Karl Yngve Lervåg

A robust method for calculating interface curvature and normal vectors using an extracted local level set

The level-set method is a popular interface tracking method in two-phase flow simulations. An often-cited reason for using it is that the method naturally handles topological changes in the interface, e.g. merging drops, due to the implicit formulation. It is also said that the interface curvature and normal vectors are easily calculated. This last point is not, however, the case in the moments during a topological change, as several authors have already pointed out. Various methods have been employed to circumvent the problem. In this paper, we present a new such method which retains the implicit level-set representation of the surface and handles general interface configurations. It is demonstrated that the method extends easily to 3D. The method is validated on static interface configurations, and then applied to two-phase flow simulations where the method outperforms the standard method and the results agree well with experiments.

Analysis of the diffuse-domain method for solving PDEs in complex geometries

In recent work, Li et al.\ (Comm.\ Math.\ Sci., 7:81-107, 2009) developed a diffuse-domain method (DDM) for solving partial differential equations in complex, dynamic geometries with Dirichlet, Neumann, and Robin boundary conditions. The diffuse-domain method uses an implicit representation of the geometry where the sharp boundary is replaced by a diffuse layer with thickness

A multi-phase ferrofluid flow model with equation of state for thermomagnetic pumping and heat transfer

\epsilon

Curvature Calculations for the Level-Set Method

that is typically proportional to the minimum grid size. The original equations are reformulated on a larger regular domain and the boundary conditions are incorporated via singular source terms. The resulting equations can be solved with standard finite difference and finite element software packages. Here, we present a matched asymptotic analysis of general diffuse-domain methods for Neumann and Robin boundary conditions. Our analysis shows that for certain choices of the boundary condition approximations, the DDM is second-order accurate in

Computation of three-dimensional three-phase flow of carbon dioxide using a high-order WENO scheme

\epsilon

Sharp interface simulations of surfactant-covered drops in electric fields

. However, for other choices the DDM is only first-order accurate. This helps to explain why the choice of boundary-condition approximation is important for rapid global convergence and high accuracy. Our analysis also suggests correction terms that may be added to yield more accurate diffuse-domain methods. Simple modifications of first-order boundary condition approximations are proposed to achieve asymptotically second-order accurate schemes. Our analytic results are confirmed numerically in the

CO2 Capture from Off-shore Gas Turbines Using Supersonic Gas Separation☆

L^2

Calculation of interface curvature with the level-set method

and

Calculation of the interface curvature and normal vector with the level-set method

L^\infty

Potential of enhancing a natural convection loop with a thermomagnetically pumped ferrofluid

norms for selected test problems.