Abstract
By employing a variational principle similar to Hamilton's principle, a finite element solution method for a fairly general class of inviscid, compressible fluid flows with flexible structural interfaces and/or free surfaces was developed in a previous paper. In this study, surface tension effects are added to the existing formulation by including the surface energy. We demonstrate the finite element implementation on test cases with analytical solutions: nonlinear static analyses involving a capillary tube and a droplet on a plane and linear frequency analyses of capillary/gravity waves, jet vibrations, and bubble oscillations. The method for incorporating surface tension is quite general and can be applied to nonlinear transient analyses as well.
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Communicated by S. N. Atluri, 18 October 1993
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Olson, L., Kock, E. A variational approach for modelling surface tension effects in inviscid fluids. Computational Mechanics 14, 140–153 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00350281
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00350281