Application of level-set approach to moving interfaces and free surface problems in flow through porous media

The level-set technique introduced by Osher and Sethian has been widely used in Computational Fluid Dynamics problems involving two or more immiscible fluids with sharp interfaces. This paper presents an application of the level-set to unconfined seepage problems where a free surface or a sharp interface exists. It is based on considering the movement of both fluids, introducing a smooth indicator function with a level-set describing the interface position. The proposed method can be applied to other flow in porous media problems involving immiscible fluids, such as oil recovery applications. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.