Contact Line Dynamics in Liquid-Vapor Flows Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

A mean-field free-energy lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is applied to simulate moving contact line dynamics. It is found that the common bounceback boundary condition leads to an unphysical velocity at the solid wall in the presence of surface forces. The magnitude of the unphysical velocity is shown proportional to the local force term. The velocity-pressure boundary condition is generalized to solve the problem of the unphysical velocity. The simulation results are compared with three different theories for moving contact lines, including a hydrodynamic theory, a molecular kinetic theory, and a linear cosine law of moving contact angle versus capillary number. It is shown that the current LBM can be used to replace the three theories in handling moving contact line problems.