Lattice-Boltzmann simulations of three-dimensional fluid flow on a desktop computer

The lattice-Boltzmann (LB) method is a cellular automaton approach to simulating fluid flow with many advantages over conventional methods based on the Navier-Stokes equations. It is conceptually simple, amenable to a wide array of boundary conditions, and can be adapted to handle thermal, density, miscibility, and other effects. The LB approach has been used to model a number of fluid systems of interest to analytical chemists, including chromatography columns, micromixers, and electroosmotic pumps. However, widespread use of this tool has been limited, in part because virtually all large-scale 3D simulations in the literature have been executed on supercomputers. This work demonstrates that such simulations can be executed in reasonable periods of time (hours) on a desktop computer using a cross-platform software package that is easy to learn and use. This package incorporates several improvements that enhance the utility of the LB approach, including an algorithm for speeding common calculations by 2 orders of magnitude and a scheme for handling convection-diffusion equations of interest in electrochemical and surface reaction studies.