A Comparative Study of Interpolation Schemes in Overset Meshes for the PLIC-VOF Method in Multiphase Flows

Abstract

Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation (PLIC) schemes have been extensively employed in the Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method for interface capturing in numerical simulations of multiphase flows. Dynamic overset meshes can be especially useful in applications involving component motions and complex geometric shapes. The basic idea of the overset mesh is the variable field interpolation within the overlapped region between the background and body meshes. The acceptor cell value is evaluated by a weighted average of its donors. The weighting factors are calculated by different algebraic methods, such as the averageValue, injection and inverseDistance schemes, which are implanted in the foam-extend library. A geometric interpolation scheme of the VOF field in overset meshes for the PLIC-VOF method has been proposed in the present study. The VOF value of an acceptor cell is evaluated geometrically with the reconstructed interfaces from the corresponding donor elements. Test cases of advecting liquid columns of different shapes inside a unit square/cube with a prescribed rotational velocity field have been performed to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed overset interpolation scheme by comparing it with three algebraic ones. The proposed scheme has been shown to yield higher accuracy.