Computations of compressible multifluids

Recent years have seen a growing interest in developing numerical algorithms for compressible multifluids. Computations ran into unexpected difficulties due to oscillations generated at material interfaces, and understanding of the underlying mechanisms was needed before these oscillations could be circumvented. This paper reviews some of the recent models and numerical algorithms that have been proposed and points to key ideas that they have in common. Noting the known fact that such oscillations do not arise in single-fluid computations. an extremely simple algorithm is proposed which circumvents the oscillations and amounts to computing two different flux functions across material fronts, to update the different fluids on both sides. (C) 2001 Academic Press.