| Abstract: | A boundary-location method is developed for finite element simulation of steady, two-dimensional flows of Newtonian liquid with free boundaries. In the method, boundary shape and position and the velocity and pressure fields are determined simultaneously. Inertial, viscous, gravitational, and surface tension effects are included in the development. The complete set of nonlinear finite element equations is solved by a modified frontal method combined with Newton-Raphson iteration to speed convergence. The finite element used to illustrate the method approximates the pressure as a piecewise constant function and the velocity and free boundaries as piecewise linear functions. Example calculations for flow from a slit show that the method can be effective. |
