English

A phase-field description of surface-tension-driven instability

Pattern Formation and Solitons 2015-06-26 v1

Abstract

In this paper we report on 2D numerical simulations concerning linear and nonlinear evolution of surface-tension-driven instability in two-fluid systems heated from below using classical and phase-field models. In the phase-field formalism, one introduces an order parameter called phase-field function to characterize thermodynamically the phases. All the system parameters are assumed to vary continuously from one fluid bulk to another (as linear functions of the phase-field). The Navier-Stokes equation (with some extra terms) and the heat equation are written only once for the whole system. The evolution of the phase-field is described by the Cahn-Hilliard equation. In the sharp-interface limit the results found by the phase-field formalism recover the results given by the classical formulation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.nlin/0401018,
  title  = {A phase-field description of surface-tension-driven instability},
  author = {Rodica Borcia and Domnic Merkt and Michael Bestehorn},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:nlin/0401018},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

17 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Int.J. Bifurcat. Chaos

R2 v1 2026-07-22T18:11:52.571Z