A conservative correction procedure for Level Set methods in evolving interfaces

Evolving interfaces is a key feature of many practical applications as e.g. pattern dynamics, multi-phase flows, material design, and their approximation raise tremendous interesting numerical issues.

In particular, incompressible two-phase flows require an accurate description of the interface in order to select the proper phase properties and dynamic to consider on each subdomain. Indeed, while the volume of each phase remains constant in time, the interface may develop heavy distortion and change topology across time. There, a small error in the interface location may have dreadful repercussions on the state dynamic (e.g. when vortices are encountered).

Therefore, the designed numerical scheme has to pay a particular attention to the representation of the interface(s) and the description of its motion.

Using an implicit representation of the interface, the Level Set method is a popular technique that allows a complex interface shape and is suited to topology changes in time. However, it is not natively conservative, that is the quantity of each fluid is not preserved as the interface is evolved.

In this talk, we propose a correction technique to the Level Set method that enforces mass conservation while preserving the continuity of each connected component of the interface. Flexible, it can be used in combination with any meshed scheme updating the non-corrected Level Set field.