Stabilized-finite-element/interface-capturing technique for parallel computation of unsteady flows with interfaces

We present the stabilized-finite-element/interface-capturing (SFE/IC) method developed for parallel computation of unsteady flow problems with two-fluid interfaces and free surfaces. The SFE/IC method involves stabilized formulations, an interface-sharpening technique, and the enforcement of global mass conservation for each fluid. The SFE/IC method has been efficiently implemented on the GRAY T3E parallel supercomputer. A number of 2D test problems are presented to demonstrate how the SFE/IC method works and the accuracy it attains. We also show how the SFE/IC method can be very effectively applied to 3D simulation of challenging flow problems, such as two-fluid interfaces in a centrifuge tube and operational stability of a partially filled tanker truck driving over a bump. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.