DIFFUSE-INTERFACE METHODS IN FLUID MECHANICS

We review the development of diffuse-interface models of hydrodynamics and their application to a wide variety of interfacial phenomena. These models have been applied successfully to situations in which the physical phenomena of interest have a length scale commensurate with the thickness of the in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of fluid mechanics 1998-01, Vol.30 (1), p.139-165
Main Authors: Anderson, D. M, McFadden, G. B, Wheeler, A. A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
capillarity
critical phenomena
diffuse interface
Exact sciences and technology
Fluid dynamics
Fluid mechanics
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Hydrodynamic stability
Interfacial instability
phase field
Physics
surface tension
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Summary:We review the development of diffuse-interface models of hydrodynamics and their application to a wide variety of interfacial phenomena. These models have been applied successfully to situations in which the physical phenomena of interest have a length scale commensurate with the thickness of the interfacial region (e.g. near-critical interfacial phenomena or small-scale flows such as those occurring near contact lines) and fluid flows involving large interface deformations and/or topological changes (e.g. breakup and coalescence events associated with fluid jets, droplets, and large-deformation waves). We discuss the issues involved in formulating diffuse-interface models for single-component and binary fluids. Recent applications and computations using these models are discussed in each case. Further, we address issues including sharp-interface analyses that relate these models to the classical free-boundary problem, computational approaches to describe interfacial phenomena, and models of fully miscible fluids.
ISSN:0066-4189
1545-4479
DOI:10.1146/annurev.fluid.30.1.139