Simulation of interfacial deformations for 2D axisymmetric multi-material flows

•A numerical model is developed for interfacial deformations in multi-material flows.•The model can track interfacial structures between liquids in liquid-liquid-gas systems.•Standard test cases are used to show model capabilities for triple-point configurations.•A water drop impact on a pool of silicone oil is studied numerically and experimentally.•Simulations agreed well qualitatively and quantitatively with those of the experiments. A numerical method is developed to model the deformation of interfaces between various materials in a multi-material system. The method involves a new and straightforward interface reconstruction scheme integrated with the volume-of-fluid (VOF) technique capable of addressing triple-point configurations. The developed method can track various interfacial structures between liquids in liquid-liquid-gas systems. First, a few standard test cases are used to demonstrate the capabilities of the numerical scheme and examine its performance. Next, the impact of a water drop onto a pool of silicone oil is simulated. Experiments were also performed to obtain time-resolved images of this phenomenon for comparison and validation purposes. Computer simulations well agree with those of the experiments.