A level-set continuum method for two-phase flows with insoluble surfactant

  • Authors:

  • Jian-Jun Xu;Yin Yang;John Lowengrub

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, Hunan 411105, China and Hunan Key Lab for Computation and Simulation in Science and Engineering, Xiangtan, Hunan 4 ...;School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, Hunan 411105, China and Hunan Key Lab for Computation and Simulation in Science and Engineering, Xiangtan, Hunan 4 ...;Department of Mathematics, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computational Physics
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

A level-set continuum surface force method is presented to compute two-phase flows with insoluble surfactant. Our method recasts the Navier-Stokes equations for a two-phase flow with insoluble surfactant as ''one-fluid'' formulation. Interfacial transport and interfacial jump conditions are treated using the level-set method and the discrete Dirac function. Based on the density-weighted projection method, a stable semi-implicit scheme is used to decouple the velocity components in solving the regularized Navier-Stokes equations. It allows numerical simulations for a wide range of viscosity ratios and density ratios. Numerical simulations on single drop deformation in a 2D shear flow are presented. Simulations on two drop interaction shows that surfactants can play a critical role in preventing drop coalescence. A fully 3D simulation demonstrating the physical interactions of multiple surfactant-laden drops is presented.