Lattice Boltzmann-based single-phase method for free surface tracking of droplet motions

A 2D single‐phase free surface tracking model, based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is developed for simulating droplet motion. In contrast to the conventional multi‐phase models, it is not necessary to simulate the motion of the gas phase using this 2D single‐phase algorithm, and thus improves the computational efficiency without sacrificing the underlying physics. A method for special treatment of the relevant boundary conditions in the single‐phase algorithm is proposed and also validated. Numerical simulations are carried out for the motion of a free falling droplet with or without considering gravity and droplet spreading under gravity. The simulations of the LBM are found to be consistent with the results obtained from commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software Fluent. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.