Effect of wetting methods of the pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann model on boiling phenomena

The pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is a promising numerical approach for studying boiling phenomena due to its ability to model bubble nucleation and interfacial dynamics. While several wetting methods have been proposed within the pseudopotential LBM framework, these methods were primarily designed for isothermal multiphase phenomena, limiting their applicability to boiling scenarios that involve complex thermal gradients and dynamic interactions. This study introduces a novel pseudopotential-based wetting method explicitly tailored for boiling phenomena, addressing the limitations of existing approaches. The proposed method is validated against experimental and molecular dynamics (MD) results, demonstrating superior accuracy in reproducing key boiling characteristics, such as onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) temperature trends as a function of contact angle and initial bubble nucleation configurations. Furthermore, the method reduces spurious currents in isothermal cases while providing more accurate predictions of bubble behaviors on hydrophilic surfaces. By bridging the gap between isothermal and non-isothermal wetting methods, this work offers new insights into the relationship between wetting behavior and boiling dynamics, advancing the understanding and simulation of boiling phenomena.