical guarantees of quality: the mesh generation community has acquired a lot of experience and understanding about mesh adaptation approaches with guarantees of quality on the final mesh. We use here a Delaunay refinement strategy, allowing to insert and remove nodes while gradually improving mesh quality. We show that this allows to create stable and smooth free surface geometries. Our PFEM approach models the topological evolution of one fluid. It is nevertheless necessary to apply conditions on the domain boundaries. When a boundary is a free surface, the flow on the other side is not modelled, it is represented by an external pressure. On the external free surface boundary, atmospheric pressure can be imposed. Nevertheless, there may be internal free surfaces: the fluid can fully encapsulate cavities to form bubbles. The pressure required to maintain the volume of those bubbles is a priori unknown. We propose a multi-point constraint approach to enforce global incompressibility of those empty bubbles. This approach allows to accurately model bubbly flows that involve two fluids with large density differences, while only modelling the heavier fluid.
title A Delaunay Refinement Algorithm for the Particle Finite Element Method applied to Free Surface Flows
topic Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.18416