Fast free-surface detection and level-set function definition in SPH solvers

  • Authors:

  • S. Marrone;A. Colagrossi;D. Le Touzé;G. Graziani

  • Affiliations:

  • INSEAN, The Italian Ship Model Basin, Roma, Italy and Department of Mechanics and Aeronautics, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy;INSEAN, The Italian Ship Model Basin, Roma, Italy;Fluid Mechanics Lab., ícole Centrale Nantes/CNRS, Nantes, France;Department of Mechanics and Aeronautics, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computational Physics
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

The present paper proposes a novel algorithm to detect the free-surface in particle simulations, both in two and three dimensions. Since the proposed algorithms are based on SPH interpolations their implementation does not require complex geometrical procedures. Thus the free-surface detection can be easily embedded in SPH solvers, without a significant increase of the CPU time. Throughout this procedure accurate normal vectors to the free-surface are made available. Then it is possible to define a level-set function algorithm which is presented in detail. The latter allows in-depth analyses of three-dimensional free-surface simulations by using standard visualization tools, including internal features of the flow. The algorithms proposed for detecting free-surface particles and defining the level-set function are validated on simple and complex two- and three-dimensional flow simulations. The usefulness of the proposed procedures to post-process and analyze complex flows are illustrated on realistic examples.