A three-dimensional lattice gas model for amphiphilic fluid dynamics

Abstract

We describe a three-dimensional hydrodynamic lattice-gas model of amphiphilic fluids. This model of the non-equilibrium properties of oil-water-surfactant systems, which is a non-trivial extension of an earlier two-dimensional realisation due to Boghosian, Coveney and Emerton [Boghosian, Coveney, and Emerton 1996, Proc. Roy. Soc. A 452, 1221-1250], can be studied effectively only when it is implemented using high-performance computing and visualisation techniques. We describe essential aspects of the model's theoretical basis and computer implementation, and report on the phenomenological properties of the model which confirm that it correctly captures binary oil-water and surfactant-water behaviour, as well as the complex phase behaviour of ternary amphiphilic fluids.