Direct numerical simulation of the self-propelled Janus particle: use of grid-refined fluctuating lattice Boltzmann method

Abstract

The study of the microscopic propelling mechanism of anisotropic Janus particles often involves the analysis of motion at multi-time scale. In this paper, an efficient method is developed for directly simulating the motion of non-equilibrium particles to resolve the issue of requiring large computational resources to simulate the complex multi-time scale motion of Janus particles. We combined fluctuating lattice Boltzmann method and grid-refinement technology to simulate spherical and cylindrical Janus particles, and compared their motion characteristics with experimental results at multi-time scales, which proved that the method is efficient and feasible. This simulation method can also be applied to more complex active particle motion systems.