Search

In this study, we investigate high-accuracy three-dimensional surface detection in smoothed particle hydrodynamics for free-surface flows. A new geometrical method is first developed to enhance the accuracy of free-surface particle detection in complex flows. This method detects free-surface particles via continuous global scanning inside the sphere of a particle through a cone region whose vertex corresponds to the particle position. The particle is identified as a free-surface particle if there exists a cone region with no neighboring particles. Next, an efficient semi-geometrical method is proposed based on the geometrical method to reduce the computational cost. It consists of finding particles near the free surface via position divergence and then accurately detecting these particles using the geometrical method to identify free-surface particles. The accuracy and robustness of the proposed method are demonstrated by performing tests on several model problems. In particular, the test demonstrating the surface detection of the free surface with periodic perturbations shows that the detection accuracy of the proposed method is improved compared with the traditional methods because the detection capability for concave surfaces is enhanced and the detection accuracy is independent of the estimation of the normal vector of particles. • A new geometrical method is developed to improve the accuracy of free-surface particle detection in complex flows. • An efficient semi-geometrical method is proposed to reduce the computational cost while maintaining detection accuracy. • The accuracy and robustness of the proposed method are illustrated by performing tests on three model problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]