Phase field modeling and numerical algorithm for two-phase dielectric fluid flows

Abstract

We develop a method for modeling and simulating a class of two-phase flows consisting of two immiscible incompressible dielectric fluids and their interactions with imposed external electric fields in two and three dimensions. We first present a thermodynamically-consistent and reduction-consistent phase field model for two-phase dielectric fluids. The model honors the conservation laws and thermodynamic principles, and has the property that, if only one fluid component is present in the system, the two-phase formulation will exactly reduce to that of the corresponding single-phase system. In particular, this model accommodates an equilibrium solution that is compatible with the zero-velocity requirement based on physics. This property leads to a simpler method for simulating the equilibrium state of two-phase dielectric systems. We further present an efficient numerical algorithm, together with a spectral-element (for two dimensions) or a hybrid Fourier-spectral/spectral-element (for three dimensions) discretization in space, for simulating this class of problems. This algorithm computes different dynamic variables successively in an un-coupled fashion, and involves only coefficient matrices that are time-independent in the resultant linear algebraic systems upon discretization, even when the physical properties (e.g. permittivity, density, viscosity) of the two dielectric fluids are different. This property is crucial and enables us to employ fast Fourier transforms for three-dimensional problems. Ample numerical simulations of two-phase dielectric flows under imposed voltage are presented to demonstrate the performance of the method herein and to compare the simulation results with theoretical models and experimental data.