Piecewise circular interface construction using height functions

Abstract

A piecewise circular interface construction (PCIC) method is described, where height functions based curvature estimates are directly utilised for accurate interface reconstruction under the framework of volume of fluid method. The present work is an attempt to develop a robust and accurate higher order interface reconstruction algorithm that is capable of accurate simulation of surface tension dominated flows. The proposed hybrid method (H-PCIC) is thus able to take advantage of merits of both PCIC and HF methods, achieving at least second order convergence with respect to both interface reconstruction and curvature computation. This is in addition to the significantly superior quality of the reconstructed interface with respect to PLIC methods. This seamless blending of the HF and PCIC quantities is enabled by c0-correction procedures applied to base PLIC and initial PCIC steps. More recent variants of the height function method with variable stencil size are used for calculation of radius of curvature. The capability of this proposed method towards simulation of flow problems within a well-balanced two-phase solver is established with help of multiple complex two-phase flow problems. This validation exercise also demonstrates the capability of PCIC class of methods towards solutions of two-phase flows with intricate physics.