Wetting/dewetting transition of two-phase flows in nano-corrugated channels

Biferale, L. and Benzi, R. and Sbragaglia, M. and Succi, S. and Toschi, F. (2007) Wetting/dewetting transition of two-phase flows in nano-corrugated channels. Journal of Computer-Aided Materials Design, 14 (3). pp. 447-456. ISSN 0928-1045

PDF
Restricted to UT campus only: Request a copy
412Kb

Abstract:	A lattice version of the Boltzmann kinetic equation for describing multi-phase flows in nano- and micro-corrugated devices is reviewed. To this purpose, the Shan-Chen Lattice Boltzmann model [Phys. Rev. E 47, 1815 (1993)] for non-ideal fluids is extended to the case of confined geometries with hydrophobic properties on the wall. This extended Shan-Chen method is applied for the simulation of the wetting/dewetting transition in the presence of nanoscopic grooves etched on the boundaries. This approach permits to retain the essential supra-molecular details of fluid-solid interactions without surrendering -in fact boosting- the computational efficiency of continuum methods. The method is first validated against the Molecular Dynamics (MD) results of Cottin-Bizonne et al. [Nature Mater. 2, 237 (2003)] and then applied to more complex geometries, hardly accessible to MD simulations. The resulting analysis confirms that surface roughness and capillary effects can promote a sizeable reduction of the flow drag, with a substantial enhancement of the mass flow rates and slip-lengths, which can reach up to the micrometric range for highly hydrophobic surfaces.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2007 Springer
Faculty:	Science and Technology (TNW)
Research Group:	Physics of Fluids (POF)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/74947
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10820-007-9061-1
Export this item as:	BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager

Show download statistics for this publication

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Metis ID: 244194