Reaction-limited evaporation for the color-gradient lattice Boltzmann model

Area of Science:

• Computational fluid dynamics
• Multiphase flow modeling
• Phase transition phenomena

Background:

• Lattice Boltzmann (LB) models lack intrinsic mechanisms for simulating evaporation.
• Existing diffusion-driven evaporation models can be computationally intensive and numerically unstable.
• Accurate simulation of evaporation is crucial for various industrial and natural processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel reaction-limited evaporation model for the color-gradient LB framework.
• To enable LB simulations of processes involving intrinsic evaporation mechanisms.
• To enhance the applicability of LB methods to complex phase transition phenomena.

Main Methods:

• Developed a reaction-limited evaporation model directly enforcing mass removal at the fluid interface.
• Utilized the color-gradient magnitude within the LB framework to identify evaporation sites efficiently.
• Integrated the model with minimal changes to the core LB algorithm, ensuring numerical stability.

Main Results:

• Achieved high accuracy in simulations, with errors below 5% for unit density ratios.
• Demonstrated robustness across diverse interface geometries and evaporation flux magnitudes.
• Validated the model's performance for varying density contrasts, especially at smaller flux magnitudes.

Conclusions:

• The proposed reaction-limited evaporation model significantly extends the capabilities of the color-gradient LB framework.
• The method offers a computationally efficient and numerically stable approach for simulating evaporation.
• This advancement is applicable to real-world scenarios like droplet evaporation and drying processes.