gVOF: An open-source package for unsplit geometric volume of fluid methods on arbitrary grids

The gVOF package implements several accurate and efficient geometric volume of fluid (VOF) methods on arbitrary grids, either structured or unstructured with convex or non-convex cells, based on multidimensional unsplit advection and piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC) schemes, with the purpose of facilitating and extending the use of advanced unsplit geometric VOF methods in new or existing computational fluid dynamics codes. The package includes a complete and self-contained set of routines for VOF initialization, interface reconstruction and fluid advection, and uses as external libraries a set of publicly available in-house tools to perform several analytical and geometrical operations. These operations may involve handling of high-complex non-convex flux polyhedra, even with self intersecting faces, which are robustly and efficiently treated in this work without the need of costly techniques based on convex decomposition. Results for the accuracy, computational efficiency, and volume (local and global) conservation properties of different combinations of the implemented advection and reconstruction methods are presented for several numerical tests on structured and unstructured grids. An extensive comparison with results obtained by other authors using advanced geometric VOF methods shows the outstanding performance of the gVOF package in terms of efficiency and accuracy. To demonstrate the performance of the package in solving complex two-phase flow problems, the implemented methods are combined with an existing in-house code to simulate the impact of a water drop on a free surface.(C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

The gVOF package implements accurate and efficient geometric volume of fluid (VOF) methods on arbitrary grids, either structured or unstructured, based on multidimensional unsplit advection and piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC) schemes. It aims to facilitate and extend the use of advanced unsplit geometric VOF methods in computational fluid dynamics codes. The package includes a complete set of routines for VOF initialization, interface reconstruction, and fluid advection, and utilizes external libraries for analytical and geometrical operations. The package demonstrates outstanding performance in terms of efficiency and accuracy compared to other advanced geometric VOF methods.