Computing foaming flows across scales: From breaking waves to microfluidics

Crashing ocean waves, cappuccino froths, and microfluidic bubble crystals are examples of foamy flows. Foamy flows are critical in numerous natural and industrial processes and remain notoriously difficult to compute as they involve coupled, multiscale physical processes. Computations need to resolve the interactions of the bubbles separated by stable thin liquid films. We present the multilayer volume-of-fluid method (Multi-VOF) that advances the state of the art in simulation capabilities of foamy flows. The method introduces a scheme to handle multiple bubbles that do not coalesce. Multi-VOF is verified and validated with experimental results and complemented with open-source software. We demonstrate capturing of crystalline structures of bubbles in realistic microfluidics devices and foamy flows involving tens of thousands of bubbles in a waterfall. The present technique extends the classical volume-of-fluid methodology and allows for large-scale predictive simulations of flows with multiple interfaces.