Three-dimensional free surface simulation

A 3D boundary element method with linear triangular element has been developed for the simulation of the free surface subjected to the surface tension force. A liquid droplet and a liquid jet are chosen to be the studying cases for the free surface simulation. The codes include 3D Laplace's solver, grid generation, and free surface module for the calculation of surface normal vector, surface curvature, and tangential velocity. Distortion of a droplet has shown the corresponding mode oscillation by specifying a given order of Legendre function for the initial velocity potential. And, the comparison of computational results and the predicted values from the dispersion equation, which serves as the analytical solution for the growth rate, for the temporal instability analysis on a liquid jet shows a very good agreement. This has shown that the proposed model is capable of the complex 3D liquid jet simulation. (C) 2010 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.