triSurfaceImmersion: Computing volume fractions and signed distances from triangulated surfaces immersed in unstructured meshes

We propose a numerical method that enables the calculation of volume fractions from triangulated surfaces immersed in unstructured meshes. First, the signed distances are calculated geometrically near the triangulated surface. For this purpose, the computational complexity has been reduced by using an octree space subdivision. Second, an approximate solution of the Laplace equation is used to propagate the inside/outside information from the surface into the solution domain. Finally, volume fractions are computed from the signed distances in the vicinity of the surface. The volume fraction calculation utilizes either geometrical intersections or a polynomial approximation based on signed distances. An adaptive tetrahedral decomposition of polyhedral cells ensures a high absolute accuracy. The proposed method extends the admissible shape of the fluid interface (surface) to triangulated surfaces that can be open or closed, disjoint, and model objects of technical geometrical complexity. Current results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for two-phase flow simulations of wetting phenomena, but the algorithm has broad applicability. For example, the calculation of volume fractions is crucial for achieving numerically stable simulations of surface tension-driven two-phase flows with the unstructured Volume-of-Fluid method. The method is applicable as a discrete phase-indicator model for the unstructured hybrid Level Set/FrontTracking method. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

We propose a numerical method for calculating volume fractions from triangulated surfaces immersed in unstructured meshes. The method utilizes geometric calculations of signed distances and an approximate solution of the Laplace equation. It ensures high absolute accuracy and is applicable to triangulated surface models with technical geometrical complexity.