A fully discrete energy stable scheme for a phase-field moving contact line model with variable densities and viscosities

TL;DR

This paper introduces a fully discrete, energy-stable numerical scheme for simulating phase-field models of moving contact lines with variable fluid properties, validated through accurate and stable numerical experiments.

Contribution

It develops a novel energy-stable, fully discrete scheme for phase-field moving contact line models with variable densities and viscosities, including rigorous stability proofs.

Findings

The scheme is proven to be energy stable and dissipative.

Numerical simulations accurately reproduce contact line dynamics.

The method effectively handles complex droplet behaviors on patterned surfaces.

Abstract

In this work, we propose a fully discrete energy stable scheme for the phase-field moving contact line model with variable densities and viscosities. The mathematical model consists of a Cahn-Hilliard equation, a Navier-Stokes equation and the generalized Navier boundary condition for the moving contact line. A scalar auxiliary variable is adopted to transform the governing system into an equivalent form, allowing the double well potential to be treated semi-explicitly. A stabilization term is added to balance the explicit nonlinear term originating from the surface energy at fluid-solid interface. A pressure stabilization method is used to decouple the computation of velocity and pressure. Some subtle implicit-explicit treatments are adopted to deal with convention and stress terms. We establish a rigorous proof of energy stability for the proposed time-marching scheme. Then a finite difference method on staggered grids is used to spatially discretize the constructed time-marching scheme. We further prove that the fully discrete scheme also satisfies the discrete energy dissipation law. Numerical results demonstrate accuracy and energy stability of the proposed scheme. Using our numerical scheme, we analyze the contact line dynamics through a shear flow driven droplet sliding case. Three-dimensional droplet spreading is also investigated on a chemically patterned surface. Our numerical simulation accurately predicts the expected energy evolutions and it successfully reproduces expected phenomena that an oil droplet contracts inwards on a hydrophobic zone and spreads outwards quickly on a hydrophilic zone.