A fractional two-step finite element formulation for unsteady free surface flow

A numerical algorithm using equal-order linear finite element and fractional two-step method is presented in this paper, which is used for analysis of incompressible viscous fluid flow with free surface problems. In order to avoid severe mesh distortions, ALE method is used for dealing with the free surface sloshing. For numerical integration, the fractional step method is employed, which is useful because the same linear interpolation functions for both velocity and pressure could be carried out in the finite element formulation. The present algorithm has been applied to some examples and proved to be accurate and more efficient.