The effect of different volume-of-fluid (VOF) methods on energy dissipation in simulations of propagating waves

Spurious energy dissipation in numerical wave simulations due to numerical diffusion is a widely-known problem that can have several causes. The numerical diffusion can be due to the discretisation method used for the governing equations applied inside the flow domain, but can also be due to the numerical implementation of the moving free surface and the boundary conditions applied at the free surface. A technique to model an arbitrary 3D free surface efficiently is the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method. In this paper, the attention is focused on the effect of various VOF methods on spurious wave energy dissipation. For this purpose, we will compare several VOF methods in simulations of propagating waves where strong nonlinear behavior is dominant in the flow. The VOF methods in question are based on two methodologies: Simple Line Interface Calculation (SLIC) and Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation (PLIC). Additionally, a grid convergency study will be performed to better understand the numerical behavior of the methods. In the end, comparisons and discussions will be provided to address how numerical wave energy dissipation can be reduced by implementing more accurate VOF methods.