Numerical simulations of jet pinching-off and drop formation using an energetic variational phase-field method

We study the retraction and pinch-off of a liquid filament and the formation of drops by using an energetic variational phase field model, which describes the motion of mixtures of two incompressible fluids. An efficient and accurate numerical scheme is presented and implemented for the coupled nonlinear systems of Navier-Stokes type linear momentum equations and volume preserving Allen-Cahn type phase equations. Detailed numerical simulations for a Newtonian fluid filament falling into another ambient Newtonian fluid are carried out. The dynamical scaling behavior and the pinch-off behavior, as well as the formation of the consequent satellite droplets are investigated. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.