Lattice Boltzmann model with self-tuning equation of state for multiphase flows

Three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann model with self-tuning equation of state for multiphase flows

In this work, the recent lattice Boltzmann (LB) model with self-tuning equation of state (EOS) [Huang et al., Phys. Rev. E 99, 023303 (2019)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.99.023303] is extended to three dimensions for the simulation of multiphase flows, which is based on the standard three-dimensional 27-velocity lattice and multiple-relaxation-time collision operator. To achieve the self-tuning EOS, the equilibrium moment is devised by introducing a built-in variable, and the collision matrix is improved by introducing some velocity-dependent nondiagonal elements. Meanwhile, the additional cubic terms of velocity in recovering the Newtonian viscous stress are eliminated to enhance the numerical accuracy. For modeling multiphase flows, an attractive pairwise interaction force is introduced to mimic the long-range molecular interaction, and a consistent scheme is proposed to compensate for the ɛ^{3}-order discrete lattice effect. Thermodynamic consistency in a strict sense is established for the multiphase LB model with self-tuning EOS, and the wetting condition is also treated in a thermodynamically consistent manner. As a result, the contact angle, surface tension, and interface thickness can be independently adjusted in the present theoretical framework. Numerical tests are first performed to validate the multiphase LB model with self-tuning EOS and the theoretical analyses of bulk and surface thermodynamics. The collision of equal-sized droplets is then simulated to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the present LB model for multiphase flows.

Equation-of-state-dependent surface free-energy density for wettability in lattice Boltzmann method

In thermodynamic theory, the liquid-vapor fluids can be described by a single multiphase equation of state and the surface wettability is usually characterized by the surface free-energy density. In this work, we propose an equation-of-state-dependent surface free-energy density for the wettability of the liquid-vapor fluids on a solid surface, which can lead to a simple closed-form analytical expression for the contact angle. Meanwhile, the thermodynamically derived equilibrium condition is equivalent to the geometric formulation of the contact angle. To numerically validate the present surface free-energy density, the mesoscopic multiphase lattice Boltzmann model with self-tuning equation of state, which is strictly consistent with thermodynamic theory, is employed, and the two-dimensional wetting condition treatment is extended to the three-dimensional situation with flat and curved surfaces. Two- and three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann simulations of static droplets on flat and curved surfaces are first performed, and the obtained contact angles agree well with the closed-form analytical expression. Then, the three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann simulation of a moving droplet on an inclined wall, which is vertically and sinusoidally oscillated, is carried out. The dynamic contact angles well satisfy the Cox-Voinov law. The droplet movement regimes are consistent with previous experiments and two-dimensional simulations. The dependence of the droplet overall velocity with respect to the dimensionless oscillation strength is also discussed in detail.

Equations of state in multiphase lattice Boltzmann method revisited

The single-component multiphase fluids can be described by a single equation of state (EOS), and various EOSs have been employed in the multiphase lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. In this work, we revisit five commonly used EOSs, including the van der Waals EOS, the Redlich-Kwong EOS, the Redlich-Kwong-Soave EOS, the Peng-Robinson EOS, and the Carnahan-Starling EOS. The recent multiphase LB model with self-tuning EOS is employed because of its thermodynamic consistency in a strict sense and clear physical picture at the microscopic level. First, the way to incorporate these multiphase EOSs is proposed. Two scaling factors are introduced to independently adjust the surface tension and interface thickness, and the lattice sound speed is EOS-dependent to ensure the numerical stability. Then, numerical tests are conducted to validate the incorporations of these EOSs and compare their numerical performances. The surface tension and interface thickness are set to the same values for different EOSs in the comparisons. The liquid and gas densities, surface tension, and interface thickness by the LB simulation agree well with the thermodynamic results. The maximum density ratios achieved with different EOSs are at the same level and could be very close to each other when the interface thickness is relatively small. The effects of multiphase EOS, density ratio, and dimensionless relaxation time on the spurious current are discussed in detail. It is interesting to find the van der Waals EOS shows the best numerical performance in reducing the spurious current.

Analysis and reconstruction of the multiphase lattice Boltzmann flux solver for multiphase flows with large density ratios

The multiphase lattice Boltzmann flux solver (MLBFS) has been proposed to tackle complex geometries with nonuniform meshes. It also has been proven to have good numerical stability for multiphase flows with large density ratios. However, the reason for the good numerical stability of MLBFS at large density ratios has not been well established. The present paper reveals the relation between MLBFS and the macroscopic weakly compressible multiphase model by recovering the macroscopic equations of MLBFS (MEs-MLBFS) with actual numerical dissipation terms. By directly solving MEs-MLBFS, the reconstructed MLBFS (RMLBFS) that involves only macroscopic variables in the computational processes is proposed. The analysis of RMLBFS indicates that by combining the predictor step, the corrector step of MLBFS introduces some numerical dissipation terms which contribute to the good numerical stability of MLBFS. By retaining these numerical dissipation terms, RMLBFS can maintain the numerical stability of MLBFS even at large density ratios.

Mesoscopic Lattice Boltzmann Modeling of the Liquid-Vapor Phase Transition

We develop a mesoscopic lattice Boltzmann model for liquid-vapor phase transition by handling the microscopic molecular interaction. The short-range molecular interaction is incorporated by recovering an equation of state for dense gases, and the long-range molecular interaction is mimicked by introducing a pairwise interaction force. Double distribution functions are employed, with the density distribution function for the mass and momentum conservation laws and an innovative total kinetic energy distribution function for the energy conservation law. The recovered mesomacroscopic governing equations are fully consistent with kinetic theory, and thermodynamic consistency is naturally satisfied.

Improved thermal multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model for liquid-vapor phase change

In this paper, an improved thermal multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) lattice Boltzmann (LB) model is proposed for simulating liquid-vapor phase change. A temperature equation is first derived for liquid-vapor phase change, where the latent heat of vaporization is decoupled with the equation of state. Therefore, the latent heat of vaporization can be arbitrarily specified in practice, which significantly improves the flexibility of the present LB model for liquid-vapor phase change. The Laplacian term of temperature is avoided in the proposed temperature equation and the gradient term of temperature is calculated through a local scheme. To solve the temperature equation accurately and efficiently, an improved MRT LB equation with nondiagonal relaxation matrix is developed. The implicit calculation of the temperature, caused by the source term and encountered in previous works, is avoided by approximating the source term with its value at the previous time step. As demonstrated by numerical tests, the results by the present LB model agree well with analytical results, experimental results, or the results by the finite difference method where the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method is employed to implement the discretization of time.

Lattice Boltzmann simulations of thermal flows beyond the Boussinesq and ideal-gas approximations

In this work, the recent lattice Boltzmann model with self-tuning equation of state (EOS) [R. Huang et al., J. Comput. Phys. 392, 227 (2019)]JCTPAH0021-999110.1016/j.jcp.2019.04.044 is improved in three aspects to simulate the thermal flows beyond the Boussinesq and ideal-gas approximations. First, an improved scheme is proposed to eliminate the additional cubic terms of velocity, which can significantly improve the numerical accuracy. Second, a local scheme is proposed to calculate the density gradient instead of the conventional finite-difference scheme. Third, a scaling factor is introduced into the lattice sound speed, which can be adjusted to effectively enhance numerical stability. The thermal Couette flow of a nonattracting rigid-sphere fluid, which is described by the Carnahan-Starling EOS, is first simulated, and the better performance of the present improvements on the numerical accuracy and stability is demonstrated. As a further application, the turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a supercritical fluid slightly above its critical point, which is described by the van der Waals EOS, is successfully simulated by the present lattice Boltzmann model. The piston effect of the supercritical fluid is successfully captured, which induces a fast and homogeneous increase of the temperature in the bulk region, and the time evolution from the initiation of heating to the final turbulent state is analyzed in detail and divided into five stages.

Force approach for the pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann method

One attractive feature of the original pseudopotential method consists on its simplicity of adding a force dependent on a nearest-neighbor potential function. In order to improve the method, regarding thermodynamic consistency and control of surface tension, different approaches were developed in the literature, such as multirange interactions potential and modified forcing schemes. In this work, a strategy to combine these enhancements with an appropriate interaction force field using only nearest-neighbor interactions is devised, starting from the desired pressure tensor. The final step of our procedure is implementing this external force by using the classical Guo forcing scheme. Numerical tests regarding static and dynamic flow conditions were performed. Static tests showed that current procedure is suitable to control the surface tension and phase densities. Based on thermodynamic principles, it is devised a solution for phase densities in a droplet, which states explicitly dependence on the surface tension and interface curvature. A comparison with numerical results suggest a physical inconsistency in the pseudopotential method. This fact is not commonly discussed in the literature, since most of studies are limited to the Maxwell equal area rule. However, this inconsistency is shown to be dependent on the equation of state (EOS), and its effects can be mitigated by an appropriate choice of Carnahan-Starling EOS parameters. Also, a droplet oscillation test was performed, and the most divergent solution under certain flow conditions deviated 7.5% from the expected analytical result. At the end, a droplet impact test against a solid wall was performed to verify the method stability, and it was possible to reach stable simulation results with density ratio of almost 2400 and Reynolds number of Re=373. The observed results corroborate that the proposed method is able to replicate the desired macroscopic multiphase behavior.

Density gradient calculation in a class of multiphase lattice Boltzmann models

The multiphase lattice Boltzmann (LB) models based on pairwise interactions show great potential for simulating multiphase flows due to the conceptual and computational simplicity. Although the dynamics of multiphase flows are reproduced by the pairwise interaction force, the gradient of density (or effective density, i.e., pseudopotential) is implicitly involved in these models via the specialized forcing scheme or the consistent scheme for ɛ^{3}-order term. This work focuses on the calculation of density gradient in this class of multiphase LB models. Theoretical analyses are first carried out to reveal the involvement and calculation of density gradient. On the basis of a low Mach number approximation, an improved scheme is then proposed to calculate the density gradient for the recent LB model with self-tuning equation of state. Analytical and numerical calculations show that the improved scheme is more accurate and can help to reduce the numerical error when the reduced temperature is relatively low.