Hybrid lattice Boltzmann finite difference model for simulation of phase change in a ternary fluid

In this paper, a hybrid lattice Boltzmann finite difference model based on the phase-field lattice Boltzmann and finite difference approaches is proposed to model phase-change phenomena in a ternary system. The system contains three immiscible incompressible fluids and the phase-change process happens at the interfaces of the fluids. Three distribution functions are used in the model; two of which are used to track the interfaces among three fluids and the other one is employed to recover the hydrodynamic properties (pressure and momentum). A sharp-interface energy equation is solved based on a finite difference approach and the net heat flux at the interface is considered as the driving force for the phase-change process. The proposed model is validated against available results and good agreement is found. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.