This paper presents topology optimization of capillary, the typical two-phase flow with immiscible fluids, where the level set method and diffuse-interface model are combined to implement the proposed method. The two-phase flow is described by the diffuse-interface model with essential no slip condition imposed on the wall, where the singularity at the contact line is regularized by the molecular diffusion at the interface between two immiscible fluids. The level set method is utilized to express the fluid and solid phases in the flows and the wall energy at the implicit fluid-solid interface. Based on the variational procedure for the total free energy of two-phase flow, the Cahn-Hilliard equations for the diffuse-interface model are modified for the two-phase flow with implicit boundary expressed by the level set method. Then the topology optimization problem for the two-phase flow is constructed for the cost functional with general formulation. The sensitivity analysis is implemented by using the continuous adjoint method. The level set function is evolved by solving the Hamilton-Jacobian equation, and numerical test is carried out for capillary to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed topology optimization method. It is straightforward to extend this proposed method into the other two-phase flows with two immiscible fluids.

A new sharp interface method with the combination of Ghost Fluid Method (GFM) and Cut Cell scheme is developed to study compressible multi-phase flows with clear interfaces. Straight-line cutting is applied on the cells passed by the interface. A new real-ghost mixing method is presented and applied around the cut cells to deal with very small cut cells. A cut face reconstruction method similar to volume of fluid is applied to deal with topological change problems. A high order Level Set (LS) method is applied to evolve the free interface, with the Level Set velocities from exact Riemann solver on the cut faces. Various 1D and 2D numerical examples are tested to show the robustness and ability of the present method in wide flow variable domains. This method benefits from cut cell on the sharp interface description, shows good conservation performance, and does not have the topological change difficulty of the full cut cell method presented in Chang, Deng & Theofanous, J. Comput. Phys., 242 (2013), pp. 946–990.

The level set method is one of the most successful methods for the simulation of multi-phase flows. To keep the level set function close the signed distance function, the level set function is constantly reinitialized by solving a Hamilton-Jacobi type of equation during the simulation. When the fluid interface intersects with a solid wall, a moving contact line forms and the reinitialization of the level set function requires a boundary condition in certain regions on the wall. In this work, we propose to use the dynamic contact angle, which is extended from the contact line, as the boundary condition for the reinitialization of the level set function. The reinitialization equation and the equation for the normal extension of the dynamic contact angle form a coupled system and are solved simultaneously. The extension equation is solved on the wall and it provides the boundary condition for the reinitialization equation; the level set function provides the directions along which the contact angle is extended from the contact line. The coupled system is solved using the 3rd order TVD Runge-Kutta method and the Godunov scheme. The Godunov scheme automatically identifies the regions where the angle condition needs to be imposed. The numerical method is illustrated by examples in three dimensions.

The static shape of drop under electrowetting actuation is well studied and recent electrowetting theory and experiments confirm that the local contact angle (microscopic angle) is unaffected while the apparent contact angle (macroscopic angle) is characterized by the Lippmann-Young equation. On the other hand, the evolution of the drop motion under electrowetting actuation has received less attention. In this paper, we investigate the motion of a conducting water drop on an electrowetting device (EWD) using the level set method. We derive a contact line two-phase flow model under electrowetting actuation using energy dissipation by generalizing an existing contact line model without the electric field. Our model is consistent with the static electrowetting theory as the dynamic contact angle satisfies the static Young's equation under equilibrium conditions. Our steady state results show that the apparent contact angle predicted by our model satisfies the Lippmann-Young's relation. Our numerical results based on the drop maximum deformation agree with experimental observations and static electrowetting theory. Finally, we show that for drop motion our results are not as good due to the difficulty of computing singular electric field accurately. Nonetheless, they provide useful insights and ameaningful first step towards the understanding of the drop dynamics under electrowetting actuation.

We propose a new semi-implicit level set approach to a class of curvature dependent flows. The method generalizes a recent algorithm proposed for the motion by mean curvature where the interface is updated by solving the Rudin-Osher-Fatemi (ROF) model for image regularization. Our proposal is general enough so that one can easily extend and apply the method to other curvature dependent motions. Since the derivation is based on a semi-implicit time discretization, this suggests that the numerical scheme is stable even using a time-step significantly larger than that of the corresponding explicit method. As an interesting application of the numerical approach, we propose a new variational approach for extracting limit cycles in dynamical systems. The resulting algorithm can automatically detect multiple limit cycles staying inside the initial guess with no condition imposed on the number nor the location of the limit cycles. Further, we also propose in this work an Eulerian approach based on the level set method to test if the limit cycles are stable or unstable.

A method for simulating acoustic wavefronts propagating under random sound speed conditions is presented. The approach applies a level set method to solve the Eikonal equation of high frequency acoustics for surfaces of constant phase, instead of tracing rays. The Lagrangian nature often makes full-field ray solutions difficult to reconstruct. The level set method captures multiple-valued solutions on a fixed grid. It is straightforward to represent other sources of uncertainty in the input data using this model, which has an advantage over Monte Carlo approaches in that it yields an expression for the solution as a function of random variables.

In this article we detail the methodology developed to construct an efficient interface description technique — the robust conservative level set (RCLS) — to simulate multiphase flows on mixed-element unstructured meshes while conserving mass to machine accuracy. The approach is tailored specifically for industry as the three-dimensional unstructured approach allows for the treatment of very complex geometries. In addition, special care has been taken to optimise the trade-off between accuracy and computational cost while maintaining the robustness of the numerical method. This was achieved by solving the transport equations for the liquid volume fraction using a WENO scheme for polyhedral meshes and by adding a flux-limiter algorithm. The performance of the resulting method has been compared against established multiphase numerical methods and its ability to capture the physics of multiphase flows is demonstrated on a range of relevant test cases. Finally, the RCLS method has been applied to the simulation of the primary breakup of a flat liquid sheet of kerosene in co-flowing high-pressure gas. This quasi-DNS/LES computation was performed at relevant aero-engine conditions on a three-dimensional mixed-element unstructured mesh. The numerical results have been validated qualitatively against theoretical predictions and experimental data. In particular, the expected breakup regime was observed in the simulation results. Finally, the computation reproduced faithfully the breakup length predicted by a correlation based on experimental data. This constitutes a first step towards a quantitative validation.

We study the simulation of specular reflection in a level set method implementation for wavefront propagation in high frequency acoustics using WENO spatial operators. To implement WENO efficiently and maintain convergence rate, a rectangular grid is used over the physical space. When the physical domain does not conform to the rectangular grid, appropriate boundary conditions to represent reflection must be derived to apply at grid locations that are not coincident with the reflecting boundary. A related problem is the extraction of the normal vectors to the boundary, which are required to formulate the reflection condition. A separate level set method is applied to pre-compute the boundary normals which are then stored for use in the wavefront method. Two approaches to handling the reflection boundary condition are proposed and studied: one uses an approximation to the boundary location, and the other uses a local reflection principle. The second method is shown to produce superior results.

An algorithm for computing wavefronts, based on the high frequency approximation to the wave equation, is presented. This technique applies the level set method to underwater acoustic wavefront propagation in the time domain. The level set method allows for computation of the acoustic phase function using established numerical techniques to solve a first order transport equation to a desired order of accuracy. Traditional methods for solving the eikonal equation directly on a fixed grid limit one to only the first arrivals, so these approaches are not useful when multi-path propagation is present. Applying the level set model to the problem allows for the time domain computation of the phase function on a fixed grid, without having to restrict to first arrival times. The implementation presented has no restrictions on range dependence or direction of travel, and offers improved efficiency over solving the full wave equation which under the high frequency assumption requires a large number of grid points to resolve the highly oscillatory solutions. Boundary conditions are discussed, and an approach is suggested for producing good results in the presence of boundary reflections. An efficient method to compute the amplitude from the level set method solutions is also presented. Comparisons to analytical solutions are presented where available, and numerical results are validated by comparing results with exact solutions where available, a full wave equation solver, and with wavefronts extracted from ray tracing software.

We apply in this study an area preserving level set method to simulate gas/water interface flow. For the sake of accuracy, the spatial derivative terms in the equations of motion for an incompressible fluid flow are approximated by the fifth-order accurate upwinding combined compact difference (UCCD) scheme. This scheme development employs two coupled equations to calculate the first- and second-order derivative terms in the momentum equations. For accurately predicting the level set value, the interface tracking scheme is also developed to minimize phase error of the first-order derivative term shown in the pure advection equation. For the purpose of retaining the long-term accurate Hamiltonian in the advection equation for the level set function, the time derivative term is discretized by the sixth-order accurate symplectic Runge-Kutta scheme. Also, to keep as a distance function for ensuring the front having a finite thickness for all time, the re-initialization equation is used. For the verification of the optimized UCCD scheme for the pure advection equation, two benchmark problems have been chosen to investigate in this study. The level set method with excellent area conservation property proposed for capturing the interface in incompressible fluid flows is also verified by solving the dam-break, Rayleigh-Taylor instability, two-bubble rising in water, and droplet falling problems.

A new finite element level set method is developed to simulate the interface motion. The normal velocity of the moving interface can depend on both the local geometry, such as the curvature, and the external force such as that due to the flux from both sides of the interface of a material whose concentration is governed by a diffusion equation. The key idea of the method is to use an interface-fitted finite element mesh. Such an approximation of the interface allows an accurate calculation of the solution to the diffusion equation. The interface-fitted mesh is constructed from a base mesh, a uniform finite element mesh, at each time step to explicitly locate the interface and separate regions defined by the interface. Several new level set techniques are developed in the framework of finite element methods. These include a simple finite element method for approximating the curvature, a new method for the extension of normal velocity, and a finite element least-squares method for the reinitialization of level set functions. Application of the method to the classical solidification problem captures the dendrites. The method is also applied to the molecular solvation to determine optimal solute-solvent interfaces of solvation systems.

This paper is devoted to Eulerian models for incompressible fluid-structure systems. These models are primarily derived for computational purposes as they allow to simulate in a rather straightforward way complex 3D systems. We first analyze the level set model of immersed membranes proposed in [Cottet and Maitre, Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci.16 (2006) 415–438]. We in particular show that this model can be interpreted as a generalization of so-called Korteweg fluids. We then extend this model to more generic fluid-structure systems. In this framework, assuming anisotropy, the membrane model appears as a formal limit system when the elastic body width vanishes. We finally provide some numerical experiments which illustrate this claim.

We study variational problems with volume constraints, i.e., with level sets of prescribed measure. We introduce a numerical method to approximate local minimizers and illustrate it with some two-dimensional examples. We demonstrate numerically nonexistence results which had been obtained analytically in previous work. Moreover, we show the existence of discontinuous dependence of global minimizers from the data by using a Γ-limit argument and illustrate this with numerical computations. Finally we construct explicitly local and global minimizers for problems with two volume constraints.

The goal of this paper is to study the so-called worst-case or robustoptimal design problem for minimal compliance. In the context of linear elasticity we seek an optimal shape which minimizes the largest, or worst,compliance when the loads are subject to some unknown perturbations.We first prove that, for a fixed shape, there exists indeed a worst perturbation (possibly non unique) that we characterize as the maximizer of a nonlinear energy. We also propose a stable algorithm tocompute it. Then, in the framework of Hadamard method, wecompute the directional shape derivative of this criterion which isused in a numerical algorithm, based on the level set method,to find optimal shapes that minimize the worst-case compliance.Since this criterion is usually merely directionally differentiable,we introduce a semidefinite programming approach toselect the best descent direction at each step of agradient method. Numerical examples are given in 2-d and 3-d.

A mathematical model of the tumour growth along a blood vessel is proposed. Themodel employs the mixture theory approach to describe a tissue which consists of cells, extracellularmatrix and liquid. The growing tumour tissue is supposed to be surrounded by the hosttissue. Tumours where complete oxydation of glucose prevails are considered. Special attention ispaid to consistent description of oxygen consumption and growth processes based on the energybalance. A finite difference numerical method is proposed. The level set method is used to trackan interface between the tissues. The simulations show localization of the tumour within a limiteddistance from the vessels and constant expansion velocity along the vessels.