Well-balanced kinetic schemes for two-phase flows

At equilibrium state of a two-phase fluid system, the chemical potential is constant and the velocity vanishes. However, such equilibrium state usually cannot be captured by numerical methods due to discretization errors. Consequently, inconsistent thermodynamic interfacial properties due to non-constant chemical potential, and spurious velocities due to discrete force imbalance, are frequently encountered in numerical simulations. Therefore, numerical schemes with well-balanced properties, which can capture the equilibrium state at discrete level, are preferred for simulating two-phase flows. In this paper, we report the progress of developing well-balanced mesoscopic numerical methods based on kinetic theory, focusing on the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) method and the discrete unified gas-kinetic scheme (DUGKS). First, the discrete balance property of a free-energy LBE for single-component two-phase flows is analyzed to identify the structure of force imbalance. Then, a well-balanced LBE (WB-LBE) model which has the same algorithm structure as the standard one is reviewed. The WB-LBE is theoretically shown to be able to achieve the discrete equilibrium state, and the well-balance properties are confirmed numerically. Some extensions to other two-phase LBE models are discussed with enhanced numerical stability. The well-balanced DUGKS, which can use non-uniform meshes and exhibits better numerical stability for large density ratio systems is also reported.

Automated summary

At the equilibrium state of a two-phase fluid system, the chemical potential is constant and the velocity is zero. However, it is challenging to capture this equilibrium state accurately in numerical simulations, resulting in inconsistent thermodynamic interfacial properties and spurious velocities. Therefore, numerical schemes with well-balanced properties are preferred for simulating two-phase flows.