Numerical simulation of wetting phenomena by a meshfree particle method

Abstract

Simulations of wetting phenomena by a meshfree particle method are presented. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are used to model the two-phase flow. The continuous surface force model is used to incorporate the surface tension force. Chorin's projection method is applied to discretize the Navier-Stokes equations. The different fluid phases are identified by assigning different colors and different material properties (density, viscosity) to the particles that remain unchanged throughout a simulation. Two-phase flow is captured by a one-fluid model via using weighted averages of the density and viscosity in a region around the fluid-fluid interface. The differential operators at each particle are computed from the surrounding cloud of particles with the help of the least-squares method. The numerical results are compared with specific analytical solutions, but also with previously considered test cases involving wetting of a container and sessile drops. A good overall agreement is found.