Modeling and simulation of the fluid–solid interaction in wetting

Abstract

In this work, a lattice-Boltzmann method based on field mediators is proposed for thesimulation of wetting in a liquid–vapor system. The method includes the effect oflong-range interactions between the particles and solid walls, and is implementedtogether with a liquid–vapor model which is known from the literature. The resultsthat were obtained in the simulations show that the contact angle is stronglydependent on the long-range interactions. The initial formation of a film ahead of themacroscopic bulk liquid is observed below a specific contact angle. When roughsolid surfaces were used, the simulations exhibit the contact angle hysteresis.The spreading dynamics on solid surfaces was studied and showed a considerablediscrepancy from the expected value, which was attributed to the high resolution of thenumerical simulations. It is shown that the initial conditions have a strong influenceon the first steps of the droplet spreading, but they become negligible at longtimes.