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Mobility‐dependent bifurcations in capillarity‐driven two‐phase fluid systems by using a lattice Boltzmann phase‐field model
Author(s) -
Huang J. J.,
Shu C.,
Chew Y. T.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in fluids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1097-0363
pISSN - 0271-2091
DOI - 10.1002/fld.1885
Subject(s) - lattice boltzmann methods , wetting , mechanics , phase (matter) , statistical physics , microfluidics , relaxation (psychology) , field (mathematics) , physics , materials science , thermodynamics , mathematics , psychology , social psychology , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics
Abstract Bifurcations in capillarity‐driven two‐phase fluid systems, due to different mobilities in phase‐field models for such systems, are studied by using a lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Specifically, two‐dimensional (2D) and three‐dimensional (3D) droplets on a flat wall with given wettability variations are investigated. It is found that the mobility controls the rate of diffusive relaxation of the phase field from non‐equilibrium toward equilibrium, and similar to previous findings on mechanically driven two‐phase systems, the mobility is closely related to the contact line velocity. For the cases investigated, different mobilities across a critical value result in fundamentally different system evolution routes and final stable equilibrium states. These results may provide some implications for phase‐field study of droplet manipulations by surface wettability adjustments in microfluidics. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.