ComFLOW home page


ComFLOW is a simulation method for free-surface flow in terrestrial and micro-gravity environments. The latter is the maiden application of the method (formerly known as ComFlo). It models viscous two-phase flow (incompressibleliquid, compressible gas) in and around arbitrary geometries. Effects of capillarity are included. Also liquid-solid body interaction is included in ComFLOW.

A major application area -- in cooperation with TU Delft, MARIN, FORCE Technology, Deltares and several offshore related companies -- concerns the prediction of hydrodynamic wave loading on ships and offshore platforms. For validation purposes, at MARIN a series of experiments is carried out: green water on deck (dambreak), CALM buoy, moonpools, falling life boats, etc. Details about the dambreak experiments can be found here.





speedboats

A former application area (in cooperation with NLR) concerns spacecraft dynamics as influenced by onboard liquids. Validation experiments have been carried out in February 2005 with the bespoke Sloshsat FLEVO spacecraft. A short overview of this early space history of the development of ComFLOW (originally called Comflo) can be found on its space-history page .



As a side-line spin-off project, a version has been developed to model hemodynamics in elastic arteries.

A detailed description of the mathematical and numerical modelling inside ComFLOW can be found in the PhD theses of Jeroen Gerrits (December 2001), Erwin Loots (May 2003), Geert Fekken (March 2004), Theresa Kleefsman (November 2005), Rik Wemmenhove (May 2008), Peter Wellens (Jan 2012, TU Delft), Bülent Düz (September 2015, TU Delft), Peter van der Plas (March 2017), Henri van der Heiden (March 2019), Xing Chang (May 2021, TU Delft) and Ronald Remmerswaal (January 2023).

Some ComFLOW animations of free-surface flow can be found at our CFD gallery.

A historic account of our cooperation with the space and offshore industry can be found in this document.

A powerpoint presentation with an overview of the status of ComFLOW in 2019 can be found here.

The NWO website contains the close-out interview on the ComMotion project.

Literature on ComFLOW and its applications


Many animations of free-surface flow can be found at our CFD gallery


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