HI,

Can ALE simulate the breakup of a air bubble (into two or more air bubbles) in water? Thanks!

Doubt it - ALE (just as the moving mesh FVM) moves the mesh to follow the interface. In this setup, you would set up the calculation by meshing the surface and then moving it to conform to the motion of the bubble. I've done a calculation like that with FOAM.

http://www.nabla.co.uk/webMain/webMa...l#bubbleMotion

However, if you want the bubble to break with this technique (surface tracking), the mesh will change the topology (1 interface into 2) so you either need a clever mesher built into your code (working on it!) or a different methodology. in FOAM, we've also done surface capturing, where the problem is solved on a static mesh and the position of the interface is followed using a volume fraction equation. In that case there's no problem with bubble breakup - in fact the predictions were excellent! For examples, have a look at:

http://www.nabla.co.uk/webMain/webMainhe16.html#inkJet

http://www.nabla.co.uk/webMain/webMa....html#damBreak

Hope this helps,

Hrv