Comparison of ALE and FVM approaches for the solution of water entry problem

In this study, the water entry problem of a free-falling sphere impacting the free surface of water is investigated numerically and experimentally. For this purpose, pictures are taken during the release of a sphere toward the free surface using a high speed movie camera. For the numerical simulations, a three dimensional model of an sphere rigid body motion is considered. An Arbitrary Lagrangian- Eulerian (ALE) method is employed for modeling fluid-structure interactions. Through Eulerian–Lagrangian contact, Eulerian material can interact with Lagrangian elements. The simulation results such as air cavity shape and the sphere trajectory are compared with the presented experiment data. Furthermore, capabilities of the ALE method for the simulation of the considering problem is compared with well known finite volume method (FVM).

Keywords:

Water entry , arbitrary Lagrangian- Eulerian (ALE) , impact , jet formation