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IBM/ICM method for interactions between moving bodies and free surfaces
Deng Jian *, Xie Fang-fang, Shao Xue-ming, Yu Zhao-sheng
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
*Email: zjudengjian@zju.edu.cn
ABSTRACT: The IBM/ICM method is developed to
simulate the interactions between moving bodies and free
surfaces. This method is a combination of Immersed Boundary
Method (IBM) and Interface Capture Method (ICM), inheriting
the IBM’s capability of using non-body conformal grids to
represent the effect of a moving body in the flow by only
adding a pseudo body-force in the right side of Navier-Stokes
equations, as well as the capability of ICM, i.e. VOF, to capture
the interface between two immiscible fluids. In the current
paper, the Lagrange-multiplier based IBM method is employed
and the volume of fraction (VOF) is introduced as an indicator
function to mark the different fluids. The numerical method is
validated by the case of high-speed impact by a horizontal
circular cylinder, which exhibits a wide range of dynamical
response characteristics, i.e. the formation of a cavity and
induced pressure waves in the late stages of the cavity collapse,
depending primarily on the projectile’s impact velocity.
KEY WORDS: Immersed Boundary Method; Interface
Capture Method; IBM/ICM Method.
1 INTRODUCTION
Treating complex geometries has been one of the
main challenges in computational fluid dynamics
because most engineering problems have complex
geometries. So far, two traditional techniques have
been developed: using the unstructured grid for finite
volume method or finite element method and the
coordinate transformations and mapping techniques
for finite difference method. The use of coordinate
transformations and mapping techniques is possible
but requires a highly accurate way of calculating the
transformation Jacobians, and even for simple
geometries, generating a good-quality body-conformal
grid can be an iterative process requiring significant
devotion of the time. As the geometry becomes more
complicated, the task of generating an acceptable grid
becomes increasingly difficult. The unstructured grid
approach is inherently better suited for complex
geometries, but here, grid quality can deteriorate with
increasing complexity in the geometry. As an
alternative solution, the non-boundary-fitted method
has become increasingly popular for the solution of
the fluid flow problems in a complex geometry or
with moving boundaries, for example the immersed
boundary method (IBM). The main advantages of this
method are memory and CPU savings and easy grid
generation. Grid complexity and quality are not
significant affected by the complexity of the geometry.
Even moving-boundary problems can be handled with
the immersed-boundary method without regenerating
grids in time, unlike the unstructured grid and
body-fitted grid methods.
The IBM was firstly developed by Peskin[1] to model
the moving boundaries in heart valve simulations.
Then, it was improved and developed by Goldstein et
al. [2], Mohd-Yusof [3], Fadlun et al. [4] and Mittal and
Iaccarino[5]. It is convenient and economical to use the
IBM to simulate the flow field with moving bodies,
since the whole simulations can be carried on an
unchanged Cartesian grid each time step and only a
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body-force term is added to the momentum equation. liquid-gas flow field.

There exist various IBM based methods in the
literature that differ in the way the body-force is 2 NUMERICAL MODEL
calculated. For example, for the elastic-force based
2.1 Fictitious domain formulation
methods[1, 6], the boundary moves with the local fluid
and the body force is explicitly calculated from the The momentum equation for the fluid flow is
displacement or deformation of the boundary (large du
ρf = ∇ ⋅σ (1)
stiffness constant as an approximation to the dt
rigid-boundary problems). For the direct-forcing where ρ f is the fluid density, denoting the mixture
based methods[7-11], the moving body or boundary is density for two-phase flow, u the fluid velocity, and
modeled by a series of Lagrangian points, on which σ the fluid stress. For Newtonian fluid
the body force is defined, and a discrete δ-function is σ = −( p + ρgh)I + 2μD , here p being the fluid
used to interpolate the fluid velocity from the Eulerian pressure, μ the viscosity and D the rate-of-strain
nodes to the Lagrangian points for the calculation of tensor.
the body-force and then to distribute the body-force The motion of the rigid body is governed by
from the Lagrangian points to the Eulerian nodes for Newton’s equation of motion as follows:
the solution of the fluid momentum equation. For the
dU
Lagrange-multiplier based fictitious domain M = F H + Mg ,
dt
[13-14] (2)
method , the body-force is introduced as a d( J ⋅ ω s )
= TH
Lagrange multiplier in a weak formulation, and solved dt
from the boundary condition in an iterative way. There where M, J, U, and ω s are the body mass, moment
also exits another kind of IBMs[15-18], for which the of inertia tensor, translational velocity and angular
body-force is directly defined at the Eulerian nodes velocity, respectively. g is the gravitational
located in the immediate vicinity of the boundary in
acceleration, and ρ s is the solid density. F H and
either the real fluid region or the fictitious domain,
T H are the hydrodynamic force and torque on the
and the target velocities at the forcing points for the
body, respectively, defined by
calculation of the body-force is obtained by
interpolation of the prescribed velocity at the FH = ∫ n ⋅ σ ds ,
boundary and other fluid velocities at the surrounding ∂P
(3)
Eulerian nodes. These methods do not really introduce TH = ∫ r × (n ⋅ σ)ds
a body-force, instead, it accounts for the boundary ∂P

condition by modifying the expressions of differential
operators for the Eulerian nodes in the immediate
vicinity of the boundary.
The IBM/ICM In this paper, following the main idea
proposed in our previous paper[19], the Lagrangian
points are distributed in the moving body to introduce
a pseudo body-force, which enforce the pseudo fluid
inside the body to satisfy the solid body moving
behavior, as well as the non-slip condition on the
surface of the body. The difference between this paper
and our previous papers is that an arbitrary cell based
finite-volume solver are employed, and moreover, the
IBM is extended to treat with moving body in
where n is the unit outward normal on the body
surface and r is the position vector with respect to the
body mass center. The gravity term is generally
considered as a hydrostatic modification to the
pressure, and this additional term can be expressed as
ρgh = ρg ⋅ rs (4)
where r is the position vector with respect to an any
chosen point in the flow field.
The interior of the body is assumed to be filled with
the fluid, liquid or gas, and a pseudo body-force is
introduced over the body inner domain to enforce the
fictitious fluid to satisfy the rigid-body motion
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constraint. The following equations are introduced for ρ = αρ l + (1 − α ) ρ g

the interior of the body: (10)
μ = αμ l + (1 − α ) μ g
du
ρf = ∇ ⋅ σ + λ in P(t ),
dt (5) By introducing the indicator function, the surface
u = U + ω s × r in P(t ) tension at the interface of two fluids can be resolved,
where λ is the pseudo body-force. Integrating and the following term is added to Eq.(1) representing
(5) and r × (5) over the body interior P(t) and the source of momentum due to surface tension.
substituting into Eqs.(3) yields, respectively,
∫S (t )
σκ ′n′δ ( x − x′)dS (11)

ρ f dU It only acts at the interface as indicated by the

F H = − ∫ λdp + M ,
P ρs dt integral of a three-dimensional δ -function over the
(6)
ρ d( J ⋅ ω s ) entire surface of the interface S(t). The other variables
T H = − ∫ r × λdp + f
P ρs dt in this term denote the surface tension coefficient σ
as well the curvature κ and the normal vector n of
Substituting (6) into (3) gives, respectively,
the interface.
⎡ ⎛ ρ f ⎞ du ⎤
⎢⎜ 1 − ⎟ − g ⎥ M = − ∫ λdp, 2.3 The PISO algorithm for transient flows
⎣⎝ ρ s ⎠ dt ⎦
P
(7)
⎛ ρ f ⎞ d( J ⋅ ωs ) The basic PISO solver for N-S equations without
⎜1 − ⎟ = − ∫ r × λdp
ρ s ⎠ dt pseudo body-force involved is described as follows:
⎝ P

(i) The momentum equation is solved first. The exact

For detailed description and non-dimensionlized form
pressure gradient source term is not known at this
of the equations above, one can refer to [19].
stage, where the pressure from the previous time-step
2.2 Interface-capturing methodology is used instead. This stage is called the momentum
predictor. The solution of the momentum equation
The interface-capturing methodology employs the
gives an approximation of the new velocity field.
volume of fraction (VOF) as an indicator function to
(ii) A pressure poisson equation is constructed and
mark the different fluids. The interface is not defined
solved with the predicted velocities. The solution of
as a sharp boundary and a transition region exist
the pressure equation gives the first estimate of the
where the fluid is treated as some mixture of the two
new pressure field. This stage is called the pressure
fluids on each side of the interface. In reality, the
solution.
transition region is a discontinuous step. The indicator
(iii) The velocity field should be corrected as a
function is defined as:
consequence of the new pressure distribution. Velocity
⎧1 in liquid correction is done in an explicit manner in this paper.
⎪
α = ⎨0 < α < 1 in transitional region (8) This is the velocity correction stage.
⎪0 in gas
⎩ 2.4 Solution of the body subproblem
It is associated with each fluid and is hence
The difficulty of the IBM comes from the fact that the
propagated with them as a Lagrangian invariant.
fluid velocity is defined at the Eulerian nodes,
Therefore, it obeys a transport equation of the form:
whereas the solid body needs to be described with the
∂α
+ (u ⋅ ∇)α = 0 (9) Lagrangian nodes that normally does not coincide
∂t with the Eulerian nodes, and consequently it is not
Using the indicator function, the local density ρ and
straightforward how to solve the equations involving
the local viscosity μ of the fluid are expressed as:
both Eulerian and Lagrangian quantities.
In this paper, a systematic interpolation method is
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constructed to transfer the quantity between the

Eulerian and Lagrangian frames accurately, i.e. the
velocity is transferred from the Eulerian nodes to
Lagrangian points and the pseudo body-force is
transferred from the Lagrangian points to the Eulerian
nodes. The detailed description about the interpolation
strategy will be discussed in our future papers, and the
illustration about this two systems are shown in Fig.1,
and as one can see the Lagrangian points are also well
organized as a finite volume grid system. Fig.2 Lift and drag coefficients time history at Re=100 for the
flow around a circular cylinder

Fig.3 Vortex shedding from a circular cylinder at Re=100

3.2 Water entry of a horizontal circular cylinder

In this section, the classical problems of water entry of

Fig.1 Illustration of Eulerian cell and Lagrangian point
3 NUMERICAL RESULTS
3.1 Uniform flow around a circular cylinder
The uniform flow around a circular cylinder is
simulated to demonstrate the accuracy of this method
to predict the hydrodynamics forces on an obstacle
immersed in a single phase flow. For this validation,
Re=100. Lift and drag coefficients are shown in Fig.2,
and the vorticity contours are shown in Fig.3. The
average drag coefficient is 1.449, slightly higher than
the result by Yu and Shao [19], where a value 1.394 was
found, and very close to Peskin’s result of 1.447[6].
Fourier analysis of the fluctuating lift yields a Strouhal
number of 0.176. This value matches well with our
previous numerical result of 0.174 [19].
a horizontal circular cylinder are solved using the
IBM/ICM method presented previously. The results
are compared with model tests. Fig.4 presents one
case of our simulations, the free surface deformation
during water entry of a half-buoyant cylinder is
captured. The Froude number is 0.646 in this case.
The mesh size around the cylinder is 0.05. A initial
time step dt=0.01 and is adjusted according to the
Courant number in the following steps. The falling
velocity of the cylinder is determined by the gravity
and the hydraulic force, as exhibited in Eq.7.
As one can see, after the cylinder reaches the free
surface, two jets are thrown up on both sides of the
cylinder and move away from the cylinder leaving the
upper part of cylinder dry, even when h/R>2, where h
is the submergence of the lowest point on the cylinder
relative to the mean free surface. Obviously the
prediction of the viscous flow separation can be
influenced by the grid size. In the future work,
relatively small grids will be used at the areas of flow
separation and the tiny liquid drops can be captured.
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of China (Nos. 10802075) and the National Key Basic

Research Program of China (No. 2009CB724303).

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The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial
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support from the National Natural Science Foundation
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