Interface tracking with Microscale Topological Surgery for two-dimensional filament breakup

Abstract

We design and implement a Microscale Topological Surgery (MTS) algorithm to detect and enforce topological transitions in two-dimensional tracked interfaces. The method combines classical Lagrangian tracking with an intermittent topological processor that: (i) constructs Eulerian snapshots from which an interface family with microscale-resolved topology is extracted, (ii) infers adjacency topology between dual Lagrangian and Eulerian interface families, and (iii) performs interface surgery to stitch the two families together across microscale defect regions. A novel long-time nonlinear alternating-shear flow is introduced, in which repeated stretching and folding generate rich multiscale interface dynamics with filamentation at microscales. Using the MTS algorithm and a posteriori geometric and material diagnostics, we compute and visualize microscale filament-breakup dynamics. Error analysis and scaling studies demonstrate second-order geometric convergence and optimal computational scaling of the MTS algorithm, with topology-processing costs comparable to those of the underlying Lagrangian evolution. Ensemble simulations generated by pseudo-random perturbations of the flow further reveal coherent droplet size distributions and statistically robust filament-breakup dynamics.