PREDICTION METHOD FOR MOVEMENTS WITH COLLISIONS OF ARBITRARILY-SHAPED OBJECTS IN 3D FREE-SURFACE FLOWS

Abstract

This paper deals with a computational method for the movements of arbitrarily-shaped solid objects with collisions in three-dimensional free-surface flows. Since the mechanical interactions between objects and free-surface flows are adequately taken into account in the numerical method, no empirical coefficients, like resistance coefficients, are needed. An arbitrarily-shaped object is represented by tetrahedron elements, which are used to calculate its motion and estimate interactions with fluids, while contact-spheres are utilized for collision detections. The prediction method was applied to various experimental results and its validity has been demonstrated.