243	RWTH Publication No: 47163        2004        IGPM243.pdf
TITLE	A Finite Element Based Level Set Method for Two-Phase Incompressible Flows
AUTHORS	Sven Groß, Volker Reichelt, Arnold Reusken
ABSTRACT	We present a method that has been developed for the efficient numerical simulation of two-phase incompressible flows. For capturing the interface between the flows the level set technique is applied. The continuous model consists of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with an advection equation for the level set function. The effect of surface tension is modeled by a localized force term at the interface (so-called continuum surface force approach). For spatial discretization of velocity, pressure and the level set function conforming finite elements on a hierarchy of nested tetrahedral grids are used. In the finite element setting we can apply a special technique to the localized force term, which is based on a partial integration rule for the Laplace-Beltrami operator. Due to this approach the second order derivatives coming from the curvature can be eliminated. For the time discretization we apply a variant of the fractional step θ-scheme. The discrete saddle point problems that occur in each time step are solved using an inexact Uzawa method combined with multigrid techniques. For reparametrization of the level set function a new variant of the Fast Marching method is introduced. A special feature of the solver is that it combines the level set method with finite element discretization, Laplace-Beltrami partial integration, multilevel local refinement and multigrid solution techniques. All these components of the solver are described. Results of numerical experiments are presented.
KEYWORDS
DOI	10.1007/s00791-006-0024-y
PUBLICATION	Computing and visualization in science 9(4), 239-257 (2006)