Mesoscale simulation of soft particles with tunable contact angle in multicomponent fluids

Maarten Wouters, Othmane Aouane, Timm Krüger, and Jens Harting
Phys. Rev. E 100, 033309 – Published 17 September 2019

Abstract

Soft particles at fluid interfaces play an important role in many aspects of our daily life, such as the food industry, paints and coatings, and medical applications. Analytical methods are not capable of describing the emergent effects of the complex dynamics of suspensions of many soft particles, whereas experiments typically either only capture bulk properties or require invasive methods. Computational methods are therefore a great tool to complement experimental work. However, an efficient and versatile numerical method is needed to model dense suspensions of many soft particles. In this article we propose a method to simulate soft particles in a multicomponent fluid, both at and near fluid-fluid interfaces, based on the lattice Boltzmann method, and characterize the error stemming from the fluid-structure coupling for the particle equilibrium shape when adsorbed onto a fluid-fluid interface. Furthermore, we characterize the influence of the preferential contact angle of the particle surface and the particle softness on the vertical displacement of the center of mass relative to the fluid interface. Finally, we demonstrate the capability of our model by simulating a soft capsule adsorbing onto a fluid-fluid interface with a shear flow parallel to the interface, and the covering of a droplet suspended in another fluid by soft particles with different wettability.

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  • Received 25 April 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.100.033309

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Physical Systems
Polymers & Soft Matter

Authors & Affiliations

Maarten Wouters1,*, Othmane Aouane2,†, Timm Krüger3,‡, and Jens Harting2,1,§

  • 1Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, De Rondom 70, 5612 AP, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
  • 2Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Fürther Strasse 248, Nürnberg, Germany
  • 3School of Engineering, Institute for Multiscale Thermofluids, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FB, Scotland, United Kingdom

  • *m.p.j.wouters@tue.nl
  • o.aouane@fz-juelich.de
  • timm.krueger@ed.ac.uk
  • §j.harting@fz-juelich.de

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Issue

Vol. 100, Iss. 3 — September 2019

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