The Local Front Reconstruction Method for direct simulation of two- and three-dimensional multiphase flows

We present a new interface reconstruction technique, the Local Front Reconstruction Method (LFRM), for incompressible multiphase flows. This new method falls in the category of Front Tracking methods but it shares automatic topology handling characteristics of the previously proposed Level Contour Reconstruction Method (LCRM). The LFRM tracks the phase interface explicitly as in Front Tracking but there is no logical connectivity between interface elements thus greatly easing the algorithmic complexity. Topological changes such as interfacial merging or pinch off are dealt with automatically and naturally as in the Level Contour Reconstruction Method. Here the method is described for both two- and three-dimensional flow geometries. The interfacial reconstruction technique in the LFRM differs from that in the LCRM formulation by foregoing using an Eulerian distance field function. Instead, the LFRM uses information from the original interface elements directly to generate the new interface in a mass conservative way thus showing significantly improved local mass conservation. Because the reconstruction procedure is independently carried out in each individual reconstruction cell after an initial localization process, an adaptive reconstruction procedure can be easily implemented to increase the accuracy while at the same time significantly decreasing the computational time required to perform the reconstruction. Several benchmarking tests are performed to validate the improved accuracy and computational efficiency as compared to the LCRM. The results demonstrate superior performance of the LFRM in maintaining detailed interfacial shapes and good local mass conservation especially when using low-resolution Eulerian grids. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.