Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Drops in a Shear Flow

In this paper, we present simulation results of two- and three-dimensional motions of drops in a shear flow based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), where a macroscopic fluid flow results from averaging collisions and propagations of mesoscopic particles. The binary fluid model in LBM used here can reproduce two-phase interface in a self-organizing way by repulsive interaction between particles consistent with the van der Waals-Cahn-Hilliard free energy theory. A finite difference scheme is applied to the lattice-Boltzmann equations governing time evolution of velocity distributions of particle number density. When a drop is suspended in an immiscible second liquid with the same mass and viscosity between moving parallel plates, the numerical results of deformation of drop agree with theoretical solutions and previous numerical results obtained by the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method. Breakup motions of drops in LBM are also reasonable in comparison with the critical Reynolds and capillary numbers predicted by the VOF method. In the simulations of two-drop interaction, it is shown that the breakup motion depends on not only number density of drops but also initial positioning of their volumetric center away from a halfway cross section between the plates.