A Volume-conservative PLIC algorithm on three-dimensional fully unstructured meshes

Ito, Kei; Kunugi, Tomoaki*; Ohshima, Hiroyuki; Kawamura, Takumi*

The PLIC (Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation) algorithm is one of the volume-of-fluid algorithms. However, the PLIC algorithm needs complicated geometrical calculations for the reconstructions of the interfaces in interfacial cells, and therefore, the PLIC algorithm on unstructured meshes have not been studied enough. In this paper, the authors propose a new PLIC algorithm on unstructured meshes with arbitrary-shaped cells. In the proposed PLIC algorithm, several methods are developed or implemented. In addition, the volume fraction transport is improved by developing a volume-conservative algorithm in which gas and liquid volumes are conserved perfectly during the transport. As a result of the verification and validation tests, it is confirmed that the proposed PLIC algorithm enables the numerical simulations of interfacial dynamic behaviors with high accuracy even on unstructured meshes with highly-irregular cell arrangement.