Lattice Boltzmann modeling of two-phase behavior under acoustic excitation: Capillarity-wettability interaction

We report capillarity-wettability interaction of the trapped nonwetting phase. The displacement of immiscible nonwetting phase subject to oscillatory acoustic excitation in a sinusoidal channel is analyzed with the lattice Boltzmann method. The effect of the surface wettability, frequency and geometry of the channel on two-phase behavior is discussed. The effect of capillarity induced resonance on mobilization of trapped nonwetting phase blob is explored for a range of capillary number for uniform and mixed-wet surfaces. It is observed that transport of a nonwetting phase can be achieved by exciting with the frequencies near to the resonant frequency which is vital in mobilization of the trapped nonwetting phase in the application like recovery of oil and two-phase flows.