3D level set methods for evolving fronts on tetrahedral meshes with adaptive mesh refinement

Journal Article · Mon May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Computational Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2017.02.030· OSTI ID:1345425

Morgan, Nathaniel R.; Waltz, Jacob I.

The level set method is commonly used to model dynamically evolving fronts and interfaces. In this work, we present new methods for evolving fronts with a specified velocity field or in the surface normal direction on 3D unstructured tetrahedral meshes with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). The level set field is located at the nodes of the tetrahedral cells and is evolved using new upwind discretizations of Hamilton–Jacobi equations combined with a Runge–Kutta method for temporal integration. The level set field is periodically reinitialized to a signed distance function using an iterative approach with a new upwind gradient. We discuss the details of these level set and reinitialization methods. Results from a range of numerical test problems are presented.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1345425
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1345928
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-15-28711; S0021999117301237; PII: S0021999117301237
• Journal Information: Journal of Computational Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Computational Physics Vol. 336 Journal Issue: C; ISSN 0021-9991
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
Numerical methods