Numerical simulation of wetting phenomena by a meshfree particle method

• Accurate interface between two phases.
• Meshfree particle methods are appropriate candidates for flows with changing interface in time.
• Wetting phenomena can be naturally handled by Lagrangian particle methods.

Simulations of wetting phenomena by a meshfree particle method are presented. The incompressible Navier–Stokes equations are used to model the two-phase flow. The continuous surface force model is used to incorporate the surface tension force. Chorin’s projection method is applied to discretize the Navier–Stokes equations. The different fluid phases are identified by assigning different colors and different material properties (density, viscosity) to the particles that remain unchanged throughout a simulation. Two-phase flow is captured by a one-fluid model via using weighted averages of the density and viscosity in a region around the fluid–fluid interface. The differential operators at each particle are computed from the surrounding cloud of particles with the help of the least-squares method. The numerical results are compared with specific analytical solutions, but also with previously considered test cases involving wetting of a container and sessile drops. A good overall agreement is found.