Videos

A New Mixed Formulation For a Sharp Interface Model of Stokes Flow and Moving Contact Lines

Presenter
July 18, 2013
Keywords:
  • Mixed Method, Stokes Equations, Surface Tension, Contact Line Motion, Contact Line Pinning, Variational Inequality
Abstract
Two phase fluid flows on substrates (i.e. wetting phenomena) are important in many industrial processes, such as micro-fluidics and coating flows. These flows include additional physical effects that occur near moving (three-phase) contact lines. We present a new 2-D variational (saddle-point) formulation of a Stokesian fluid with surface tension that interacts with a rigid substrate. The model is derived by an Onsager type principle using shape differential calculus (at the sharp-interface, front-tracking level) and allows for moving contact lines and contact angle hysteresis through a variational inequality. We prove the well-posedness of the time semi-discrete and fully discrete (finite element) model and discuss error estimates. Simulation movies will be presented to illustrate the method. We conclude with some discussion of a 3-D version of the problem as well as future work on optimal control of these types of flows.