Smoothed particle hydrodynamics modeling of free surface flow

A method for simulating free-surface flow is presented in this paper. The approach is based upon smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). The fully Lagrangian nature of SPH maintains sharp fluid-fluid interfaces without employing high-order advection schemes or explicit interface reconstruction. The SPH code is validated by the benchmark case of the shear driven cavity flow; the SPH results are compared with a grid-based finite difference method and an excellent agreement has been achieved. Using this code, the process of a water droplet impacting and spreading on a solid surface is investigated as an example of free surface flow. © 2006, China Ship Scientific Research Center.