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arXiv · 2302.03382

Growth regimes in three-dimensional phase separation of liquid-vapor systems

Giuseppe Negro·Giuseppe Gonnella·Antonio Lamura·Sergiu Busuioc·Victor Sofonea
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Abstract

The liquid-vapor phase separation is investigated via lattice Boltzmann simulations in three dimensions. After expressing length and time scales in reduced physical units, we combined data from several large simulations (on $512^3$ nodes), with different values of viscosity, surface tension and temperature, to obtain a single curve of rescaled length $\hat{l}$ as a function of rescaled time $\hat{t}$. We find evidence of the existence of kinetic and inertial regimes with growth exponents $\alpha_d=1/2$ and $\alpha_i=2/3$ over several time decades, with a crossover from $\alpha_d$ to $\alpha_i$ at $\hat{t} \simeq 1$. This allows us to rule out the existence of a viscous regime with $\alpha_v=1$ in three-dimensional liquid-vapor isothermal phase separation, differently from what happens in binary fluid mixtures. An in-depth analysis of the kinetics of the phase separation process, as well as a characterization of the morphology and the flow properties, are further presented in order to provide clues into the dynamics of the phase-separation process.

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Giuseppe Negro, Giuseppe Gonnella, Antonio Lamura, Sergiu Busuioc, Victor Sofonea. 2023-02-07. Growth regimes in three-dimensional phase separation of liquid-vapor systems. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.109.015305

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