An efficient block parallel AMR method for two phase interfacial flow simulations

Abstract: The direct numerical simulation of two phase interfacial flows can be computationally challenging, as the strong resolution needed to follow the deformations of the interface leads to a lot of time spent solving the whole computation domain. Efficient solution of such problems requires an adaptive mesh refinement capability to concentrate computational effort where it is most needed. In this paper a parallel adaptive algorithm to solve incompressible two-phase flows with surface tension is presented: the AMR is handled with the help of the PARAMESH package. The free interface between fluids is tracked via Level Set approach; the jump conditions at the interface for pressure and velocity are imposed by the Ghost Fluid method. A multigrid preconditioned BiCG-stab solver adapted to the AMR data structure has been developed to allow high density ratio computations (up to 1:1000). Special treatment has been done at the refinement jumps to maintain the fine mesh accuracy. Computational results are compared in different test cases with analytical solutions or literature, and show very good agreement with the references. The effectiveness of PARAMESH parallelization has been quite well maintained, as shown in the strong and weak scaling tests. Speed-up capabilities of the AMR are demonstrated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]