Spectral element lattice Boltzmann method for non-ideal gases with partial wetting boundary condition
Abstract
We present a spectral element lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for partial wetting on curved geometries. A non-ideal gas phase-field model is incorporated into the LBM framework to enable phase separation with a constant interface thickness and the potential form of surface tension force is used. We adopt the force-splitting approach, yielding significantly improved stability and accuracy. Complex boundaries are naturally handled using a flux bounce-back scheme, which resolves inconsistencies in normal vectors across adjacent elements. Additionally, a general wetting boundary condition is implemented to capture static contact line in a thermodynamically consistent manner. The method is validated through simulations of droplets on flat surfaces, 2/3-dimensional curved surfaces, and equilibrium droplets without boundaries. Results demonstrate that parasitic currents are significantly reduced on unstructured meshes with complex geometries, reaching residual kinetic energy levels on the order of 10−24 for wetting configurations and 10−30 for isolated droplets.
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BibTeX
@misc{zhao2026spectral,
title = {{Spectral element lattice Boltzmann method for non-ideal gases with partial wetting boundary condition}},
author = {Chunheng Zhao and Saumil Patel and Taehun Lee},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.00535},
eprint = {2609.00535},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00535},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Spectral element lattice Boltzmann method for non-ideal gases with partial wetting boundary condition
AU - Chunheng Zhao
AU - Saumil Patel
AU - Taehun Lee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.00535
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00535
AB - We present a spectral element lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for partial wetting on curved geometries. A non-ideal gas phase-field model is incorporated into the LBM framework to enable phase separation with a constant interface thickness and the potential form of surface tension force is used. We adopt the force-splitting approach, yielding significantly improved stability and accuracy. Complex boundaries are naturally handled using a flux bounce-back scheme, which resolves inconsistencies in normal vectors across adjacent elements. Additionally, a general wetting boundary condition is implemented to capture static contact line in a thermodynamically consistent manner. The method is validated through simulations of droplets on flat surfaces, 2/3-dimensional curved surfaces, and equilibrium droplets without boundaries. Results demonstrate that parasitic currents are significantly reduced on unstructured meshes with complex geometries, reaching residual kinetic energy levels on the order of 10^−24 for wetting configurations and 10^−30 for isolated droplets.
ER -