Solving for two phase, incompressible, inviscid flow (OpenFOAM)
 

Hello - I would like to solve for incompressible, inviscid flow (Euler Equations) for two phases (waves, NOT bubbles) in OpenFOAM. I am considering 3 options and I could use some advice on which may produce the best results or what problems I may run into:

1) Simply use interFoam and set viscosity to approximately zero (i.e. 1E-10 or something like this)
2) Write a new solver based on interFoam removing the viscous term in the Navier-Stokes equation
3) Use twoPhaseEulerFoam - although I am reluctant to use this solver since it is more difficult for me to see exactly how the solver is working and it seems to be geared more towards bubbles.

Any advice is appreciated.
Sincerely,
Betsy

As a follow up - does OpenFOAM use Reynolds number to non-dimensionalize the equation? If so, then this would cause problems with setting viscosity to approx. zero.

No, OpenFOAM works with the dimensional equation. Keep in mind that setting the viscosity to zero or something very small will make the problem "stiff", i.e. make it tougher to obtain a stable numerical solution.

I would use interFoam. I have already seen some bachelor/master thesis that successfully simulated waves (i.e. at/around ships).
However writing your own solver might not be such a problem as well, the wiki gives some good hints on how to modify and expand solvers...

Depending on which kind of waves you want to simulate I'd suggest you to have a look into the LTSInterFoam solver which would be of use for semi-static problems.

Dear All,

Please see Eq. 4 in the paper below:

http://www.marinepropulsors.com/proc...0Propulsor.pdf

May I ask you whether in OpenFOAM the same equation including turbulence effects are used for viscosity of two phase flow or only simple averaging from laminar values are employed?

Thanks

Hi Betsy,

Just remove the viscous terms from interFoam, and it is going to work pretty well.