A NEW APPROACH TO MODELING AN UNSTEADY FREE-SURFACE IN BOUNDARY INTEGRAL METHODS WITH APPLICATION TO BUBBLE-STRUCTURE INTERACTIONS

The interaction of transient cavities in fluid flows with rigid bounda ries is investigated numerically. The class of fluid motions considere d here can be described by a velocity potential and a newly-developed fully three-dimensional boundary integral method is employed to comput e the evolution of the free surface. Particular attention is given to the approximation of the surface velocities by radial basis function m ethods, thus avoiding some of the limitations of polynomial approximat ion. The efficiency of the algorithm is demonstrated through computed examples which show the interaction of buoyancy with the Bjerknes effe ct of a rigid boundary for the growth and collapse of transient caviti es in a fluid.