A Stable Semi-Implicit Method for Free Surface Flows

The present work is concerned with a semi-implicit modification of the GENSMAC method for solving the two-dimensional time-dependent incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in primitive variables formulation with a free surface. A projection method is employed to uncouple the velocity components and pressure, thus allowing the solution of each variable separately (a segregated approach). The viscous terms are treated by the implicit backward method in time and a centered second order method in space, and the nonlinear convection terms are explicitly approximated by the high order upwind variable-order nonoscillatory scheme method in space. The boundary conditions at the free surface couple the otherwise segregated velocity and pressure fields. The present work proposes a method that allows the segregated solution of free surface flow problems to be computed by semi-implicit schemes that preserve the stability conditions of the related coupled semi-implicit scheme. The numerical method is applied to both the simulation of free surface and to confined flows. The numerical results demonstrate that the present technique eliminates the parabolic stability restriction required by the original explicit GENSMAC method, and also found in segregated semi-implicit methods with time-lagged boundary conditions. For low Reynolds number flows, the method is robust and very efficient when compared to the original GENSMAC method.