Phase-Field Model-Based Simulation of Motions of a Two-Phase Fluid on Solid Surface

Abstract

A preliminary numerical simulation of the microscopic two-phase fluid motion on a solid surface was conducted using an interface-tracking method based on the phase-field model (PFM). Two variations of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) based on fictitious particle kinematics are proposed for solving diffuse-interface advection equations which were revised to improve volume-of-fluid conservation in the PFM simulations. The major findings are as follows: (1) the interface-tracking method accurately predicted the capillary force effect on dynamic two-phase fluid systems with a high density ratio between parallel plates; (2) the initial shape and volume of the two-phase fluid were retained adequately in linear translation with the use of the LBMs. These results proved that the PFM-based method and the LBM-based advection schemes can be used for simulating two-phase fluid motions in various macroand microfluidics problems for devices, machineries and higher-throughput microdevice fabrication processes.