Simulation of floating bodies with the lattice Boltzmann method

This paper is devoted to the simulation of floating rigid bodies in free surface flows. For that, a lattice Boltzmann based model for liquid–gas–solid flows is presented. The approach is built upon previous work for the simulation of liquid–solid particle suspensions on the one hand, and on an interface-capturing technique for liquid–gas free surface flows on the other. The incompressible liquid flow is approximated by a lattice Boltzmann scheme, while the dynamics of the compressible gas are neglected. We show how the particle model and the interface capturing technique can be combined by a novel set of dynamic cell conversion rules. We also evaluate the behaviour of the free surface–particle interaction in simulations. One test case is the rotational stability of non-spherical rigid bodies floating on a plane water surface–a classical hydrostatic problem known from naval architecture. We show the consistency of our method in this kind of flows and obtain convergence towards the ideal solution for the heeling stability of a floating box.