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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)

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ISSN 2321-6441

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Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

Simulation of Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability


Using VOF Method
Afshin Ahmadi nadooshan1, Ebrahin shirani2
1

Shahrekord university, Shahrekord, Iran

Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran

ABSTRACT
In this article at first, to show the performance of surface tension models (CSF, CSS and SGIP), three-dimensional motionless
bubble of gas in a surrounding fluid with different density and viscosity are studied. Because of good and appropriate
performance of the SGIP model in static case, we used SGIP model for dynamic case. Then, we studied the Kelvin-Helmholtz
instability, which are produced by shear at the interface between two fluids with different physical properties. When surface
tension are considering, we display to develop the Instability for a critic value of the fluids velocity difference. It has pointed
out that we are able to simulate Interfacial flows such as Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability using SGIP model.

Keywords: Interfacial flow; Surface Tension Force; Volume-Of-Fluid; Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability

1. INTRODUCTION
Interfacial flows appear in many natural and practical processes. Applications range from environmental sciences to
nuclear industries. Spreading behavior of pesticide droplets, interfacial instabilities at the atmosphere-ocean interface,
spray cooling, and the formation of droplets in combustion chambers are but a few examples in which the study of
liquid-gas interfaces is important. Numerical methods have begun to be used to simulate the Interfacial flow. The
numerical methods can be divided into two groups depending on the type of grids used: moving grid or fixed grid. Two
important approaches of fixed-grid methods, namely the volume-of-fluid and the level-set approaches, are among the
most commonly used methods. The volume-of-fluid method [1-8], tracks the volume of each fluid in all cells containing
portions of the interface, rather than the interface itself. The VOF method solves a non-diffusive solution of the
advection equation, by a geometrically based calculation technique of the void fraction fluxes at the cell faces based on
the reconstructed interface. Two early approaches are the SLIC algorithm of Noh and Woodward [1] and the volumeof-fluid algorithm of Hirt and Nichols [2], in which the interface is represented by a piecewise-constant line in each
interfacial cell, either vertically or horizontally. A significant improvement of the interface representation was achieved
by Youngs [3] by introducing a piecewise-linear method. The Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation (PLIC) method
approximates the interface by a straight line of arbitrary orientation in each cell. Its orientation is found the distribution
of one of the fluids in the neighbor cell. In this work the VOF-PLIC method has been used for tracking surface. One of
the challenges in numerical simulation of interfacial flows is modeling of the surface tension forces. In PLIC methods
using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) technique, special techniques are developed to calculate the surface tension forces,
which are later converted to a body force. The more commonly used surface tension treatment methods are the
Continuum Surface Force method (CSF) [9-11], the Continuum Surface Stress method (CSS) [12] and Staggered Grid
Interfere Pressure calculation method (SGIP) [13, 14].

2. PROBLEM FORMULATION
We consider the unsteady, laminar and incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. A volume-of-fluid method is used to
capture the fluid interfaces. It is assumed that the velocity field is continuous across the interface, but there is a pressure
jump at the interface due to the presence of the surface tension. The governing equations describing this problem are:
ui
0
xi
F
F
ui
0
t
xi

Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

(1)
(2)

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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)


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Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

ui uiu j
p
2u

Fvst. i 2i gi
t
x j
xi
x j

(3)

where and are the average density and absolute viscosity in a cell, respectively, and they depend on the densities
and viscosities of each fluid at the cell. That is:

2 F ( 1 2 )
2 F ( 1 2 )

(4)
(5)

One of the challenges in numerical simulation of interfacial flows is modeling of the surface tension forces. In PLIC
methods using the VOF technique, special techniques are developed to calculate the surface tension forces, which are
later converted to a body force. One of attempts in this field, were done by Brackbill et al. [9, 10]. This method, which
is called CSF method, reformulates surface tension into an equivalent volume force as follows:

F v st s n

(6)

This body force is added to the momentum equations and so the effect of surface tension is modeled. In this model For
CSF model, Fst is corrected to decrease the intensity of spurious currents by applying a density correction term as
follows [11]:
~ ( x)
Fv st s n n F
[ ]

(7)

where is the difference between the density of the heavier and the lighter fluids. The density correction term (the
fraction in Eq. (7)) is added to reduce the force in the region with lighter fluid in momentum equation. Another model
was presented by Lafaurie et al. in 1999, and is called CSS model [12]. The CSS model, converts the surface tension
force into stress form T which is tangential to the interface. The capillary force can be formulated as [12]:
Fv st .T ( F I

F F
)
F

(8)

Seifollahi et al. [13] presented SGIP model for surface tension force based on VOF-PLIC and directly calculated the
surface tension force at each interfacial cells. In each of the momentum cells, the interface was assumed to be a straight
line, see Fig. (1). The volumetric surface tension force acting on cell i+,j at each staggered variable arrangement for
two-dimensional case is as follows[13]:
Fvxst,i 1 / 2, j

i 1 / 2, j ( L x ,i 1, j L x ,i , j )

(9)

x y

More details about obtaining the values of "L" components can be found in [13].

Figure 1 Interface in a x- momentum cell and interface function Lx


Ahmadi et al. [14] extended SGIP model for three-dimensional flows. In this model, in each of the momentum cells,
the interface is assumed to be a plane surface rather than a straight line, see Fig. (2) for the x-momentum cell. They
replaced the two-dimensional interface lengths Lx,i,j and Lx,i+1,j with the three-dimensional interface surfaces Sx,i,j,k and
Sx,i+1,j,k. The volumetric surface tension force acting on cell i+,j,k at each staggered variable arrangement for threedimensional case as follows:

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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)


Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJME/IIJME.htm
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ISSN 2321-6441

A Publisher for Research Motivation........

Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

st
Fvx
,i1/ 2, j,k

i 1/ 2, j,k (Sx,i 1, j,k Sx,i, j,k )

(10)

Vi1/ 2, j,k

The y- and z- component of the surface tension may be obtained similarly. More details about obtaining the values of
"S" components can be found in [14].

Figure 2 Interface in a x- momentum cell and interface function Sx

3. NUMERICAL METHOD
A computer code is used to simulate the flow. The code is finite volume based and uses SIMPLEC algorithm along with
QUICK method for convective terms. The code which was originally set up for solving single fluid flows was modified
to solve interfacial flows. The VOF_PLIC method was used for interface tracking and the CSF, CSS and SGIP models
were exerted into the code to calculate the surface tension force.

4. RESULTS
Two cases are examined here: (i) a bubble of air in water and (ii) Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability. The first cases are static
tests, in which the bubble, as well as their surrounding fluids is initially at rest. The second case is dynamic cases, in
which the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability is used.
A: STATIC CASE
To show the performance of model, three-dimensional motionless bubble of gas in a surrounding fluid with different
density and viscosity are studied. The gravity effect is neglected. Physically, in the absence of the gravity, the bubble
should remain motionless. Although, physically the bubble should be stationary, numerically some spurious currents
are produced due to the modeling of surface tension force. The spurious currents may cause interface deformation and
the pressure jump may be differed from that of its physical value. To consider static bubble, we used water with density
of 1=998 kg/m3 and viscosity of 1=0.001 N.s/m2, and air with density of 2=1.2 kg/m3 and viscosity of 2=1.8e-5
N.s/m2. The surface tension coefficient is = 0.073 N/m. In this study, the number of grid points is 646464 for the
computational regions and the time step is kept constant and it is chosen such that the stability criterion is satisfied and
the required accuracy is obtained. The spherical bubble with the radius 0.016m is located at the center of a cubic box.
Fig.(3) show the value of pressure jump relative error for three-dimensional bubble after one second using different
models.

Error (%)

70
60

CSF

50

CSS
40

SGIP
CSF with Rho

30
20
10
0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

time(s)

Fig. 3 Time evolution of error for the pressure jump across the interface of a static bubble

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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)


A Publisher for Research Motivation........

Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJME/IIJME.htm


Email: editoriijme@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-6441

The largest error is obtained by CSF model with the density correction; it is 75 percent after one second, while for SGIP
models maximum error is only 8.8 percent. The SGIP model produces more accurate results in calculating the pressure
jumps across the interface for motionless bubble of gas which is generated in surface tension force. Because of good and
appropriate performance of the SGIP model in static case, we used this model for dynamic case.
B: DYNAMIC CASE
The KelvinHelmholtz instability is traditionally viewed as an initial-value problem, wherein wave perturbations of a
two-layer shear flow grow over time into billows and eventually generate vertical mixing. Consider the flow of two
incompressible fluids in two horizontal parallel infinite streams of different velocities U1 and U2 and densities 1
and 2, the faster stream above the other. The horizontal boundary, corresponding to a sharp velocity difference in the
fluid is a shearing layer. In this layer, vorticity is uniform while it is equal to zero. outside of the layer as velocities are
uniform. So a shearing layer appears as a vortex sheet inside an irrotationnal flow. Like what is shown in Fig. (4), an
external perturbation may give an oscillation of the vortex sheet.

t=t0
t=t1
t=t2
t=t3
Fig. 4 Two horizontal parallel infinite streams of different properties
Pressure in concavities is higher than pressure in convexities so the amplitude of the oscillation grows up and the upper
part of the sheet is carried by upper fluid instead the lower part of the sheet is carried by lower fluid. So a tautening of
the front occurs and there is a phenomenon of rolling up of the interface with a direction corresponding to the vorticity
direction of the mixing layer. Hermann von Helmholtz studied the dynamics of two fluids of different densities when a
small disturbance such as a wave is introduced at the boundary connecting the fluids. For some short enough
wavelengths, if surface tension can be ignored, two fluids in parallel motion with different properties will yield an
interface that is unstable for all speeds. The existence of surface tension stabilizes the short wavelength instability
however, and theory then predicts stability until a velocity threshold is reached. For a continuous distribution of density
and velocity, the onset of the KH instability is given by Richardson number (Ri). Typically the layer is unstable for
Ri<0.25. We consider the flow of two fluids in two horizontal parallel infinite streams with different physical
properties. Both fluids are incompressible, laminar and they are immiscible. We consider a rectangle of 2m length and
0.5m height as shown in Fig.(5).

Fig. 5 Initial Geometry and meshes


The edges AB and CD are walls. The edge BC is an outflow and AD is inlet. In order to obtain the Kelvin-Helmholtz
instability, the inlet velocity is defined as a sinusoidal perturbation.
if y 0.25 (1 0.01 sin t )

at x 0 (edge AD) yint erface 0.25 (1 0.01sin t )


if y 0.25 (1 0.01 sin t )

Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

U U1

(11)
U U2

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where is the perturbation angular velocity. The number of grids is 240 grids in the x direction and 60 grids in the y
direction. It is difficult to visualize the Kelvin Helmholtz instability, therefore we choose two fluids with close densities.
The parameters are given in Table (1). It is difficult to visualize the Kelvin Helmholtz instability; therefore we choose
two fluids which have close density.

Fluid Name
Water
Oil

TABLE.1 Physical parameters


Viscosity (Kg/m s)
Density (Kg/m3)
0.001
1000
0.04
800

Surface tension (N/m)


0.07

The maximum velocity of oil is 6.0 m/s and the maximum velocity of water is 2.0 m/s. The evolution of the instability
with the time for SGIP model is demonstrated in Fig. (6).

t=0 s

t=0.25 s

t=0.5 s

t=0.75 s

t=1.0 s
Fig.6 Evolution of the instability in the time with SGIP model
In this simulation, the frequency was 5 Hz, therefore, the vibration angular velocity becomes:

2 f 2 * 3.14* 5 31.4

(12)

And theoretical wave number (k) becomes:

31.4

15.7
U
2

(13)

We discern 5 vortexes in Fig. (6), therefore the wave length becomes 0.4m and numerical wave number becomes:

2 2 * 3.14

15.7

0.4

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Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

For this value of the wave number and the velocity difference, the flow is unstable and the numerical wave number is
equal to theoretical wave number. After modeling Kelvin Helmholtz instability, we monitor the effect of velocity
difference on stability or instability of this flow. The density contour with SGIP model at 2s demonstrated in Fig. (7) for
various velocity difference. In the case (a) in Fig. (7), U is equal to 4 m/s and theoretical wave number becomes:

31.4

7.85
U
4

In the case (a), we discern 2.5 vortexes in Fig. (7), therefore the wave length becomes 0.8m and the numerical wave
number becomes:

2 2 * 3.14

7.85

0.8

Case (a)

Case (b)

Case (c)

a) k=7.85375 (Unstable)

Case (d)
b) k=12.566 (Unstable)
c) k=15.7075 (Unstable)

d) k=78.5375 (Stable)

Fig. 7 The shape of instability with SGIP model at 2s for various velocity difference (f=5Hz)
For this value of the wave number and the velocity difference, the flow is unstable and the numerical wave number is
equal to theoretical wave number. Table (2) shows theoretical wave number, number of vortex, wave length and
numerical wave number which are used for evaluating performance of the SGIP model for various velocity difference.

Case
U=U1-U2 (m/s)

TABLE.2 Kelvin Helmholtz instability Parameters


a
b
8
5

)
U

c
4

d
0.8

7.85375

12.566

15.7075

78.5375

Number of vortices

2.5

wave length (m)

0.8

0.5

0.4

0.08

7.85375

12.566

15.7075

Theoretical wave number

Numerical wave number

(k

(k

2
)

In this case (c), we can see that the flow seems to be stable. Theoretical wave number in this case becomes:

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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)


Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJME/IIJME.htm
Email: editoriijme@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-6441

A Publisher for Research Motivation........

Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

31.4

78.5
U 0.4

Therefore the wave length becomes:

2 2 * 3.14

0.08
k
7.85

In the case (c), we must discern 25 vortexes, but it is difficult to discern.

5. CONCLUSION
In this article at first, various models of surface tension force for interfacial flows were applied to static case and the
results were compared. To show the performance of surface tension models, three-dimensional motionless bubble of gas
in a surrounding fluid with different density and viscosity are studied. Because of good and appropriate performance of
the SGIP model in static case, we used SGIP model for dynamic case. Then, we studied the Kelvin-Helmholtz
instabilities as dynamic case, which are produced by shear at the interface between two fluids with different physical
properties. When gravity and surface tension are considering, we display to develop the Instability for a critic value of
the fluids velocity difference. It has pointed out that we are able to simulate Interfacial flows such as Kelvin-Helmholtz
Instability using SGIP model.

REFRENCES
[1] Noh, W.F. and Woodward, P.R., "Slic (simple line interface method)", in Lecture Notes in Physics, 59, 1976.
[2] Hirt, C.W. and Nichols, B.D., "Volume of fluid method for the dynamics of free boundaries", J.Comp.Phys.,201225,1981.
[3] Youngs, D.L. Time-dependent multi-material flow with large fluid distribution, in Numerical methods for fluid
dynamics, Morton and Norman,Editor,187-221,1996
[4] Ashgriz, N and Poo, J.Y., FLAIR: Flux Line-segment model for advection and interface reconstruction. J. Comp.
Phys. , 93,449-468, 1991.
[5] Rider, W.J. and Kothe D.B., Reconstruction volume tracking, J. Comp. Phys., 14, 112, 1998.
[6] Pilliod J.E. and E.G. Puckett, Second-order accurate volume-of-fluid algorithms for tracking material interfaces,
Lawrence Berkley Lab. Tech. Report, No.LBNL-40744, 1997.
[7] S.W.J. Welch, T. Rachidi, Numerical computation of .lm boiling including conjugated heat transfer, Numer. Heat
Transfer, Part B 42 (2002) 3553.
[8] D.K. Agarwal, S.W.J. Welch, G. Biswas, F. Durst, Planar simulation of bubble growth in .lm boiling in nearcritical water using a variant of the VOF method, J. Heat Transfer, 126 (2004) 329338.
[9] D. Jamet, D. Torres, J.U. Brackbill, On the theory and computation of surface tension: the elimination of parasitic
currents through energy conservation in the second-gradient method, J. Comp. Phys., 2002, 262276.
[10] J.U. Brackbill, D.B. Kothe, C. Zemach, A continuum method for modeling surface tension, J. Comp. Phys.,1992,
335354.
[11] Kothe, D.B., W.J. Rider, S.J. Mosso, and J.S. Brock, Volume tracking of interfaces having surface tension in two
and three dimensions AIAA 96-0859, 1996.
[12] B. Lafaurie, C. Nardone, R. Scardovelli, S. Zaleski, G. Zanetti, Modeling merging and fragmentation in
multiphase flows with SURFER, J. Comp. Phys. 113 (1994) 134147.
[13] Seifollahi, M., Shirani, E. and Ashgriz, N., An Improved Method for Calculation of Interface Pressure Force in
PLIC-VOF Methods, European Journal of Mechanics- B/Fluids, 27, 1-23, 2008.
[14] Ahmadi Nadooshan, A. and Shirani, E., Interface Pressure Model for Surface Tension Force for VOF-Based
Methods in Interfacial Flows, Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics Vol. 2, No. 4, pp.
496513 (2008)

Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)


A Publisher for Research Motivation........

Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2015

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJME/IIJME.htm


Email: editoriijme@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-6441

AUTHOR
Afshin Ahmadi Nadooshan received his PHD degree in Mechanic/Thermo-Fluid from Isfahan
University of Technology (Isfahan, Iran) in 2007. His current research interest includes Fluid mechanic
(Computational Fluid Dynamic).

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