Exploratory Research Project PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0516
2011 - 2016
supported by CNCS - UEFISCSU / Contract number 70/2011
The project is dedicated to the development and application of three-dimensional (3D) Lattice Boltzmann (LB) models for the study of complex fluids and their micro-scale behaviour. LB models allow the easy incorporation of interparticle forces as well as of boundary conditions and are appropriate for implementation on massively-parallel computers. Intensive simulations will be done on the IBM Blue Gene / P system recently inaugurated at the West University of Timisoara, as well as on a "desktop supercomputer" incorporating two Graphics Processing Units (GPU) to be set up at the host Institution. Simulations will be conducted in order to understand the effect of various conditions (fluid viscosity, temperature gradients and/or anisotropy induced by gravity or shear flow on the phase separation process and the scaling exponents that characterize the domain growth in single- or multi-component fluid systems. The morphology of the 3D structures formed durinig the phase separation, as well as their dynamics, will be investigated using the Minkowski functionals. Specific problems in microfluidics will be also investigated through 3D Lattice Boltzmann simulations: rarefaction effects in long microchannels, temperature dip in force-driven flow and thermal creep. The formation of drops or bubbles introduced in the co-flowing phase via a capillary tube or a T-junction will be another process to be analyzed through LB simulations in three dimensions.