Volume-Of-Fluid advection

We want to approximate the solution of the advection equations tci+ufci=0 where ci are volume fraction fields describing sharp interfaces.

This can be done using a conservative, non-diffusive geometric VOF scheme.

We also add the option to transport diffusive tracers confined to one side of the interface i.e. solve the equations tti,j+(ufti,j)=0 with ti,j=cifj (or ti,j=(1ci)fj) and fj is a volumetric tracer concentration.

The list of tracers associated with the volume fraction is stored in the tracers attribute. For each tracer, the “side” of the interface (i.e. either c or 1c) is controlled by the inverse attribute).

attribute {
  scalar * tracers;
  bool inverse;

We will need basic functions for volume fraction computations.

#include "fractions.h"

The list of volume fraction fields interfaces, will be provided by the user.

The face velocity field uf will be defined by a solver as well as the timestep.

extern scalar * interfaces;
extern face vector uf;
extern double dt;

On trees, we need to setup the appropriate prolongation and refinement functions for the volume fraction fields.

event defaults (i = 0)
#if TREE
  for (scalar c in interfaces)
    c.refine = c.prolongation = fraction_refine;

We need to make sure that the CFL is smaller than 0.5 to ensure stability of the VOF scheme.

event stability (i++) {
  if (CFL > 0.5)
    CFL = 0.5;

One-dimensional advection

The simplest way to implement a multi-dimensional VOF advection scheme is to use dimension-splitting i.e. advect the field along each dimension successively using a one-dimensional scheme.

We implement the one-dimensional scheme along the x-dimension and use the foreach_dimension() operator to automatically derive the corresponding functions along the other dimensions.

static void sweep_x (scalar c, scalar cc)
  vector n[];
  scalar α[], flux[];
  double cfl = 0.;

If we are also transporting tracers associated with c, we need to compute their gradient i.e. xfj=x(tj/c) or xfj=x(tj/(1c)) (for higher-order upwinding) and we need to store the computed fluxes. We first allocate the corresponding lists.

  scalar * tracers = c.tracers, * gfl = NULL, * tfluxl = NULL;
  if (tracers) {
    for (scalar t in tracers) {
      scalar gf = new scalar, flux = new scalar;
      gfl = list_append (gfl, gf);
      tfluxl = list_append (tfluxl, flux);

The gradient is computed using a standard three-point scheme if we are far enough from the interface (as controlled by cmin), otherwise a two-point scheme biased away from the interface is used.

    foreach() {
      scalar t, gf;
      for (t,gf in tracers,gfl) {
	double cl = c[-1], cc = c[], cr = c[1];
	if (t.inverse)
	  cl = 1. - cl, cc = 1. - cc, cr = 1. - cr;
	gf[] = 0.;
	static const double cmin = 0.5;
	if (cc >= cmin) {
	  if (cr >= cmin) {
	    if (cl >= cmin) {
	      if (t.gradient)
		gf[] = t.gradient (t[-1]/cl, t[]/cc, t[1]/cr)/Δ;
		gf[] = (t[1]/cr - t[-1]/cl)/(2.*Δ);
	       gf[] = (t[1]/cr - t[]/cc)/Δ;
	  else if (cl >= cmin)
	    gf[] = (t[]/cc - t[-1]/cl)/Δ;
    boundary (gfl);

We reconstruct the interface normal n and the intercept α for each cell. Then we go through each (vertical) face of the grid.

  reconstruction (c, n, α);

  foreach_face(x, reduction (max:cfl)) {

To compute the volume fraction flux, we check the sign of the velocity component normal to the face and compute the index i of the corresponding upwind cell (either 0 or -1).

    double un = uf.x[]*dt/(Δ*fm.x[]), s = sign(un);
    int i = -(s + 1.)/2.;

We also check that we are not violating the CFL condition.

    if (un*fm.x[]*s/cm[] > cfl)
      cfl = un*fm.x[]*s/cm[];

If we assume that un is negative i.e. s is -1 and i is 0, the volume fraction flux through the face of the cell is given by the dark area in the figure below. The corresponding volume fraction can be computed using the rectangle_fraction() function.

Volume fraction flux

Volume fraction flux

When the upwind cell is entirely full or empty we can avoid this computation.

    double cf = (c[i] <= 0. || c[i] >= 1.) ? c[i] :
      rectangle_fraction ((coord){-s*n.x[i], n.y[i], n.z[i]}, α[i],
			  (coord){-0.5, -0.5, -0.5},
			  (coord){s*un - 0.5, 0.5, 0.5});

Once we have the upwind volume fraction cf, the volume fraction flux through the face is simply:

    flux[] = cf*uf.x[];

If we are transporting tracers, we compute their flux using the upwind volume fraction cf and a tracer value upwinded using the Bell–Collela–Glaz scheme and the gradient computed above.

    scalar t, gf, tflux;
    for (t,gf,tflux in tracers,gfl,tfluxl) {
      double cf1 = cf, ci = c[i];
      if (t.inverse)
	cf1 = 1. - cf1, ci = 1. - ci;
      if (ci > 1e-10) {
	double ff = t[i]/ci + s*min(1., 1. - s*un)*gf[i]*Δ/2.;
	tflux[] = ff*cf1*uf.x[];
	tflux[] = 0.;
  delete (gfl); free (gfl);

On tree grids, we need to make sure that the fluxes match at fine/coarse cell boundaries i.e. we need to restrict the fluxes from fine cells to coarse cells. This is what is usually done, for all dimensions, by the boundary_flux() function. Here, we only need to do it for a single dimension (x).

#if TREE
  scalar * fluxl = list_concat (NULL, tfluxl);
  fluxl = list_append (fluxl, flux);
  for (int l = depth() - 1; l >= 0; l--)
    foreach_halo (prolongation, l) {
#if dimension == 1
      if (is_refined (neighbor(-1)))
	for (scalar fl in fluxl)
	  fl[] = fine(fl);
      if (is_refined (neighbor(1)))
	for (scalar fl in fluxl)
	  fl[1] = fine(fl,2);
#elif dimension == 2
      if (is_refined (neighbor(-1)))
	for (scalar fl in fluxl)
	  fl[] = (fine(fl,0,0) + fine(fl,0,1))/2.;
      if (is_refined (neighbor(1)))
	for (scalar fl in fluxl)
	  fl[1] = (fine(fl,2,0) + fine(fl,2,1))/2.;
#else // dimension == 3
      if (is_refined (neighbor(-1)))
	for (scalar fl in fluxl)
	  fl[] = (fine(fl,0,0,0) + fine(fl,0,1,0) +
		  fine(fl,0,0,1) + fine(fl,0,1,1))/4.;
      if (is_refined (neighbor(1)))
	for (scalar fl in fluxl)
	  fl[1] = (fine(fl,2,0,0) + fine(fl,2,1,0) +
		   fine(fl,2,0,1) + fine(fl,2,1,1))/4.;
  free (fluxl);

We warn the user if the CFL condition has been violated.

  if (cfl > 0.5 + 1e-6)
    fprintf (ferr, 
	     "WARNING: CFL must be <= 0.5 for VOF (cfl - 0.5 = %g)\n", 
	     cfl - 0.5), fflush (ferr);

Once we have computed the fluxes on all faces, we can update the volume fraction field according to the one-dimensional advection equation tc=x(ufc)+cxuf The first term is computed using the fluxes. The second term – which is non-zero for the one-dimensional velocity field – is approximated using a centered volume fraction field cc which will be defined below.

For tracers, the one-dimensional update is simply ttj=x(uftj)

  foreach() {
    c[] += dt*(flux[] - flux[1] + cc[]*(uf.x[1] - uf.x[]))/(cm[]*Δ);
    scalar t, tflux;
    for (t, tflux in tracers, tfluxl)
      t[] += dt*(tflux[] - tflux[1])/(cm[]*Δ);
  boundary ({c});
  boundary (tracers);

  delete (tfluxl); free (tfluxl);

Multi-dimensional advection

The multi-dimensional advection is performed by the event below.

void vof_advection (scalar * interfaces, int i)
  for (scalar c in interfaces) {

We first define the volume fraction field used to compute the divergent term in the one-dimensional advection equation above. We follow Weymouth & Yue, 2010 and use a step function which guarantees exact mass conservation for the multi-dimensional advection scheme (provided the advection velocity field is exactly non-divergent).

    scalar cc[];
      cc[] = (c[] > 0.5);

We then apply the one-dimensional advection scheme along each dimension. To try to minimise phase errors, we alternate dimensions according to the parity of the iteration index i.

    void (* sweep[dimension]) (scalar, scalar);
    int d = 0;
      sweep[d++] = sweep_x;
    boundary ({c});
    for (d = 0; d < dimension; d++)
      sweep[(i + d) % dimension] (c, cc);

event vof (i++)
  vof_advection (interfaces, i);